Dewey... his story is both amazing and long. If you don't think dogs or animals in general can be just as important as a human life then you probably won't understand a thing in this post. Though if you want to read it, I encourage you to read it with every ounce of my being, he has changed many people's views on what a dog can be.
Dewey is not your typical service dog, first of all he is a shelter dog, a rescue who had some severe behavioral issues when we first got him. He also weighs at most, when he is his heaviest, 13 pounds, and is a perfect mix between a rat terrier and a chihuahua, though it is extremely likely he has quite a few other breeds of unknown origin. He is very obviously rat terrier and chihuahua though, both with his personality, body build, and his intelligence level. If you have never had a dog that made you feel like an idiot on a regular basis you have no idea what you are missing. Because honestly, though it may sound bad or annoying, I would never willingly buy or rescue an averagely intelligent dog again.
Now Dewey is not the typical intelligence a lab might possess. Those dogs are intelligent where they are easily trained, however Dewey is intelligent on so many levels. He is intelligent where he is easily trained yes, but he also intelligent in the way where he can easily think about a situation and choose whether following my command would be the best result or not. Honestly when he chooses his own path and I allow it, he often chooses something with a better result than something I would choose. The fact that he was easy to train, could think for himself independently, and bonded to me very strongly; made him the perfect service dog for me.
Originally when we rescued him, he was fear aggressive to literally almost everything and anything he could or would come across in his life. He hated cats, other dogs no matter whether he could see them or not, most other people, children, sounds he didn't understand. It was so horrible back then, that when you meet him today and I tell people about how he was back then, people are completely shocked. He is literally a different dog. Some of it is him growing up, a lot of problems ended as he grew up to around 3 years old and grew out of his "puppy stage" of life. However there was so much work that went into getting him to that stage and then even passed there.
I didn't even consider making him my service dog until I talked to my psychiatrist about how much he helped me and how he occasionally seemed to get upset before my anxiety attacks. My psychiatrist back then, talked to me about working on making him a service dog. I was more worried about making it safe for him to go out in public without severe explosions of aggression, and so after I honed his alerting just a bit more, I worked intensively on each facet of his fear aggression. The hardest things in his life that have been to over come is dog aggression, and child aggression. However now I am happy to say, child or baby aggression no longer exists in Dewey at all, he is all waggy tail and loving licks when he meets children of any age. This he learned from lots of positive reinforcement, so when we spent several days on end with my cousin who was toddler at the time, he was on leash and every time he approached her with no sign of aggression (even if it was just a sniff) he was given a high value treat. Soon he realized he didn't just get those treats, but if he stayed near her, she dropped amazing stuff as well. He is one of those amazing dogs that don't steal food from children unless it is obviously offered to him or dropped. However if he did bark at her there was still punishment given, I often would say leave it and pop his collar, then remove him from the situation to let him calm down.
Now a lot of people have problems with collar pops or any sort of "physical punishment". I do a huge combination of heavy positive reinforcement, a small amount of punishment when needed (and lots of different forms), and lots of catering to my dogs individual needs. In my opinion dogs are extreme individuals, in fact all animals are, and that fact alone means that no type of training is perfect for every dog. I use what works best for Dewey. In fact if you have heard some of the commands I use for him during our training sessions or working walks, some of the words make no sense in the normal dog training world. He doesn't know heel, he doesn't know off, he doesn't respond to a lot of things like a normal dog would. And it's not because I didn't try to teach him the norm, it's just because he didn't respond well to those words compared to words I now use. Dewey is one of those dogs who I can pretty much have an entire normal conversation with and he will understand at least half the words. Sadly this means we have to spell words that will make him excited, which is at least 30 words, and recently we have noticed 3 words he can now spell without a problem.
There are two types of dog training in the dog training world, -Punishment (which is what people consider the positive reinforcement and no force training) and +Punishment (which is what the "old world" training is. Such as dominance rolling, collar pops, any physical punishments). Now most people are one or the other. Most -P trainers will tell you dogs learn better through force free training. Most +P trainers will tell you that it is instinctive to use +P training so they will respond better. However I think dogs individually vary too differently to say these absolutes. I think an equal training where you use a little of both with a lot of positive reinforcement and a little +punishment and/or -punishment (preferably both types) so your trust and bond is not damaged, is key to a balanced dog. Now there is never such a thing as a "perfectly trained" dog in my opinion. I honestly think training is something that will always needed to be reworked and reinforced, because dogs will forget or will test their boundaries. This is what mentally healthy dogs should do in my opinion. It is your job as their trainer, to redirect their thoughts and remind them what they should be doing. I don't post on my dog forums anymore because they don't allow talk about +P training, which in my opinion isn't fair. However I understand where the moderators are coming from. If +P training is used incorrectly, like it is by so many certified trainers and people who think they can train dogs themselves without studying, it can be severely detrimental to the dog's psyche. I personally would not use any sort of +P training on a dog I was training right away until I had studied that dog's triggers in several situations for a week, and was able to read it's signals safely. Then I would carefully introduce +P training in a safe environment with minimal damage and minimal stress so that I could view the dogs reaction. Each session would last at most 15 minutes, followed by a long relaxation break of 30 minutes with preferably something they love to chew on and preferably in a room or place they feel safe in, either alone or with someone they feel safe with. Then after the relaxation break they get a 15 minute play session, another 10 minute break, and then another 15 minute session of +P training. However I would only charge for the 30 minutes of +P training.
So if you think about it in my training session that would involve +P, it would 15 minutes of stress, 30 minutes of like a meditation destress moment, 15 minutes of play to release built up tension, 10 minutes to just relax after the play so we don't go into the next training session too amped up, and then another 15 minutes of stress. Then preferably after I left the owner would follow through with the chewing session.
These kind of intensive +P training session are only really needed with aggression based or fearful dogs. Once or twice a week at most is what is recommended for intensive training session of any sort for any dog.
With Dewey, when he came to us, our lives changed. We were looking for a 4 year old female. We got an 8 month old male. He totally chose us and it was so worth the change we made. Because the beginning wasn't exactly perfect and we definitely had to adjust, everything about him is just... amazing. I wouldn't say he's perfect, because he has his faults that many people wouldn't find perfect, but his faults make him perfect for me. His past wasn't great from what we know, when he arrived at the shelter he was 5 pounds underweight, he still had his dew claws (never got them removed and still has them today), had to be neutered, and was definitely not a normal dog. He was found in the Napa Golf Course. And technically we were looking for a dog, but at that moment weren't planning on getting one. But when he walked into the room all waggly and happy, we put our names down, and I haven't regretted once.
I will be posting a general dog training guide in the next post because I got a comment about the desire for one, the first dog training post will be simple commands and how to train them. These are the basics that no dog should be with out. Probably after a couple more posts on other animals or care revolving around them, I will talk more on controlling and helping reduce negative behavioral traits of your dog.
~Amber
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