Hi from Nanaimo, BC Canada

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viadogstraining

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Hello Everyone,

I thought I would stop by and introduce myself and my dog.

Jessie is my demo dog to help me train other people how to train their own dogs as hearing and other assistance dogs.

Jessie is two years old and already know many service tasks (check out our videos) as well as basic public manners. She was a rescue from the city pound at 7 months of age and had some fear issues due to some harsh handling methods of her previous owner and a little stubborn streak. She has blossomed and is now the confident, happy, willing dog we knew she could be.

Several of us have started up an organization called 'Vancouver Island Assistance Dogs' that helps people train their own hearing alert dogs. All our services are offered free. We use clicker training, a positive method that reinforces dogs to do what you what them to do instead of punishing them for what you don't want. Using this method, it is easy to teach any dog basic service tasks! It's an amazing method.

We have a 'how to blog', videos, lending library and in-person dog training assistance for those that live nearby. For those that live anywhere else, they can ask questions on our blog and we answer them.

We recently added closed captioning to all our videos!

Thanks for allowing us to participate!
 
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Hi viadogstraining, :wave:

I am a dog trainer and have worked with assistance dogs. Work agility, trad. obedience with my guys and have tried a variety of dog activities <cart, herding, lure, Rally> Am a +re/ -punish/Clicker trainer. :D EXACTLY: reinforce what you want, prevent/manage/ignore what you don't want! With clicker I have taught some beginning service dog skills to my guys, in particular my 20-month old Rottie girl.

-you get what you reinforce -
 
dogmom said:
Hi viadogstraining, :wave:
With clicker I have taught some beginning service dog skills to my guys, in particular my 20-month old Rottie girl.
-you get what you reinforce -
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Good to know!

Just curious if you have taught her any hearing dog alerts? Such as one way for wake-up alarm or two way for door bells etc. That's a video we'll be working on soon.
 
Hi viadogstraining,

Was actually just assisting at class tonight, Delta prep....no, not yet - mostly we've worked on basic service things like opening and closing doors, "Up Touch"/basic Touch <lights> and the beginnings of picking up items. Would like to do signal/alert dog tasks too.........hubby did put together light panels for the lights, wanted him to set up something w/phone <mock phone where we could control ring?> and haven't gotten around to that yet. Would like to know more about the signal alert dog skills; if u have video let me know :D That's so awesome that your services are free! What breed<s>/mix is Jessie? Do u place in the Vancouver area specifically and refer farther-off clients to more local organizations or do you have clients from various regions?

Have also worked beginning SAR skills - Find and Alert - and some Freestyle etc.
 
dogmom said:
Was actually just assisting at class tonight, Delta prep..
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Good for you! It's grreat fun isn't it? Lots of learning too to see other dogs and handlers and how they work together.

dogmom said:
That's so awesome that your services are free! .
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We want to make sure its accessible to everyone who wants it. We are all volunteers ourselves.

dogmom said:
What breed<s>/mix is Jessie? .
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City Pound special! They had her as a 'terrier mix' but her behaviors suggest miniature pinscher (mini dobie) and cattle dog or something similar.

dogmom said:
Do u place in the Vancouver area specifically and refer farther-off clients to more local organizations or do you have clients from various regions?.
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Actually we focus on clients on Vancouver Island, which is an ocean strait away from Vancouver city. People all come to us with their own dogs and we help in training and testing etc as needed.
Most of our clinets are internet based as the Island is about 350 miles long and we only have trainers in Nanaimo, about one third the way up the island.

dogmom said:
Have also worked beginning SAR skills - Find and Alert - and some Freestyle etc.
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Yes, Jessie is just learning flyball and some freestyle moves. Hope to complete in agility one day too. Multi-talented dogs we have!

And very cute too! Would love to see a pic of your rot! They are great dogs!
 
ahh okay - mini-pin./heeler is quite a mix - much spitfire..... she'll keep ya busy!!

I love agility, plan to compete with new Rottie baby. We have some obstacles in backyard.

Volunteers are GREAT! What a gift you have to offer..........I was shelter and wildlife rehab center volunteer for many years through high school and college and did some volunteer service dog training later. Have been training my own guys for about 10 years and in dogs in general for longer. Currently planning to teach Puppy in a few weeks.

I understand location - important to have clients available for follow-up.

Flyball lotsa fun too - never had a dog who was ball-drivey enough for it but have seen the races. Is Jessie the height dog?

We LOVE our Rotties!! Our sweet old Lab is through rescue but we did adopt our first beloved Rott girl from a reputable breeder due to the breed's ability and our need for a "softer" first dog. For pictures of Miss Violet Vanstone, check out: Princess Violet Vanstone
 
dogmom said:
ahh okay - mini-pin./heeler is quite a mix - much spitfire..... she'll keep ya busy!!]
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Actually, she's pretty calm, (and not too much spit!) but really fast, outruns most other dogs. Some even get frustrated trying to catch her! LOL!

>Volunteers are GREAT! What a gift you have to offer..........I was shelter >and wildlife rehab center volunteer for many years through high school and >college and did some volunteer service dog training later. Have been >training my own guys for about 10 years and in dogs in general for longer. >Currently planning to teach Puppy in a few weeks.

Puppies are great fun! Although we haven't had one in years! My last three dogs have all been 6 to 7 months old. A great time to get them as so many people get tired of them at that age but they are usually housetrained or can be quickly. Now that I have the clikcer, I'd love to start a pup from when she first comes home.

>Flyball lotsa fun too - never had a dog who was ball-drivey enough for it >but have seen the races. Is Jessie the height dog?

Not even close! Sh'e almost 21 inches at the shoulder! Really lightly built though-leggy to the extreme (we think due to juvenile spay-one of the common side effects).

Actually she hasn't even been in a class yet but due to using the clikcer is far ahead of another dog buddie who has taken 16 weeks of classes. Jessie isn't much of a ball dog, nor is her buddy. The jumping is fine and once they put it all together, their competitive nature kicks in. My previous boy was like that.

>We LOVE our Rotties!! Our sweet old Lab is through rescue but we did >adopt our first beloved Rott girl from a reputable breeder due to the breed's >ability and our need for a "softer" first dog. For pictures of Miss Violet >Vanstone, check out: >Princess Violet Vanstone[/QUOTE]

How adorable! I love the puppy pics! Jessie has this same rich coloring, almost a red.

The pups grow so fast and get so big-nice broad heads! I am always amazed when you see the little ones an they look like they have thick coats, then they come out so smooth as an adult. Then you see others (other breeds) with smoothish coats as pups and they turn into furry bears!

Enjoy!
 
:welcome: to AllDeaf forum. I hope you have fun reading and posting all the threads here. See you around. :wave:
 
This sounds quite interesting. I live only in Vancouver and didn't know this existed! Is there any way to get involved with the service?

Also, maybe you can answer a question for me. A friend and I were just recently talking about clicker training being bad in larger breeds of dogs. What do you think about this? Can it really cause aggression in larger breeds? I know this isn't really the right forum for this topic but do you have an opinion on the matter? I haven't done any research on it so I ask this from a curiosity standpoint.
 
Don't know if you were asking me or viadogstraining, meltedglass, but no, done correctly clicker has the same beneficial effect with bigger dogs as with smaller - the size of dog makes no difference, it's the timing of the PERSON with the clicker. Aggression is caused by many things - medical issues, punishment-based training, fear, stress, OCD - but the clicker in and of itself is not one of the causes.
 
MeltedGlass said:
This sounds quite interesting. I live only in Vancouver and didn't know this existed! Is there any way to get involved with the service?
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We are looking for an editor for the blogs and videos! Another pair of eyes to catch typos, suggest ideas, make sure it all makes sense etc. (Our first video just made it to the finals at the Canis Film Festival-videos for clicker training animals. Canis Film Festival We are the shut the door video. )

Otherwise, we pretty much working with people out of their own homes in the Nanaimo area or via internet.

MeltedGlass said:
Can it (clicker training) really cause aggression in larger breeds?
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Actually just the opposite. It is effectively used to counter-condition dogs that are already fearful/reactive etc. The nice thing is that with clicker training, it's pretty hard to goof up unless you are dealing with an already aggressive or fearful dog and your timing is so far off that you are actually reinforcing the reactivity behavior, not calm behavior. (You get what you click) With other types of training, (ie force-based methods, I could make my dog aggressive/reactive without meaning to (that's what leash aggression is about). See that dog? If you look at it and stay calm, you get a click and treat! If you look at he dog then at me, you get another click and treat! It's up to the owner to set up the situation so the dag can stay calm-perhaps uisng distance from the dog to allow him to succeed, only moving closer in little steps as the dog demonstrates he can handle it without reacting (this is called 'staying under threshold'). Also using really yummy treats helps as the click interrupts the reaction and eating it does too. This helps the dog stay calm. And he learns that at that distance, the other dog is no threat. You can use this fir any type of fear.

And as Dog'sMom suggested, clicker taining can be used with any size of dog, (and is used by professional trainers on TV etc on dogs, horses, birds, fish, rodents, etc!) and works especially well on dogs that have a 'stubborn' streak.

I put this in quotes since most dogs are actually not stubborn are being asked to do something in an environment or with distractions they are not yet ready to handle. For example, when we first got Jessie she would freeze in the forest. Just stand still and ignore any cues. Not even simple stuff like sit or touch my hand. She was so overwhelmed with the sounds of potentially scarey stuff in there, she could only pay attention to that. Was hypervigilant to the sounds. Had I tried to force her to sit, it would have made her more scared (and would have broken any trust she had in me). In the meatime we worked on some games that taught her it was okay to look at those things and that they wer not scarey, so now she can happily focus on me. She has also learned that if she just alerts me to it (by looking intently, sniffing or whaeveter other way I have learned she indicates) then I will deal with the situation or make the decision to move on or away.

Today I can take her into that same forest and do complicated tricks that require focus on me and the task (such as walking backwards in circles around me, picking up coins etc).

Clicker training appeals to me because it's a fun way to train your dog to do some really cool behaviors. It's also a more humane way to train. You can use it on 4 week old puppies and not have to wait until they are 6 months to start training. The simple phrase "you get what you reinforce" is so true.) Clicker training really gets the trainer to think about what, how and why they are doing what they are and what we are inadvertently as well as purposely training our pets.
Here's a video that shows you what a clicker-trained puppy can do at just 12 weeks of age! [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jImi95ANPpQ]YouTube - Westie puppy -12 weeks - tricks - cute - training - West Highland White Terrier -Rose Marie[/ame]

Enjoy!
 
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