News to report on our pairs progress includes some most pleasant information. Several weeks ago, the public access test had been given. Our pair passed with "flying colors", Coco kept his nose completely to himself despite children in the supermarket creating distractions and a store clerk who said that she knew not to pet the service dogs, but she just had to tell him how cute he was. Coco ignored her overtures and stayed totally focused on his job. Although I couldn't clap my hands and shout a loud hoorah, I certainly felt like it.

Public decorum and professionalism dictated a sedate comment of job well done as we walked across the parking lot. YAY, YIPPEE, and a fist pumping YES! Phase one of the public access test was completed with all sections marked in the pass column.


About two weeks or so later, arrangements were made to complete the second phase or the level two sections of the required public access test. That test calls for uniformed response personnel to interact with our team while pretending that the team needs their assistance. The dogs may display normal interest or even concern if warranted, but may not issue any aggressive behaviors or responses towards the uniformed personnel.

This test took place with the assistance of Deputy Terry Higley and Sargent Robert Taylor, both members of the Casia County sheriff's department. Coco was not even interested in the two men, showing not much more than a passing sniff and a watchful eye. I think that Deputy Higley was more concerned about the presence of Coco than Coco was about the Deputy's interactions. I have to confess though to a bit of showing off on our parts that did not go 100% smoothly. While showing what the dogs can do to help their teammates, Coco seemed to forget what the command for picking up a dropped cane meant and needed a second reminder. My own dog, Bubba, was also up to acting as a wise guy, so to speak. He was let out of his harness to say hello to the men, and exhibited more exuberance than was comfortable for Deputy Higley, and then was less than stellar in returning to my side. (I think the sight of my big black dog was a bit more than our Deputy had been expecting. Coco is a normal sized chocolate lab, while Bubba is a mutant brute of a dog.) After a moment or so though, the dogs behaved professionally and we could end the day feeling pleased with the accomplishment. Plus we were reminded that the basic work with our dogs is never finished and a few seconds to make sure the dog is focused on his person is always a prudent and necessary practice before taking the dog in to a brand new public setting. The dogs need a moment to take in the new sensations, and then, a few easy commands to denote that a positive experience is about to begin for them.

One more thing remains for their graduation requirements, as they have passed with Coco being able to perform at least four directly mitigating actions for his disabled partner in more than one setting, passed both the standard level one public access test as borrowed from the suggestions of the Assistance Dog Partners International offerings, and then our own level two public access test, which required the pair to interact safely with uniformed personnel as might be encountered in a first responder event.

Although Coco has already earned his CGC certificate, Colleen and Coco are required to earn it together under our program's guidelines as a step for graduation level status. There are of course other requirements in training and other issues not listed here, as they are not central to this chronicle. Getting the CGC test completed is turning into a bit of a difficulty for us here and we will likely need to make a full day's travel to attend a test offered elsewhere.

A year and a day
we had hoped might pay
with full reward
of a team graduated
and an over all joy for a
job well done.

They are indeed well on their way.

From September's chronicle;
I have left in the entire earlier post because it describes our opinion on what constitutes a safe working team, and describes what all that should entail and is required by us for our teams.

It is now just past the first week of September, our team has been together since early March. According to the definition of the Americans with Disabilities Act used as a description on what constitutes an assistance animal, Coco has already passed the mark.
The ADA requires that the animal be specially and specifically trained to perform tasks, which serve to directly mitigate the qualifying level of disability experienced by that one person the dog was trained to assist. Colleen’s dog meets that definition. He brings her the telephone receiver to where ever she may be with in their home. He retrieves his lead and other equipment on command. He picks up the end of the lead when Colleen’s weakened hand can no longer maintain a firm grip. He brings her canes, and can retrieve a variety of objects by name or directed retrieve. He understands the basic art of the “brace” command. He has learned to assist her while she rises from a seated position. Is he a Service Dog? That answer is a simple, yes because he now meets the basic definition. Is he “a finished with training Service Dog”? That is an answer which requires a more detailed description.

The simple answer comes as a negative, for one very basic reason. The reasons being that these dogs are never finished with learning. Those of us who have chronic illness, degenerative conditions, or other ailments, which wax and wane and either gradually or dramatically produce changes in our abilities for self care and independent living will produce a need for further or different assistance from our dogs. They can easily learn dozens of tasks. Most of the dogs already perform many more tasks than their disabled handler first realizes if asked what it is that the dog does for him or her as they try to find a response. A good trainer can teach hundreds of different little tasks, but they all come out of the four basic skill sets, which mobility service dogs learn at the start of task training.

Those skills are tasks predicated on the ability to nudge a certain place such as a low-level cupboard door, tug based tasks such as pulling a strap to close an outward swinging door, and tug based tasks based on dragging heavy items a little bit at a time. The tugging of an item a little bit at a time could be helping their partner to remove a coat or a pair of jeans. Or tug and hold the corner of a bed sheet for folding, or to assist with the actual chore of bed making, and unmaking. The dogs can even drag rucksacks or laundry baskets across the room. They learn to push things. A push is a harder force used to move an object than a nudge, such as opening or closing a heavy door. They learn to move things with their forepaws, which then allow the dog to use his mouth for the next part of the task, such as, carry a cane or a pack. Some dogs like to push heavy items with their skulls pressed up tightly against the object, others will jump up so that they can use both front paws to direct the force that will come from the rest of their body pushing an item such as a heavy door. They learn to brace, or stiffen their bodies to help steady the gait of their partner. This comes in handy on stairs, uneven ground or even when traversing a lawn covered with grass. They learn to position themselves to help their partner to roll over, or sit up straight. There is almost no end to what the dogs may accomplish.

The other half of that answer lies with the steep level of requirements that the High Plains Service Dogs Program requires from our handlers to teach the dog and those things, which they must learn for them selves, such as the laws which grant them the right to public access, and under what conditions they can be refused. We ask our handlers to understand the basics of operant conditioning and the basics of how dogs learn new things. We ask them to be at least minimally acquainted with dog body language and dog behavior. There are a lot of programs scattered around the country that turn out Owner Trained Service Dogs. As a simple matter of fact the vast majority of teams are owner trained. We want to make sure that the dogs are safe to be around, really helping their partner rather than just being emotional support for a person. We are picky. We have to be because at some point the disabled person’s life may literally be “in the paws” of his or her teammate. And because we ask so much of the dogs, we owe it to them to make sure that they have the best possible training that can be given, in the most humane, loving and structured environment possible.

We do not believe that only able-bodied trainers hired by large corporate style programs can turn out assistance dog teams. An able bodied person can never really know what sort of help a disabled individual needs the most. But that person knows, the disabled handler who trains her own dog knows what she needs and when she needs it. Through working with her dog to help him learn what she needs, a smoothly integrated team can truly exist. On the other side of this issue lie the weak programs for owner trainers where they do not know what the laws of their own state require or even what the ADA does or does not grant. They do not know how to read a dog’s temperament, or see when it is confused or stressed. If they do not know these things, they cannot teach them, either. High Plains Service Dogs is not perfect, we are far from it. We acknowledge our weaknesses and strive to find the solutions to fix or change them. There are pros and cons to owner training service dogs, there are pros and cons to program trained dogs. For the majority of us who are in the ranks of being disabled to the degree required by the ADA so that we are legally accompanied by our trained assistants, being an owner trainer is the only viable choice.

Knowing the truth of this means that we, as a program to help other disabled persons, must be above and beyond the average. We are scrutinized far more than the big programs. One reason is because of those small programs that do a poor job teaching the trainer. These are not therapy pets, they are not emotional support companion dogs, they are not basic obedience trained dogs, and they are not in any way pets. We can’t afford to mess up the training or pick an inappropriate dog, or refuse to let go of one which can’t deal with the stress. Any serious mistake that any program makes can create a chasm that all other teams may fall in to. The ADA, the thing that grants us the right to have our dogs has been seriously gutted already. We would be next to being criminal if we do anything to jeopardize the few rights left to the disabled community.

I want the Colleens and Cocos who reside in our communities to succeed and be welcome in the shops and streets of their towns. A ray of hope for something to love and love you back is a blessing, but being granted the grace of stewardship over a most remarkable and amazing other being is a gift that deserves the deepest level of honor that we can offer. Is Coco a Service Dog, yes he is. Are Colleen and Coco a High Plains Service Dog graduate team, not yet, but there will be a ceremony to honor their dedicated work when that day does come.

Two Lives wait for a brighter day.

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