Crowd Control

I took Mal to the mall this morning after we dropped my daughter off at school. We did a few laps with the mall walkers and he did great! I also took the time to work on his attention to me by hanging out in one of the sitting areas and rewarding him every time he brought his attention back to me as people walked past.

Where we really had a breakthrough was with the "crowd control" task. A man stopped us to ask some questions about Mal. He apparently has an Australian Shepard also and wanted to compare notes. That was fine, so we stopped, worked on "Say Hello" so Mal could greet him, and chatted. The conversation was going a little longer than I wanted, and I started getting antsy. We have only worked on "crowd control" a few times, but as I have said, Mal is pretty in tune with my emotions and tends to naturally take care of me. He put himself between me and the man, then began to 'talk' to me. Not barking, but that "aroo-roo-roo" that if you have been around an Aussie or Husky you have heard. The man laughed and said "I guess that means he's ready to go?" I laughed, said yes, and he thanked me for stopping to chat.

This is one of the main things I want Mal for. I am not really a people person in the best of circumstances, I am much more comfortable with people in small doses. One of the main tasks for Mal is to control my anxiety and panic, and by giving me an 'out' in social situations, he is a great tool to...

a) Give me a comfortable topic in social situations. Most people like dogs and are interested in learning about Service Dog teams

b) Create a sense of security in our team. I am not out by myself, I am working with Mal.

c) If I am uneasy, he picks up on it and reacts. Knowing he is getting this concept is a big sense of security that my odds of hyperventilating because Wal-Mart is super crowded that day have gone down.

I know we have a long road until he is"trained", and that training will never really stop as long as we are a Service Dog team, but I feel like we turned a corner.

Update from the Holidays

I really put things on hold over the Holidays. It was just too hectic to try and take Mal anywhere for training with the crazy Christmas shoppers crowding the stores. We just worked on obedience at home, and took lots of walks up and down the road. 

Since New Years, I have had him out in public to work 3 times. The first was a trip to Ramsey Canyon to hike with the whole family. When we went into the Visitors Center (which you have to pass through to get to the trail) I was told "no dogs allowed" on the trail. I must admit, I froze. Luckily the Hubs saw this and told the volunteer Mal is a service dog, and pointed to his harness/patches. The guy apologized immediately, but it got me thinking that his patches are really only visible to me. Here is a shot of us on the hike. You can barely tell he has anything to mark him as a Service Dog.

 I know that I don't have to have them visible, or have them on him at all, but the more visible it is, the less likely I am to have issues with "confrontation" in public. After all, I have him for Anxiety and Panic issues, so the less I have to have discussions about his Public Access status, the better.

That being said, we are flat broke right now, so the up to $150 packs I have found online are out of the question. Off to buy fabric! I made him a simple cape with a pocket to keep his paperwork in, and took the patches off his harness to use on the cape. 

Much better!

I can use it with his harness on under it, or just hook the leash to his collar. We have been to the mall, Target, and Wal-Mart and I feel a lot more confident that he is easily identifiable as a Service Dog, not a pet I just brought into the store.

As far as Mal, he is such a trooper! He has been doing so well with both Obedience and Public Access. He is so friendly that our biggest obstacle at the moment is keeping his attention on me, but even that is improving every day. I think in the next month we will start on his task training for the Individual Tasks he is required to do. He only needs 2 to comply to the ADA Standard, but I have chosen four.

1) Steady: I get dizzy from my meds sometimes, and he will pull slightly on the leash to help me keep balance

2) Tactile Stimulation: He will engage me to pet him with licking and/or "paws up" on my lap during a Panic Attack

3) Calming Pressure: He will "lean" on me when I am beginning to have Anxiety to remind he to remain calm

4) Crowd Control: He will become a physical barrier between me and others in a social situation

As an added bonus, teaching him "Steady" is helping him learn to not pull during "Heel" as he learns the difference in the 2 commands! Yay!

Too cute?

So, I either underestimated how irresistibly cute Mal is, or overestimated that the general public knows not to pet/talk to Service Dogs. Mal did great! I'm really proud of how calm he was for his first store outing. He was minimally distracted and walked right beside me in "heel" position. The only times he broke sit/stay were when people tried to love on him. In only one case was this a kid, who gets a pass just for being a kid. The others were adults, in a town that sees a lot of service and comfort dogs. That's what gave me the first idea to look into Service Dogs once my GAD and Depression became to bad. Even the pharmacist was making kissy noises at him until I corrected him and she apologized. All his patches are on his back on this harness and she didn't see it. Still, how many non-service dogs that size come in to the pharmacy?

Anyway, we went to 2 stores. The first one we got my meds and took a lap around the store with my daughter Mojo in the cart. He was awesome! We left, picked up Jilly at school, and went to Wal-Mart to see my Mom on her lunch hour. I found a spot where the traffic was heavy but we could stand out of the way a bit and I put him in a sit/stay. He was good for the most part. As I said, he would break sit/stay when someone tried to interact with him, and he tried to get up a couple other times when I took my attention off him. All in all, it was a good first step in Public Access training, I just have to be more patient with the Public part...

Officially "In Training"

Today is the first "official" day of training Malcolm as a Service Dog. I know I could have just slapped his vest on him and taken him anywhere with little issue, but for my own anxiety level I had to wait until I had the paperwork in my hot little hand.I have been working on obedience since we got him, building on the basic classes that his former owner had taken him to. The biggest hurdle has been  distraction training. His former owner did not get him out into the world a great deal, (which is a big reason he worked so hard to find a good home for Mal) and so everything is SUPER EXCITING for him. I started taking him along as much as possible, dropping off and picking up Jilly from school, to the park, pet stores, etc and it has helped a lot.

In anticipation for being able to take him out in public for training, we have focused on just keeping his attention on me this week and reinforcing his basic obedience in the midst of distraction. I am guessing it will be months before we get into the meat of his specific Service training, but just having him there to focus on along with his natural tendency to know when I'm having a hard time and comfort/distract/redirect me is a huge help. I am planning to take him into Target with me this afternoon to pick up my meds. It will be our first trip into a non-pet store, and our first trip anywhere with his In Training vest on. The crazy thing is, I have a lot of anxiety about working him out in public, most specifically how people will be with him/me.

Hopefully once I break out Public Access cherry I will be more comfortable. Wish us luck!