C.A.S.T.: Teamed Up – Rising Up

Teamed Up and Rising Up
One of the most basic things to begin with is the simple concept of sitting, and ‘sit’ on command. No, this isn’t a lesson on puppy training, it is context. A dog already knows how to sit down, it doesn’t need to learn the body position; what they do need to learn is to associate that with the verbal prompt. It takes all of 10 to 30 minutes to train a puppy to sit on command, any puppy, providing it’s actually old enough – which isn’t very old; simple
rule of thumb – old enough to wean, old enough to learn. Learning to be teat-free is the onset of passive/intentional learning neurology; there’s rarely too much – too fast for most pups, it’s usually the human who is wasting the golden window of peak-learning. Just like humans, as to the stages of neurological development norms, canines are quite predictable relative to their learning curve(s) and trajectories. Again, this is not about puppy
training, just setting stage and context for the rest.
Kids make some of the best puppy/dog trainers, and I will always highly encourage pairing people-puppies with canine puppies, right in the same box. This is where it gets cool, actually, especially for those with a little too much life-weight being lugged around; the single best ‘mindset’ for working with one’s dogs is in being a kid again, opening up, truly opening up, to the joy that the dog is trying to bring into life. Just like their drive to work, so too is their drive to do it all in fun and games to boot. Yes, service-dog work is of absolute seriousness, it is real work; it’s real physical and mental work in the learning, and a lifelong journey of living out doing that work, and adapting to whatever changes come up along the way. But from the dog’s perspective and child-like drive to enjoy life, there isn’t a distinction
to be made. Dogs are always fully present and invested in the moment, even when we are not. Now that puppy/kid modes are clarified, at least somewhat, it is time to move onto adults and adult canines, as that is where the work to be done actually exists in real life.
Assuming the suitable pairing of adult canine/human team has been established, the first thing to get developed and locked down in that relationship is absolute blind trust in one another. This is where an observation and correlation are worth bringing into the conversation, and that is this, most ‘road dogs’, meaning the dogs of the homeless and
houseless persons, they are some of the best ‘trained’ dogs to be found. These dogs have to adapt on the fly to all sorts of ever-changing circumstances and conditions. They are quite often the primary part of their people’s realities keeping them alive and out of the worst of harm’s way. The bond between them is usually way beyond what most humans and their usual house pets have. Whether or not it is recognized as such, that is a living
embodiment of a canine/human team in service to one another in getting through existence. I myself have been there and know from firsthand experience as to what I speak.
This is the level and type of bond to be established between a service canine and the human handler/owner; how those bonds are made and solidified are very much dependent on the type/disposition of the dog and the nature of the human nurturing and fostering the connections. There are no short answers or easy examples to put here, not that really apply, what works best is some grandfathers’ wisdom, “You get out of the dog, that which you put into the dog.” And the same thing can/does apply to horses, kids, all relationships.
One of the biggest things some don’t immediately bring to the mission and that is realizing it is very much a relationship being built and maintained; it’s nothing more than a little expanded reality for some, a no-brainer to others, and already a given per any and all the data and empirical research worth reading has to say on it. The best thing about it all is, simply, this is also the natural and biological reality at work as well, so it isn’t difficult.
When it comes to raw training of tasks there is one opening word -consistency. If the commands and responses are not simple and clear, it’s pretty hard for a dog to learn an entire language before the basic terms are defined and clarified. It isn’t just “like” one is creating and establishing an entire language built on the sounds and hand gestures we make and the body language we demonstrate. The dogs, if properly paying attention, are
already aware of that well before most humans have started to fine tune it all. If a dog isn’t interested and paying attention, demonstrating the desire and willingness to learn, then that isn’t a viable working candidate for the job, and no amount of training efforts are going to alter any given dog’s disposition when it is disinterested. Not all dogs are or ever going to
be; sometimes, when a person is really wanting to get their beloved pet dog trained up to a higher level to function as a service dog, that want and the animal’s capacity may not be aligned; all the love in the human condition isn’t likely to alter the reality when such is the case. Quite often, at the time a dog is taken in and on, one wasn’t thinking about it becoming a service dog 4yrs later, post-need for one. By the time a dog has grown and
matured into ‘pethood’, the high-learning modes are mostly passed and regular behavior patterns well-established. Many super-sweety pets absolutely can grow, mature, adapt to new conditions and expectations to become a great service companion, but there’s no guarantee, and that’s the point.