After doing a LOT of research, I figured out that the foundation for service dog training is basic manners. I knew that there were classes that taught these, but finances were tight and I only wanted to use classes for things that I knew I wouldn't be able to teach on my own. This is when teaching Oakley the basics became my mission.
I started reading dog training books, listening to dog training videos, and reading about the best methods of dog training online. I have never been actively involved in dog training the way that I was about to be with Oakley. What I thought I knew about dog training was quickly overshadowed by the plethora of information that I discovered. In my head, the basics were sit, down, stay, and come. Little did I realize that there were so many other things that went into basic manners like loose leash walking, leave it, drop it, and not jumping (or counter surfing... as Oakley discovered).
I reached out to a local dog training non-profit in my area and they told me that if Oakley had the basics they were looking for down in her first class, she could move to intermediate. Not only would this save me money, but it also gave me motivation to stay consistent with training. This might not work for everyone and that's okay! Take your time with it. I went in hoping for the best, but with the expectation that this might not work out the way I planned. (I am also very competitive when it comes to academics... so it became a personal goal of mine to achieve this with Oakley).
I wrote out a list of skills to prioritize before Oakley's first class. I had two weeks to teach her as much as I could. On top of this, I was working a full-time job that kept me away from the house for the majority of the week (not to mention my chronic pain and autoimmune disease). All of this meant that the weekends would be when I spent the largest chunk of time training, but it also meant that I needed to develop a plan that wouldn't lead to burnout (for either of us).
The tricks that I focused on were the following:
- Sit
- Lay down
- Leave it
- Place
- Loose leash walking
- Look at me
- Touch
- Name
Roll over and twirl (or spin) were originally included on my list, but I realized that my energy (and hers) was better spent teaching her the basics that she needed to succeed in public places.
The first skill that I had to work on with Oakley was teaching her what her name was. When I adopted her, she had a different name. She was in the shelter for two weeks and I know little about her history prior to that other than she was found on the street. It took me about a day to decide what her name would be. I knew that I wanted it to be tied to nature and as I was reading the list, her ears perked up when she heard Oakley. I like to think that we both chose the name.
Throughout this process, I would often get discouraged because I had no idea if she was catching onto the concept or not. She seemed to respond when others would say her name, but I didn't feel that same reaction when I called her. This is when I started saying her name before and after everything. Before doing a trick, I would say "sit, Oakley" and after she did it, I would say "yes! Good Oakley" or a variation of those. Another way that I incorporated this was by giving her a treat every time I said her name and she looked at me (this was used with the "look at me" command as well). As she started to catch onto this concept, I increased the difficulty. I would only reward when I said either "look at me" or "Oakley" and she made direct eye contact with me instead of just glancing in my general direction.
The next trick I decided to introduce was the one that I feel like most pet parents gravitate towards, "sit". This is the skill that made me 1000% confident that I was an incredible dog trainer because she caught on so fast. I have no way of knowing if this was taught to her before she made her way into my life, but I didn't care. I was riding off the high of success. "Down" was a relatively easy skill to teach as well. These two skills are probably the two that I am most familiar with teaching/asking dogs to complete and gave me a false confidence in how the rest of our training would go.
You may be thinking that my training experience has been smooth and flawless from the way I have been describing it so far, but believe me... for every one thing that was easy to teach, there were three things that were so hard they made me want to cry. That doesn't even include crate training and loose leash walking (again, a lot of tears). I am still working to find my groove and there are moments when I just want to give up. I just try to remember that both of us are new to this and on top of that, we are still learning how to navigate our new normal. Stay tuned for our journey of teaching the rest of the basic skills and which of them made me want to pull my hair out.
Sincerely and unapologetically me,
Amaya
P.S. vote for Oakley in the America's Favorite Pet competition!! Link to vote for FREE is at the link in her bio @Oakley.Wonder.Pup on Instagram and TikTok. Winning would help fund her service dog training!