RUFF TRANSLATING RUFF RANTS
Brought to you by the Ruff Translating team!
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One of the things I have thought most intensely about for the Ruff Translating service dog program is the way in which we approach “pairing” as a multi-year process, and not just a few week transfer of skills from the program trainer to the new handler. In many “program” style service dog training organizations, the trainers will complete the baseline training with a dog- and then there will be an abbreviated, but intense period of time that the trainer teaches the new handler how to “operate” the dog. The process is often referred to as “pairing” and can include everything from making sure the dog is a good personality fit for the handler, to public access practice, to teaching a new handler the basic care of a dog. This concept as a few week (max) crash course with no follow up support is incredibly common and exhausts me on multiple different levels. I don’t think that just practicing the commands and learning basic dog cognition is enough for service dog teams to be successful. Obviously, a service dog needs to be highly obedient and the handler needs to be familiar with the ways in which dogs learn to troubleshoot as well as keep training in tip top shape. What this “program” process neglects and what irks my spirit (and frankly common dog sense) to core- is building communication between handler and dog and then following through to actively shifting from performance to partnership. What do I mean? An excellent example came to me in a recent lesson with an about-to-graduate team. We were working out in public, specifically around focus with one of the dog’s favorite distractions- children. I am exacting about the dogs I work with in how they behave with any level of distraction- and so certainly I was expecting to walk into this lesson to troubleshoot obedience. What I saw though, (thank you, dear autism for your incredible pattern recognition gift)- was more about the way that the tenor of the relationship changed with the introduction of this specific stimulus. I like to imagine the connection between service dog and handler as a living link, as sturdy and alive as a vine. For a moment, let’s picture what this connection looks like as a physical manifestation. Picture a shimmering strand running from the heart and mind of a human, with a million different tiny threads across the person’s body woven into a cord that stretches across the open space to the body and mind of the service dog- a different shade of thin cord so multiple in it’s connections it looks like a spiderweb emerging from the dog. The point in between contains both sets of thousands of threads- and is woven together so seamlessly you don’t notice the different shades coming from each organism at first. The link bends, it tightens together, it stretches apart- sometimes it frays, and you can see a few knots tied for extra strength.The knots look like they are breathing in and out as they adjust to the pressure of the outside environment- they don’t look at weak points but rather like they are built for reinforcement and lasting success. It seems to have no limits with how far it can stretch, but the link is also bouncy in movement- when it stretches apart the bond applies light pressure and the two organisms snap back together easily. I see tending this link is my most important job as a service dog trainer- until the handler is ready to take care of the link independently. What I am looking for in “tending” this link- is not just command response, or tasking skill- but that when there is pressure on the link from outside sources (distractions, home life, disability progression)- the link takes those distractions in stride and can handle the pressure without snapping. The link between the handler and dog is woven together through experiences, practice, learning with each other, and fostering understanding for each other across species lines. I tend the link through recommending boundaries around socializing with dogs/other people during training and working, training exercises intended to create focus and communication, teaching dog cognition, being dogmatic in intentions for a radically disability positive experience and changing aspects of our trajectory in training based on accessibility, and many other ways over the course of the work with each handler. Many, many of my handlers have heard me exclaim, often too loudly, “we have to prioritize the bond!” which is the language I’ve used before to talk about the aforementioned link. I think “link” is a much more useful semantic here, most dogs are very bonded to their people regardless of training- but the service dog and handler link is an intentional connection that requires fostering beyond proximity, snuggles, and snacks. There are some really involved dog training techniques I could devolve into here on how to do this successfully. But we will save that for another day. So now we are back, in this lesson with a team whose link is well tended from the last 2+ years of our collective journey and frankly no longer needs my interrupting hands in the way. My goal right now is just to prove that to them. Two kids walk past in a grocery store- and the dog shows alert and attention towards the distraction. His heel position is fine, his attention isn’t phenomenal but not completely overwhelmed. Recently he did get overwhelmed, and his obedience faltered which severely taxed his handler’s stress level. That was layered over of some life's happenings and then some of my least favorite words in dog training were sent my handler’s way, “if you are anxious your dog will be anxious”. Y’all, this is ableism plain and simple. Your dog does not have to be anxious automatically if you are. If they were- why the hell would we use them to manage mental health? To be an impeccable dog handler does not mean you are always “in control” of your emotions.I watched my handler go through this idea someone threw at her- physically. Her tension escalated the second she saw kids- before even the dog, her shoulders got crunchy. I could feel her anxiety from across the store. But that doesn’t have to be a failure for her and the dog at that moment. She doesn’t need to “get it together”. She doesn’t need to over-control her dog. I am a frequently dysregulated person, from a lifetime of cPTSD layered with nuerodivergency. I am not always in a good state of mind for any dog, nevermind my own service dog. But I am exceptionally dependable in how I communicate with my dogs, and my behaviors towards them are incredibly consistent. That, and building my link to each dog on a galaxy of experiences and not just my bad moments, is the framework for the present. So we co-regulate. I don’t need to be the false idea of a leader. I just need to be honest, with myself and the dog. If the link were again made visual- it would look bunched up, tight, and the threads coming from the brains of both organisms would be frantically gasping for tension to control the link. This, this is the moment where there is a difference between tending that link instead of “dog training” as we think of it in terms of command and response. The human of the team starts looking to me for solutions, when to correct for obedience, she is rapidly looking for a food lure. But that is not at all the root of what needs to happen. Yes, of course- we use our tools to regain control of an actual animal in a public store. Everything isn’t this beautiful concept of a team moving in tandem- there are practical things that must happen so that the dog behaves to our high collective standard near children, food, carts– the works. We have to address the behavior of very light leash leaning (and we do). Then I switch gears to actually addressing why this is a point of conflict for them. I tell the handler to just move, just continue with her own presence. This was interpreted initially as “running away” by the handler, but that’s not what I mean at all. When the handler starts to disengage from the small distraction picture and trusts that she is not “in training” with her dog (ie: working on his focus only, getting him comfortable with gear, checking his tasking etc) that precious link, that is all of the experiences up to that moment, then responds to the tension in her movements. Tension is just tension- not good or bad. She puts pressure on the link to stay with her, in the moment of “grocery shopping” simply by continuing to exist outside of the “training” moment. The dog relaxes, resumes offering heart rate alerts, and with a few more gentle reminders goes into a state of excellent interest in the outside environment without being over excited. As the handler starts moving, and stops “training” her dog- but utilizing the link and instead reinforcing the training, the dog is a different animal. Truly, he relaxes into their link as much as she does. This does not mean there will never be any obedience blunders, or moments where a dog is distracted. We are all in variable states of success at any given thing- and dogs are no different. That cheesy line of “your best looks different everyday” is the truth. There is no such thing as a perfect service dog. There is a well trained service dog and well tended link. In social media we so often see these posts of a service dog constantly staring deep into the eyes of their handler while moving, maintaining a full focused heel. As a professional dog trainer, and as a service dog handler, I call bullshit and also ask, why? A focused heel is a useful obedience skill. Offered eye contact from a service dog, with no reward exchange consistently required- is vastly different from maintaining a focused heel for some unknown reason while walking through a grocery store. I want to see a dog who is checking in on AND with their handler frequently, and a handler who is relaxed enough in regards to their link to be present with their dog without being constantly “in training” mode. I absolutely expect my service dog to follow my obedience cues, give me eye contact when asked, etc- but I also live within the link we have worked so hard to form. Most of the time, I don’t need a ton of verbal commands while we are out because I trust she knows the expectations, knows she will be rewarded when she offers those behaviors, and I feel confident enough in our communication to navigate tricky decisions. I am happy to give her a subtle reward or correction when she makes choices. Rarely do I ever give her a right or left heel position cue unless I see an obstacle that I want her in a specific position for even then she is usually there before I ask. She holds her own preference of a right or left side in any environment, moves when asked, and is absolutely allowed to perk up her ears and notice something. I lean on our link, not away or towards anything but into each other. She chooses the link too, and we move through the world. She has no reason not to- the link is as comfortable and safe as it is for me. She isn’t hyper focused on food, she doesn’t beg or attention seek, she just moves. The explanation for her consistency is that she knows she will get a reward if/when she goes above and beyond our link or just for a job well done. But the relationship is no longer strictly transactional. She is allowed to be both interested in the world around her, and expected to still choose her service dog work when needed. Achieving this still requires us to tend our link, together- do those tune up training exercises, practice things, continue to learn. Tasking for a service dog is a set of skills, and I strongly recommend brushing those up to any team, from time to time. However, outside of that, committing to a pairing process that takes the appropriate amount of time with the amount of dedication is the difference between the optics of an “obedient” dog – and the decision making of a unified service dog team. Addendum: This way of conceptualizing training is imperative to service dog work, but it is also incredibly useful for training non-working dogs. You can have a "link" with ANY dog, not just those skilled in disability assistance.As per usual, prioritizing accessibility and non-conformity offers unique insights into success for everyone.
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 Service dog team Shannon and Mercy working together at the grocery store Everyday we are faced with a new horror in the US. There are mass shootings and judges making life more unbearable for huge swatches of the public. There are incidents of queer pride events being attacked and white supremacist marches are a reality in Boston and other cities. Failure to protect against COVID has killed over a million people and counting. When Trump was elected, many of us who have experienced oppression knew that this was where this would lead, which is why we struggled with those who dismissed our concerns. One might think that my industry (dog training/dog service providers) wouldn’t be necessarily impacted by the attempted facist takeover of the United States. But the thing about oppression is- it’s a mist or a dense fog that obscures truth and justice across all things within the environment and not just direct personal relationships. It’s easy for some to see how white supremacy reproduces in environments of big banking, police forces, sports teams… but dog training? I have heard Black and Indigenous people discuss their cultural relationship to dogs, and the myriad of ways they experience supremacy within the dog culture. However, when I start those conversations with fellow white dog professionals- their eyes often go dead and so does the conversation. That isn’t a reason to stop, of course, but it is interesting how very protective white dog service providers are of the “de-political illusion of dog training”. Everything is political and impacted by systemic white supremacy, whether we acknowledge it or deny it. Dog training is a reproduction of larger societal oppression. Historically speaking, the colonizing Europeans were not as integrated with dogs.They didn't use them in the same ways until they stole the concepts from Indigenous and African cultures. Across the globe, dogs have co-evolved with people in unique and powerful ways. They have developed features that we find non-threatening. They have developed traits of friendliness as part of their survival technique. Humans have long used their powerful noses to track game and tell us environmental information. Many, many cultures have lived harmoniously with dogs as protectors, providers, comfort, for hunting assistance and pack animals. When I say “pack animals'' I am referring to using dogs to haul essentials over distances. Examples of how cultures have capitalized on our relationship with dogs includes sled dogs, or Indigenous cultures who hooked dogs to land (instead of snow) sleds or in other regions packed their dog’s backs during seasonal moves. With the onset of the capture and hostage of Africans forced into slavery- another thing that was stolen were breeds of dogs- trained in various skills including as an aid when hunting intimidating tresspassor animals, or larger prey. The slavers then used those same dogs to enforce their will on people, starting intentional collective trauma around dogs for members of Black communities throughout the U.S. It doesn’t just “stop there”, when colonizers invaded the now-United States- many Indigenous cultures lived with dogs as part of their spiritual and cultural practice. Institutionalized violence and erasure has left many of the crucial Indigenous understandings of dogs only preserved through oral tradition- and we should be elevating those voices now so that we can honor those cultures and promote the messages from teachings through the next generations. One of the most advantageous aspects of Tik Tok for me as a dog professional is access to Indigenous leaders who are generous with their oral histories. But as a white dog professional, it is not my job to take those cultures and package them for whiteness- but rather work to abolish the dog culture that does not allow Indigenous dog understanding to flourish and be documented for the next generation of Indigenous youth. My job as a white dog professional is to disrupt the whiteness of dog culture and use my race privilege to create space for something inclusive, where BIPOC leaders can emerge. Moving forward in history- slave-catchers came onto the scene of early emancipation and the creation of and facilitation of the Underground Railroad. Dogs were once again used to track, abuse, and torture those humans escaping slavery. Whiteness as a concept has always been appropriative- and slavers used powerful dogs against the people to control them and force submission. We still see this tactic used today with police k-9s. The continuation of violence has very little disruption, and our society uplifts police dogs, military dogs, etc. as the pinnacle of obedience training. There is ample cultural ridicule for those who use dogs for other purpose bred activities (for example outdoor housed livestock guardian dogs), or those who use balanced tools (like e collars and prongs). As slave-catchers have grown into foot patrolmen and ultimately into police departments they have held true and perfected using dogs as weapons against communities of color. This abuse of power further ruined (and continues to ruin through to today) the bond between BIPOC and dogs through violence and barely controlled aggression. We see an extension of this thinking and control later in Europe, with the formation of the RSPCA. Rescues and animal rights organizations are often ridiculed for extreme positions in food production, but we are less likely to challenge anthropomorphic beliefs when it comes to dogs. I am a believer that one of the reasons for this is our inherent biological connection to dogs (we actually release familial bonding hormones on eye contact)- but it is also a continuation of seeing any living being as more valuable than Black, Indigenous, and POC bodies, and centering whiteness. One of the original founding principles of the RSPCA was to eliminate working dogs among the working class- under the guise of dog abuse. I am certain that there were very good reasons to improve the conditions of some dogs in working environments. I have met many well intentioned people who were actively causing harm to dogs throughout my career as a trainer. But that does not excuse the class warfare waged by the elite in removing working dogs from homes that depended on them. During this period of time (17-1800s), dogs and horses were crucial partners in agriculture and industry for many small tradespeople. The SPCA as it was first known (the R added in 1840) was founded on the principle of removing ponies from the coal mines, but not on improving working conditions for the human lives also in the “pits”. The history of using dogs to abuse communities of color can not be contained by one white, non-historian, foray into the history of dogs within human cultures globally. That being said, what I can say is that I see these problematic tactics and views impacting dog culture today. As an example, let’s just take the category of “service dogs”. We can see how the experience of whiteness is privileged and training is inaccessible to most. The passing of the American with Disabilities Act was revolutionary, and disabled community members fought with valor to have these very basic provisions protected by law. In our current judicial system, combined with a global pandemic- it is likely a target we all should be watching as we march down the road of rights revision. That being said, it was very limited in the ways in which it described access needs- centering on those needs of white veterans. Those needs were very real but they also did not go nearly far enough in protecting those with intersectional identities and differing access needs. The concept of service dogs, specifically for the use of psychiatric disabilities- has only more recently than the ADA signing in 1990 been more thoroughly advocated for. Even “just” trauma of lived oppression without additional diagnosis or comorbidities is very real, documented, and, in my professional and lived experience- can be assisted in management with a highly trained service dog. One of the advantages of the regulations of the ADA, is that owners are allowed to self-train their dogs. Why is this advantageous? The vast majority of service dog organizations have a several year wait, and most are trained as “program” dogs. Some cost tens of thousands of dollars outright. The impact of this is that they are either fiscally inaccessible by many disabled people, or- and here is the most important part- the dogs are donated but not tailored and paired to their individual handler fully. The dogs are seen as a product for sale or donation- and those trainers are not focusing on creating a stable TEAM of individual and dog. When a dog is trained to do a specific task, they are more responsive to the individual who trained them on that task, unless time and patience are dedicated to transferring that skill over the handler. At RT, the pairing portion of our service dog program often lasts 3-6 months. Compare that with a program dog, a dog that is “fully trained”, and the organization does a rudimentary 1-2 week “training” to teach the new disabled handler how to use their medical device. This creates this weird barrier between dog and person- and again, in my experience does not empower a disabled handler to actually be able to fully use the incredible skills of a service dog. When you layer this model into the existing systems of oppression- where most of the programs are geared towards white veterans- and there is a consistent shaming of disabled people for “not knowing” how to work their dogs… it’s a nightmare and of course many disabled people who live at points of intersectionality are not going to be able to access this process at all. It is a system fully built on police-style training (which comes back to slave catchers), military privilege for access, and relies heavily on donations to groups dedicated to supporting veterans. Now listen, I am fully in support of veterans having fully trained service dogs. But I am not in support of ONLY white men veterans having access to program dogs- with a few “diversity” spots thrown in for optics. When individuals opt out of this model, they resort to online training tips, youtube videos, and books. It is often not nearly enough, and frequently those individuals end up with dogs who are not fully prepared for the work they need to do. The public image of a well trained service dog becomes softer, less helpful, more companion based in most cases. I even know of multiple dog-training facilities that offer “service dog training classes”, that barely have a concept of the disabling conditions they are helping to manage with dogs- never mind adapting their classes to actually be accessible and effective training tailored to an individual disability need. I meet multiple service dog “trainers” who confuse the roles of therapy and service dogs readily. I recently even had a conversation with a former service dog trainer where they admitted they stopped training because they “don't know how to deal with disabilities''. Which they said to me, a service dog handler with multiple disabilities. Ableism within dog training is the nasty decedent of everything we have covered here and deserves its own rant entirely. I believe disabled people deserve better, and we absolutely have to stop operating with the paradigm of white supremacy within dog culture. So what do we do, as white professionals who recognize that competitions, breeding, access, training, rescues all of it- have been constructed within the tenancy of slavery and genocide? I do not have all of the answers, but I do have some ideas. We need to promote those BIPOC dog professionals who are also seeking to train with cultural competence. We must create spaces for classes, lessons and programs where it’s not just “welcoming” or friendly, but intentionally inclusive. Our shops should demonstrate that we are safe for those with intersectional identities through messaging, staff education, staff diversity, including diverse leadership and diverse mentorship. We must divest from military and police trainers entirely- including those white trainers who tangentially promote those military/police trainers.We have to stop creating meaningless certifications that don’t tell us anything about what the dog and person do outside of the training ring. We must hire new tradespeople who are BIPOC and promote them, sharing generously the knowledge of training that we do have. We must learn how to train high performing service dogs while teaching the handlers accessibility in caring for, and independently working with their own dogs. It can not just be optics- it has to be in every way we talk about dog culture. Whiteness as a construct stole dogs from many people, and if we are to be stewards of change- we absolutely have to create space for BIPOC folks to reshape current dog culture. This doesn’t mean we white people can’t own or train dogs. What it does mean is that we need to rethink what we qualify as good training- and center that perspective not on “achievement” within competitions or certifications- but on how very connected the person and dog are in front of us. That is training success. And that is also how we evolved alongside dogs. We need to relearn dog training through mutual aid, living in the present, and constantly checking in our communication, not through demonstrations of power over an animal- or incredible anthropomorphizing dogs over the needs of humans. There is a viral tiktok that has several variations of a Black dog trainer talking about what “white women” will do for a dog in a comedic way. It’s hilarious because it is absolutely true. I have known many, many feminists, radicals, leftists, extremeists, right wing enforcers- but most of them pale in comparison with the absolute dedication of white women to the concept of dog rescue and dog welfare. The passion, I understand. I am pathologically obsessed with all things dog. I have a personal goal (and years of running success) of reading a minimum of 10 dog behavior/cognition/biology/psych books annually. I wear stupid dog themed teeshirts and even oven a pair of sneakers with dogs printed on them. But over the years I have steadily moved away from white dog rescue culture. I have seen how the requirements for adoption are classist and often racist, the over-humanization of the needs of dogs, and the money trail involved has corrupted the idea of “rescuing” dogs. “Rescue” remember- was founded by eliminating dogs as our working partners. As we have discussed removing dogs as working partners has its root in colonization- and in the abuse of Black and Indigenous communities.This doesn't mean I don’t love rescue dogs- in fact I have only met maybe a few dogs over the course of my life that I didn’t adore. What it does mean is that I can’t turn off the knowledge of how rescue culture reproduces oppression in the very nature of its operation. Divesting from white dog culture means looking at ways that we can actually teach people to better care for their dogs- rather than ship them to a more privileged area for adoption. There is an organization, ChainFree Knoxville, that aids their communities in fencing in their yards and providing necessities to get dogs off of chain-tie outs. They provide safe, weather appropriate housing, chain link, food, dishes, toys, secure doors, etc- so that the dogs who are loved have a higher standard of care than is currently accessible to their owners. THIS is the model of change I can get down with. This allows us space to teach people how to live with dogs, rather than pulling them from situations. Of course- I’m not talking about hoarding situations, or extreme abuse. I am talking about poverty and lack of access/knowledge- neither of which are shameful or a crime. If we really want to rescue dogs, we have to start first with helping people, and seeing ourselves not just as experts in what dogs need- but more so as facilitators in helping keep dogs and people together and getting dog needs met. And as white dog professionals, we have to realize that just because we don’t know the history of dogs in other cultures doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist, and more so- that there isn’t something necessary to understand even if unfamiliar. What are we waiting for? Isn’t this the whole point? To live harmoniously with dogs as stewards and partners? I firmly believe so and I hope you do too.  A group of service dog handlers and a young assistant trainer participating in an off-leash recall class. The thing is, sometimes your goal works too well, the vision of success comes to the forefront and you are struck with “well now what?”.
When I founded Ruff Translating, it was really just about making sure I had a safe and reliable place to work in the dog industry, after years of working in challenging environments or as an independent contractor. RT has been my business in two other states before we landed (and settled) here. I extended my goals in Boston to help further my trade, and support other young professionals in their career development. Over the last two years, RT has graduated 2 apprentices (Sam and Michelle) and moved the very first apprentice I worked with in Boston (Cara) into a leadership position. Now, two of these professionals, Cara and Sam, have decided to take their show on the road and though we are deeply sad to see them go, we are so impressed by who they are and what they will bring to the world within our trade or not. It’s hard to say now, wow, this really worked well, and at the same time realize that there are drastic changes to your own day to day operation as a result of being successful. This separation is absolutely what happens when mentoring goes right- but that doesn’t mean it’s not also a challenge to envision what RT looks like without these crucial people. As many of our clients know, RT has had several big changes this year, in part because I have gone through several health changes that have impacted how I work. I also have turned my personal focus to specifically growing our service dog program as part of my professional development. It has long been a dream of mine to refocus my career to partner specifically with folks with disabilities in their journey to become service dog handlers. This year, I can proudly say that I achieved the goal, and nearly all of my appointments are with service dog clients mixed with a smaller few of my beloved behavior client babes. As this year has progressed, I also now have to face heavy decisions on how my health impacts how many hours I can work, how many staff we can take on, train, and provide support , to name a few considerations. This also means that as trainers with other specialties move on, we have to decide how that impacts our own shop and the services we provide. All of this is to say: it is a bit unexpected, but RT is changing. We will be slowly winding down our more intensive behavior modification work and focusing our business on recently adopted dogs with behavior shaping (growth and development of puppies, building confidence, resolving lower level anxiety) rather than modification (aggression, severe anxiety, long term management needs), general training, and primarily: service dog training. This is not at all what we saw happening in two years of opening, in fact my business plan draft didn't even include SDITs as a primary program- but as with most things in our pandemic era, we absolutely have to be flexible and change based on the realities of each current situation. We anticipated behavior modification at the highest level would be a program we continued with, but life has handed us other plans and we have to be realistic about what that means for our small business when our two incredible behavior modification specialized trainers are moving on. So let’s get to the questions you undoubtedly have. If you are a current client of RT, including those dogs who are currently using more intensive behavior modification services, we are more than thrilled to continue offering Private Lessons and Muttessori Academy to your pups. We will still have open lesson spots for existing clients but are also happy to provide you with Cara or Sam’s contact information should you wish to continue private lessons with them. Muttessori spots are not contingent on training with RT specifically if you are an existing client. We see Cara and Sam each as individual preferred referral providers moving forward with new inquries with those specific more hands-on intensive, aggression potential, behavioral health needs, and appropriate trainers to still have their clients in our day train program. As Michelle has now graduated from her apprenticeship, we will be opening up her schedule with additional time slots. Michelle is seeking to have her speciality also grow into the service dog program, so as RT continues that will remain a thriving part of our work. Her experience also makes her a great trainer for our existing behavior modification dogs who wish to stay within RT. We also will continue to be so appreciative of referrals to RT with new adoptions, shy dogs, fearful dogs, puppies, and fundamental training. Please join us in wishing Cara and Sam all of the best in their careers, Cara’s final day with RT will be June 10th, and Sam’s final day will be July 8th. They are working on their individual next steps, and in the meantime you can contact them with the information we provided below. We are currently in the process of interviewing additional trainers to join the team with Ejay, Michelle and Kim to continue to provide as many Muttessori spots as we can! If you have questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. Ejay, Cara, Sam and Kim are all happy to answer any questions and truly reiterate that this is a collaborative separation, and are all in support of each other’s success moving forward. Cara's email address post 6/10: cara@chromatic-k9.com Sam's email address post 7/8: samanthagalanis@gmail.com  Loki, SDIT  Guinea Pig Playpen and Housing The alarm went off ten minutes ago and I’m still pinching my eyes closed b/c maybe, just the extra five minutes will be the difference in the headache I already have lessening, or not. That’s fantasy of course, but the chronically ill can dream. I hear my service dog groaning, literally groaning, from the other room. She is fine, just impatient for her morning out and her breakfast. I can’t blame her, and drag myself upright. Once I’m up, I confirm that yea, today is a headache day that will likely mutate to a nasty migraine before I’m through. I take the dogs all out to potty, prep their breakfast and get down my first round of meds for the day, adding in some tylenol for the headache with the usuals. One of my meds, a 4X a day liquid has to be consumed 30 minutes before I eat and taken in a full glass of water. I let the tap run for a few moments so the water is ice cold and I can avoid the bitter aftertaste. The dogs are ready to be let out from breakfast in their crates, and I put coffee on. I have 110 text messages of varying degrees of actually needing to be read, 15 messages in FB, and a bunch of more social notifications. Over coffee I fire off answers to dog questions, mostly about poop, if I am honest. Usually those texts include photos which are both gross and useful. I am not a vet, but I am a person who reads dog biology books for fun. The thing about being a walking text book is that… you are a resource. My wife prods me to eat something. I continue to work on emails and messages until about 30 minutes before we are due in the shop. My stomach graciously allows me to eat one frozen waffle without flipping out or my esophagus swelling shut, so big win there. I live with mast cell activation syndrome, as well as eosinophilic esophagitis, which means that my body responds to food (at this point, all food) as though it is a foriegn body and has an allergic response. It’s a challenge and requires a pretty intensive management. I also take 4 other prescriptions on a daily basis to manage symptoms, and we are still working out how to help my body deal with this condition best. We get into the shop, where the team of trainers is already hard at work running Muttessori Academy. I check the white board where we keep track of the day for who is at school, and who has not had their trainer session yet. Cara has been in since 7:30 a.m. so there is a plan laid out for a morning theme, and a rough plan for group activity in the afternoon. Michelle and George start group walks, so there are pups in varying states of their day, all working on handler engagement and dog neutrality as well as whatever the focus is on in their sessions. It’s a bustle, really noisy, and most of us on the team identify as nuerodivergent, and are pretty sound sensitive. We have coping strategies but it’s also not usual to see me with my ears plugged for just a minute, or for someone else to lose it and yell in no general direction. All is understood to be the best anyone has to give at the very moment, which in itself is something to be grateful for. I move right into service dog training, there are plenty of service dog candidates in the shop today along with our general training and behavior modification programs. It’s about noon when I finish up my morning training sessions, and about twelve thirty when the walks are all done. It’s lunch break for the entire team. Next door in our expansion space where we have our staff break room, some of the trainers are gearing up their own dogs for a mid day walk, and some are making lunch and sitting down for a very well deserved rest. I have to wait for my next round of medication to kick in before I eat, which I just chugged down quickly before gearing up my own dogs for a quick walk. While out, Kim mentions to me that we need to get on a call right when we get back to talk with a client about their upcoming service puppy adoption. We hurry back, and chat with the new client for thirty or so minutes. Questions answered, I glance at my emails again and flag messages that still need replies from from the morning or since I’ve arrived at work. There are 8 messages in paragraph form that I copy/paste into my to-do list so I don’t forget that those probably need a longer email or a voice message. Sitting down at the lunch table, I’m still too nauseous to eat, and I think I forgot to pee at all today, which happens. I get back up, take care of that misstep and step outside to light a small amount of my medical marijuana to deal with the waves of nausea rolling from my collar bone to my hips. There’s about 20 minutes left before we need to kick it back into high gear for the afternoon training sessions. While finally getting some food in, I answer few more messages and we watch some stupid tiktoks for a brain break at the lunch table. Lunch is one of my favorite moments with my team. We all enjoy each other’s company, and it is equally likely to find us lively chatting as it is to see a table full of silence. Not the awkward kind, the kind that nuerospicy people live in between engagements to recoup their strength. At 1:25, Sam puts the kettle on for her afternoon cup of tea. I get up, stretch and sigh dramatically. The afternoon plan is to work on agility stations with all of the dogs. Michelle had a lesson last night, so she is taking some office time to work on her lesson report card while we start afternoon training. My headache is starting to make a resounding return, so I grab some excedrin and head downstairs to the training floor. Cara is already setting up 3 agility obstacles for the dogs, and setting out 3 place boards. One of the ways that we work with groups is to have a period where the dogs are working on an active activity, and then have them hold “place” while other dog’s take their turn. This balance between passive and active training isn’t just about time management- one of the best tenets of dog training is to teach your dog to settle, and this gives an opportunity to work around upper level distractions. Each trainer will run the dog student through the agility obstacle for a timed amount of time, and then switch to the next station when the timer goes off. After all 3 stations, the dog will hold place while the next dog rotates through the 3 stations, and then return to their crate. I don’t know of any other training company that runs this way, but it really works for us and allows us to both give individualized attention to each dog, while balancing the entire shop. There is some really great research into the benefits of intensive, short sessions for dog training, and we certainly have found that this method works really well. I’m looking at one of our regular Muttessori attendees, a young bernedoodle pup with plenty of spice and gangly limbs. We are working on him backing up onto a placeboard, and his legs are confused about how this math works. I bring the food lure into a different position, and he awkwardly lifts his back paw nearly onto the place board. We go through a strange dance of me helping him work through what the goal is, using food as an incentive as well as verbal praise. He gets distracted mid-way through by another young dog who is flouncing through the weave poles with exceptional enthusiasm. Towards the end of the station his focus has returned, and we get at least one decent repetition of the goal of the station. I pat his curly head and move on to teaching him about the very exciting weave poles, most of which end up on the ground because of the flourish with which he uses his tail. We will live to learn about body awareness another day, and as I set him in place after his session, he lays out fully stretched on his side- a clear indication he has hit his limit of physical activity. The afternoon is a steady rhythm of marker words, a demonstration of patience peppered with the occasional exasperated (reasonable) sigh of a trainer combating teaching across language barriers and specie’s motivations. My phone alarm goes off at 3:15- I have a private lesson at 3:30, and luckily Michelle came down the stairs about 20 minutes earlier having finished her lesson report card. We switch out spots, and I get ready to launch into private lesson mode. I pass George in our tight stairwell, he is leading a dog who got an afternoon bath back down stairs for their training session, smelling fresh as a rose bush. His headphones and both of our masks are on so I squint my eyes in a smile and keep it moving. The lesson of the afternoon is going to be with a service dog candidate who is struggling with prey drive, and tends to lose focus outside in situations where there are a lot of squirrels, bunnies, small dogs etc. Thankfully, we have just the thing to help work on this. I walk into our in-remodeling-process utility room, where the company guinea pigs are currently playing in their exercise pen. Several months ago, Kim and I adopted a pair of rescue guinea pigs and started working on conditioning them to dog stimulus. They have done absolutely phenomenally well, and help us in lessons on a weekly basis. They are very confident, and generally go about their guinea pig business regardless of what the dog’s response is. Of course, plenty of lettuce helps them stay calm and collected, but they really are an excellent conduit to these crucial skills. Kim has just freshened their home cages as well as their playpen, so they are ready to work. In the front lesson room she has lit a candle so it smells fabulous and tidied up the room in general so it feels welcoming and homey. I go wash my hands from the afternoon training session, change my mask b/c I have sweat through the old one (a symptom and a side effect for me is that I can’t regulate temperature, and often sweat profusely). Gross, but like- bodies are wild and gross and you just have to deal with it on some level. I wash my face with cool water, pat it dry, and get that fresh mask in place. Then I hit my office because my left knee is absolutely throbbing and throw some THC gel on it to numb it up for the second half of the day. I have a genetic condition called Ehler-Danlos in which my body does not create collagen properly in my connective tissue. Your connective tissue is through your entire body (wild fact- your blood IS connective tissue) so this gene typo means I deal with system wide, full body health issues, including hyper flexible joints that slide out of place with regularity. My left knee is a particular culprit, and while it is still where it should be in terms of basic joint alignment, the grind of the day has it pretty agitated. I chug a glass of water with electrolytes to try and keep the headache and my hydration at bay. My wonderful SD client is already waiting for me at the Muttessori entrance when I return. We launch right into the lesson and before I know it my phone is buzzing with my alert that I need to wrap up within 10 minutes because my next lesson is arriving. We finish up the last round of an exercise working on impulse control around the guinea pigs, who have been impossibly patient thanks to lettuce and lots of practice. We touch base about homework, and I jot down a few notes in my phone for writing the lesson report card. As we say goodbye, I can see my next client parking their car across the street. I jog to the restroom, Kim has already fed our dogs in their crates and Rio is begging me to take her out quick, the boys will get their own walk. I bring her out to potty and apologize for the long day before taking my next dose of meds and jumping into my next lesson. The next session’s focus was on mobility tasks, and I am running on steam. I throw on my knee pads to cut down the pressure, and find some inner zen to crush the underlying discomfort. I really am ok, I am pretty self aware about pushing to the limit- this is increasing my pain but there is little way for me to exist that doesn’t increase my pain. Towards the end of my session my migraine is finally giving up the ghost of passing as a headache, and back to a louder growl, threatening to take over coherent thought though, so I end my session on time for once, exactly at an hour and fifteen minutes with a ten minute wrap up for questions. I wave goodbye and all semblance of my client care mask falls down with the shade as I shut it. Kim is waiting in our office, she finished up check outs, clean up and set up for the following day and is watching some netflix from the recliner I use as my work “desk”. I can tell she only sat down a few minutes before I walked in, assuming I would run later than I said I would. We pack up our dogs, lock all the doors and pile into the car home. Finally home, it is right about 7:30 pm, though you could tell me it was midnight and I probably would believe you. Our dogs need another potty break, we need shower and dinner. We are both thirsty. I still haven’t finished answering messages from today. After the dogs are tended I drag myself into the bathroom to a nightly shower. I am on the autism spectrum, and my greatest battle of the wills daily is the shower. I like being clean of course, but the temperature changes are a sensory issue for me, and when I’m already in a higher state of pain, it’s really hard to want any additional unpleasant sensations. I have a very hard time with hot water, and generally only take luke warm showers. I use modified equipment like a shower bench to help ease into the temperature and help with the fatigue at the end of a very physical job. Along with our regular shower head I have a hand sprayer if I am too sick to stand at all in the shower. My second hardest task is eating, which I used to absolutely love but in recent years with the progression of EDS and related complications, I struggle. I drink my next dose of the meds I need to eat still in the shower so I can start the 30 minute wait time. After a pep talk I get through my shower and head to sit down. I play the last round of message catch up for the day, and Kim showers while dinner finishes. At 8:15 we sit down to eat. My bed time is 9:00pm. I get for a lot of people that seems super early. But in general, I need at least ten hours of sleep to make it through my days, and I often will (even in the middle of a show) just decide I’m done and get ready for bed. I struggle with some insomnia related to my pain issues, and one of the only places I feel relaxed is in my adjustable bed. We saved for months to get a bed that adjusts on top and bottom with a remote, so that combined with a memory foam mattress I can get into a position that is actually able to allow me to sleep. It takes me about 30 minutes to eat, and of course I don’t love going to bed right after eating, but it is what it is today. Kim is in charge of the last dog potty break for the night, and I go brush my teeth, take my last round of meds for the day and get settled in the bed. The lights are out, and my eyes are covered by the top of a hoodie I’m wearing (I love sleeping with my eyes covered, but not too tightly). My phone is plugged in on silent, though before setting that I hear a few more messages come in. Tonight my head is so painful it’s hard to actually fall asleep but I feel better in the quiet, not moving, and know it will come once my last round of medication eases my muscles into relaxing. I drift off. Suddenly, I wake up in a fit of pain, disoriented. I’m having a MCAS or EOE flare and my chest and abdomen are extremely uncomfortable. I shuffle out of the bed and into the kitchen, blinking hard as I turn on the light. I try to stretch a little to ease the pain, which doesn’t help. I’m maxed out on those specific medications for the day. I’m so tired, and feeling sick without a way to stop it sends me into a panic attack. My hands are shaking and I can feel my rate starting to race. I go get my service dog who joins me in a huddle on the couch. Between her pressure on my lap and a heating blanket, I start to work through the panic and regain my senses. It’s 2:23 AM. I don’t want to take my emergency panic attack medication because it may make me sleep through my alarm for work the next day, and it’s my turn for the early (7:30 AM) shift. Instead, I again turn to cannabis. I’m not here to debate with anyone whether or not medical marijuana is actually medicinal. It is one of the only tools I have that allows me to continue to work and support my family, and get through the regular amount of pain I cope with. It’s best not to judge others when you can avoid it in my experience. Finally soothed and more comfortable around 3:30 AM, I spend the rest of the night on the couch with Rio. A typical day for me, when I read it back sounds busy and hard. It is. It is also incredibly rewarding, and there are so many moments I wouldn’t trade for anything. I am extremely fortunate that my work is also a true passion, and I know how rare that is in our current climate. I don’t just love my work, I need it. Though I live with disabilities that daily impact my life, I am more than just cycles of pain and illness. I have dreams, I want to alter the way we think about service dogs, and build an incomparable training program. I want to be a model employer, the kind that folks spend their careers working for because it is a fulfilling choice and a safe place to work. I want to continue to foster the behavior modification program, and see the trainers who now run it primarily continue to develop it into something notable, effective, and accessible for clients. I’m not ready to give any of that up. But I also have real needs, and some days, it just isn’t possible for me to do the work I had planned. Today, it was possible and that's enough. At 6:00 AM the alarm rings, and I start assessing the day, all over again. It won’t be like yesterday, but it is certain to bring new challenges. I cross my paws I can handle whatever comes next and open my eyes to start the day. Let's go.  Rio, Ejay's service dog  Angela, resident cavvy  Emmy, SDIT  Griffon, Nola and Luke Danes on an Adventure together!  Reecey in Muzzle Imagine you are treading water. Think of how the water feels underneath you, as you move it around to keep your head above the line. If this scenario is me, with a high buoyancy body and a background in competitive swimming, I am comfortable for a seemingly endless time. Even now, years later with a physical disability, the water is the place I am most capable. My asthma chills out, my muscles ache less, my joints are less rusty, and I can hold entire conversations upright while treading. I don’t say this to brag, but as a reminder that this is not a talent that comes pre-installed on all people, never mind all swimmers. My wife is an athlete, like, a real one. The wild kind of athlete that you have to hold back because she will literally throw her body into any activity and master it with little care for her own safety. But you add water, and she sinks like a rock. Truly. We have long joked that my literal only athletic advantage is in water. She can not float on her back, and treading water is a very temporary state. Now, imagine you are treading water and the waves are rolling into you, slowly slapping against your body. Then the waves get higher, hitting your face. You kick harder, trying to keep your head above the waves. It’s suddenly windy, and you are having trouble keeping your eyes open. You push your legs even harder, trying to reach the shore, and are fighting with every ounce as you hit the beach. You catch your breath, lucky to have made it. Your heart is pounding, and you are exhausted. Gasping, frightened, and safe, you try to catch your breath as adrenaline rushes through every fiber of your being. What does this have to do with dogs? Everything, if you are talking about muzzles. All of us, dogs included, have a limited available capacity for socialization. In this case, we are comparing social capacity and emotional regulation with swimming, specifically treading water. Swimming is a learned skill, and everyone has a slightly different tolerance for how long they can keep afloat that includes skill-based AND environmental factors. Your muzzle is the life vest you put on your toddler, the one you wear in the deep ocean, the one that any number of folks use to keep afloat. A muzzle, when trained correctly, keeps a dog both under control, and provides a sense of security for the dog and handler. When you train fully with a muzzle, you can physically see the relief it offers a dog in a higher stress state. Positive association with the muzzle is key in this process -- turning wearing a muzzle into a fun game, rather than a punishment or end of participation. At Ruff Translating, we slowly re-socialize dogs who have reactivity, aggression, or profound anxiety. We regularly use muzzles to indicate to a dog that there are clear boundaries of engagement that, along with spatial work (teaching place, durations, etc.), sets the tone that the only expectation we have of our dogs in small working groups is that they remain neutral. Removing the pressure of engagement helps many dogs, but it is not enough to give “life vest relief” for many dog personality types. As we slowly build up a dog’s tolerance through desensitization and counter conditioning, the muzzle keeps our dogs afloat, ensuring that they don’t make a mistake we can’t correct while they are learning under an elevated but appropriate stress level. Our dogs trust us more in exercise because those dogs that are giving mixed signals about their participation are in the muzzle, which dogs can fathom reduces the ability to bite. We can’t underestimate the perception of the “stable” dogs when working in a group of the dogs who are exhibiting some level of stressed behavior. Muzzle training is an exercise of self control, just as much as it is a safety device. Learning that using one’s teeth/mouth is a generally inappropriate response takes time, and prevention is an important part of making sure dog behavior doesn’t escalate. If you are curious about the number of dog bites in our country, there is a solid amount of data available to sort through. Muzzles aren’t just a life-saving and injury-prevention measure for dogs in any kind of behavioral development program, though. They are also imperative for emergencies. Emergencies are the storm in which most dogs cannot swim. The water is too high, too choppy, and often they are suffering some kind of pain at the same time. Even the strongest swimmers will regress to their most reptilian brain: fight, flight or freeze in a state of trauma. We cannot predict how people are going to respond to trauma, and we have no business assuming we can predict it for dogs. If the only reason that you practice with a muzzle is in case you need it for veterinary care, then, great! You have packed the life vest for the waters ahead. I have had to muzzle enough dogs suddenly, without conditioning, because it is an emergency situation. Those situations have been wide and varied, from porcupine quills to car accidents to dog fights. I would absolutely not recommend having to muzzle an in-distress dog without proper training for anyone, let alone non-trainers. Valuing muzzle training also shows that you are respectful of those who work in animal care. The relief that paints our vet’s face when we show up with muzzle trained dogs is palpable. Regardless of how seasoned you are in dog work, there is always a chance of injury. I have occasionally been bit through muzzles, and muzzles have saved me from injury multiple times. Yes, you can get bit through a muzzle, as your fingers are small enough to fit through nose holes, and dogs can be exceptionally strong. As a lifelong dog professional, when someone is so aversive to muzzle training, it sometimes can make me feel nervous. Not necessarily because I am nervous to work with their dog, but because muzzles don’t automatically mean aversive, and it shows they are not automatically thinking about the care workers exposed to their animal. I say animal intentionally here, because as advanced as the communication is between us and dogs, it is still interspecies and, therefore, fallible. All dogs will bite in the right circumstances. Yes, all of them. Even mine, even yours, and especially if they are remarkably frightened. Using a muzzle shows that you respect both the opinions, and the safety of your service providers, from walkers to trainers to veterinary professionals. Many folks adopt pups that have trouble learning impulse control, specifically around eating or mouthing. This is a pretty universal experience if you own multiple dogs over your lifetime, and a major health hazard in many cases. Dogs may steal inanimate objects or toys and eat pieces of it, resulting in emergency veterinary care. Oftentimes this is just a developmental period for a young dog or can be resolved to a degree where constant supervision is not necessary. During those training periods, though, a muzzle can be irreplaceable and the absolute best safety device available. We work as professionals with our clients to teach safe play in muzzles for those dogs who are looking for play social engagement as part of their enrichment. This is not a skill that we take lightly, and is something we would never recommend without trainer assistance. But it is certainly possible, and in so many ways beneficial to dogs learning appropriate social boundaries. It is also a great example of how, when you teach a dog that their muzzle is a positive tool, they are able to fully relax, and even engage in physical play while wearing it. The benefit of this is that it prevents some aspects of escalation, while also helping handlers remain confident and in control. So why the hesitation? Americans have been conditioned to fear the muzzle, that it indicates “bad” dogs. But all of that is completely cultural and not based in fact. Many European countries actually enforce muzzles on dogs in public transportation and other public spaces. Of course, a muzzle could be used abusively, but so can a leash, food, or any of the other tools we use to train our dogs. A muzzle does not have meaning, to us or to our dogs, until we create an association. We can decide that we don’t believe the Ameri-centric, hyperbolic, breed-phobic, anthropomorphizing myth of muzzle training. In our shop, we already do. We see our dogs thrive with this support, and watch their confidence improve within groups. The dogs we train at Ruff Translating wag when they see their muzzle because it means fun training games, adventures, and not just hard stuff like veterinary trips. Our staff are more confident working on upper level exercises with dogs who need extra support without having as much risk to themselves or to the other dogs in our care. A calm handler is a better handler, truly. And ultimately, we owe it to each other to muzzle train our dogs. Owning a dog is a responsibility just as much as it is a joy, and we are absolutely the last line of defense for the safety of others (human and animal) and our dogs. Muzzle train, and if you need help, we have an affordable course on our website that gives you everything you need to do it easily at home. When I first started my dog industry career, intentionally, not as a side gig but as a primary focus, I used to think that dog parks and some random socialization were ok for most dogs. Chances are, unless you have a reactive dog who has had some issues, you may still believe that. Then, I moved to thinking that “all things in moderation” including the dog park was the most logical way to approach training.
I was wrong, and it is ok that I used to think that maybe dog parks could be useful. We are allowed, as human beings with wonderful thinking machines, to change our opinions. In my recent years, however, my opinion has remained really consistent. Dog parks, and random off-leash socializing in general, are bad for American dogs. I am going to be really specific in this, because this is where my career is based, and my understanding of how we treat dogs culturally is appropriate and relevant. Your dog, even if they are the most extroverted of characters, a gentile, amicable fellow who has never met a foe- is not benefited by running around with the neighborhood random associates in a fenced in area. All it does is create unwanted behaviors, generate exhaustion rather than fulfillment or even enrichment, and perpetuate the notion that all dogs are public property, and should universally be friendlier than the greeter at a local superstore. I know, it is hard, at first, to imagine that your dog’s social needs are different than our own. And by no means, am I saying that your dog does not have social needs. But what I am saying, is that from a purely training perspective it is my utmost professional opinion that there is no behavioral benefit to a dog park style of socialization- with no breaks in between wrestling sessions, no handler refocus. I can easily think of many reasons that the dog park is harmful. From pathogens causing illness, to overstimulation- most dogs that come to us with “sudden reactivity” have been socialized in dog parks or traditional (open mix) daycares. This has taught many of the pups to be fearful in any dog interaction, because there are no controls to take a minute and calm down in an intense environment. Most handlers do not not know how to advocate for their dogs either, to create that space even with other dogs around for their dog to take a minute, if they are overwhelmed. Play styles among dogs vary widely, and while many dogs are great at negotiating and changing their play to match a mate, there is a greater number who are... not. I count my own pack among the “are not” when they are all together and off leash. They act as a herding pack, moving and separating dogs with the greatest joy- but also a lot of noise and potentially some nipping, which are all recipes for a fight. And where goes one of my dogs, there goes all, and so they stay by me. If we are off leash, it is because we are still under control, and if there is a question about whether or not I am in control, we are on leash. But this is not just a personal preference of management. Chances are, if you are socializing your dog in a fenced in dog park or are sending to a daycare- your dog also does not recall 100% of the time. Even more so if you use random open air park spaces as a non-designated dog park. We live near to a city park, and regularly go for walks in our neighborhood. In the month since moving to our new place, I don’t think a day has gone by that we haven’t been approached by an off-leash dog with poor recall. I am incredibly fortunate that my pack, after years of hard work, can handle this type of engagement. But only if I remain a strong advocate, and make sure their safety is always my top priority, and never the comfort of the neighbor refusing to follow the leash laws. The legality is not really relevant, but the respect for other’s personal space and safety really is. The majority of dog owners are not going to train a consistent recall. They just aren’t. Why? Well, a lot of reasons, but honestly a lot of it comes down to time and resources. All training is hard, recall being challenging for many to achieve with reliable results. This means that if we do not have consistent recall, and we are using off-leash spaces, designated as such or not, we are forcing other members of the public to engage with our dogs. Between allergies, fears, nusince, safety- this is not just a cute “he’s so friendly!” Or “He just doesn’t want to share his stick/ball/toy!”- this is downright irresponsible and dangerous. We are ultimately not just the guardians of our dogs, but also stewards of claw and teeth. Accidents happen, and legitimate mistakes occur. That is not what I am talking about. Rather, it is the expectation that your dog should be able to approach any dog it deems interesting, any person that may provide a snack or engagement, and that is the desired standard of behavior. The desired standard of behavior should be that if you are out and about with your dog, your dog is engaging with you, not just the ambient noise. You are your dog’s companion, their bff, and their guide, if they are not looking to you- look to the relationship you have built (or not) with that pup. There is a social aspect to owning a dog that can’t be neglected when we are discussing the social habits of the American house pup. Many folks find chatting with new friends or neighbors at the dog park fulfilling, especially if their dogs ends up being good play partners. But whose needs are actually being prioritized there? If the humans are receiving the primary benefit, it is not really a dog park. There have to better ways (and we try to lead by example here) to connect folks who are passionate about spending their time together, with their dogs, without penning them in and hoping for the best. It is awesome to have friends who have the same dog interest as you do, speaking from personal experience. It is perfectly acceptable to sometimes hit a friend’s yard and let the dogs run it out together. But it is even better when you have someone who you can count on to help further your relationship with your dog because they are prioritizing the same engagement, and you are enjoying time together working on your handling skills, rather than letting the dogs go completely bananas because it will “wear them out.” Repeat after me: There is no emotional benefit for your dog to be in continued state of exhaustion. Read it again. I love to work my dogs “off leash”. I believe firmly in ensuring there are less opportunities for failure, and run all of my dogs using an ecollar as a back up to be sure that I am always in complete control of the 12 paws, 3 sets of jaws, and countless stupid animal decisions I have actively chosen to take responsibility for. All of my dogs are capable of being relatively neutral when approached by a strange dog in a non threatening way. But they are the exception, and it takes hours a week to keep them that way. It is an unrealistic expectation for many dogs, through genetics, training or experience. But what about the dogs with friendships, with relationships? There exists space for that type of work. You can use appropriate off leash spaces, fenced or not, depending on your level of training and public or private areas available. The other hard truth of dogs, is that they are not all universally social. Social behavior exists on a spectrum, with some dogs (Rio Marie Eisen) being HIGHLY social creatures, with much of our training work centering on being focused on a handler, and not always assuming play. Then there are the Swanson types, who, given the opportunity would frankly prefer to throw a lip and herd down a dog then decide whether or not they are a friend. There are dogs that generally do not enjoy the company of other dogs except in very low pressure situations. None of these are behavioral conditions, but all require attention in training. Over the weekend, I met up with some of our SDIT (service dog in training) handlers for some practice roller skating. We met up in a small skating rink at the end of my road in a public park. This wasn’t a class,or lesson, just a few of them are learning to roller skate, and they all are practicing keeping their dogs focused and settled with upper level distractions as they enter a more intense period in their training. I offered to run everyone’s dogs on my skates, after skating for 10 years I’m pretty comfortable with most dogs on skates at the same time. In the beginning of our meet up, one of the folks had her dog in a tuck in the bench just outside the rink. A local woman approached, with 3 dogs wells over 60 lbs each at the end of their leashes. Let’s keep it short and say that this woman truly believed that the fact that there were multiple service dogs in the same space, and that none of us wanted her pack near us at all, was a crime against humanity. Later in the day, I saw her socializing her dogs in the rink (it has a fence) with other local dogs, using this space as an off leash play area. This right here, is the problem. As we enter a summer of one of the biggest dog-ownership booms in American history, we are about to have a LOT of public negotiations about engagements between dogs, and handlers. Here are my genuine suggestions to keep you, and your dog safe. It is absolutely going to be a long season of folks coming out of quarantine, and realizing they have very little understanding of how/what their dog needs, for exercise or socialization.
If you need help assessing your dog’s social needs, please reach out! We are here to help you teach, and keep, your dog appropriately socially fulfilled and learning.  Ruff Translating’s Service Dog program has grown substantially, and we are so excited to help more teams reach their training goals and empower folks with disabilities to have further support and independence. To keep this program growing, we thought we would take a minute to go over our Frequently Asked Questions about service dogs! These are helpful for those folks considering a service dog program, as well as those within our community who are in other training programs.
Q. What is a service dog? A. A service dog is a dog that has been trained specifically to address a minimum of three (3) tasks for a handler with a disability in order to allow them to have more independence. For example, a psychiatric service dog may offer medication reminders or even bring pill bottles. A mobility service dog may help a handler down the stairs or up from a chair. For the full definition of an ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) service dog, check out this link. It will answer most common questions about public access, as well! Q. How much does it cost to train a service dog? A. This one is tricky to answer. At Ruff Translating, we customize every single service dog’s training to the handler’s individual needs. We find that this not only produces the best results, but allows our handlers to be as involved in the training process as much as they want or are able to. We offer everything from puppy raising, day programs, respite boarding, and private lessons. While we do have a baseline outline of costs we can provide you, it is always just an estimate. What we can promise is that we do not recommend more services than are necessary to achieve your goals and that as a company owned by a transgender person with disabilities and a working service dog, we are very aware of cost limitations. In general, a handler should expect to spend upwards of $20,000 over a two year period to train a service dog. Many handlers choose to do fundraising to help defer those costs. We operate on a pay-per-service system, so payments for your dog’s training are incremental and allow for budgeting. Q. Do you train rescue or mixed breed dogs for service work? A. Yes! We do train rescue dogs and mixed breed dogs for service work. All of our service dog candidates are very rigorously screened. We require a two-hour temperament test for any dog that is to be considered for service dog work. If you are thinking of looking for a prospect, we strongly recommend speaking with us first. We will behavior test any dog we can for qualifications. That being said, it is our utmost professional opinion that getting a dog from a breeder produces candidates that are most likely to graduate as service dogs. There are SO many factors that influence dog behavior, and part of that is genetics and even the process of a puppy being weaned! With all of the factors that contribute to training, we really want to have as much information about our puppy service dog in training (SDIT) as we possibly can so that we can ensure a successful team. A dog must be under 18 months old to be eligible for service dog in training screening at RT and preferably under 1 year. Q. Can you train a service dog for multiple people? A. No. A service dog is a unique living medical device that is individually tailored to one handler. “Tasks” are behaviors taught to a service dog based on a person’s need for assistance. We have found that households who have multiple members with disabilities, however, often benefit from having a service dog in their home. Ejay’s service dog Rio is known to scent alert other people to panic attacks (when at their home) and offer deep pressure therapy to those same folks. Even with that however, service dogs are deeply bonded to their handlers and should always prioritize that person’s health over every other option to engage. Q. I would like to get an “Emotional Support Animal.” Do you offer training for that? A. An “Emotional Support Animal” is not a trained dog by definition. It is more about the individual who owns the dog. “Emotional Support Animal” is a designation a mental healthcare provider can make to establish that a person’s health would benefit substantially by caring for a pet of some kind. We support the use of Emotional Support Animal documentation from healthcare professionals to ensure housing security for an established patient. Otherwise, there is no actual specialized training required for an ESA, and we welcome your dog into our general training services, which can be personalized specifically for your training needs for your ESA. We resist the idea of ESA training as a specific form of dog training, as it is not specialized to have a base universal meaning and often deeply harms service dog handlers with legal access rights to public spaces. As professional service dog trainers, our focus is on making service dogs more accessible to those who would benefit from one as part of their symptom management and ensuring that every dog we work with is working towards being a great neighborhood resident in general in all of our training programs. Q. What types of service dog training do you offer? A. We focus on service dogs for mobility and psychiatric assistance. We also offer cardiac alert and support (POTS), seizure alerts and recovery, and blood sugar detection. None of our service dogs are eligible to graduate our program until they demonstrate exceptional public access behavior and obedience and can successfully and reliably demonstrate six (6) -- but preferably eight (8) -- tasks in a distracting environment. If you are looking for a service dog outside of those listed, please reach out, as this is not an exhaustive definition and we may be able to help. Q. What is the difference between a psychiatric service dog and an “Emotional Support Animal”? A. An emotional support animal is any animal that has been designated by a mental health professional to provide a benefit to their owner’s health by being a part of their home and life. A psychiatric service dog is a dog who is trained to assist with psychiatric disabilities through concrete tasks and is highly trained to perform their work in any environment. Q. How long does it take to train a service dog? A. It varies, but generally, it takes 18 to 24 months to fully train a service dog. Many of our dogs that we begin work with at 8 to 12 weeks are able to graduate just before the two year mark, but it truly depends on each handler and dog. For our dogs that are primarily mobility support, graduation times are delayed so that we can confirm growth plate closure, do necessary physical conditioning, and ensure that conformation and body condition are ready for physical tasks. Q. Do you have service dog classes? A. No, we do not. We do group training on occasion with multiple handlers and have frequent gatherings that are social and training practice combined. We firmly believe that service dog training should be focused on the individual and candidate dog as a partnership -- kind of like coaching a competitive dance team. You *could* learn through a ballroom class, but if you are shooting for that big trophy, you and your partner definitely are doing a lot more work together without other teams distracting your trainer. We really want to give you our full attention, and adjust our lesson plans based on your learning style and disabilities so that you have the most success and support. Q. Are you committed to Ruff Translating continuing to grow less ableist and more accessible? A. YES. We fully understand that we only have our own lived experiences and commitment to learning to base our program on. We are constantly looking at ways that we can grow our inclusivity and are open to feedback when we’re not mindful of our own privilege. Our deep commitment to highly trained psychiatric service dogs -- including scent marking for panic attacks -- comes from Ejay’s personal disabilities and the desire to remain consistently accountable to disability inclusivity and health management options for mental health. Q. What are your COVID-19 protocols? A. We take COVID-19 safety extremely seriously. Our protocols change depending on the risk level of our location during a specific time, and we update through emails and social media when we make a change. We seek the advice of public health experts within our community to ensure that we are always doing “best practices” as much as possible. Regardless of our current protocols, the entire facility is sanitized daily, masks are always required for staff and clients, we use a professional laundry service for towels, blankets, etc, and have a professional cleaning company come in three times a week to clean on top of our general routines. We understand that part of being an ally to our community, and particularly to those with disabilities, is holding ourselves to keeping our personal risk low and following the best practices available to reduce risk of transmission. Q. Do you train service dogs for youth? A. We train service dogs for youth on a case-by-case basis. Training a service dog for someone under the age of 19 requires a substantial amount of support. If you are a caregiver interested in discussing whether a service dog would be a good fit for a young person, we recommend setting up a call with Ejay to discuss. It is a more delicate process to find a good fit for a youth placement, and we want to ensure the most success possible, so it is best to discuss this option in person. If you are a young person who is considering a service dog and are under the age of 19, please know that the commitment, financial and otherwise, to raising a service dog is substantial, and we may not be able to assist if other treatment and management options have not been fully explored. Q. Do you have preferred breeds for service work? A. Yes. We gladly consider the needs and preferences of each handler, but based on our experience, there are certain breeds that perform exceptionally well as service dogs. We have good relationships with vetted breeders who assist us in selection of pups based on what we are looking for. The two primary breeds of our program are standard poodles (for mobility, POTS, PTSD, psychiatric SDs, and much more) and border collies (psychiatric service dogs). Herding breeds are a particular specialty of RT, and border collies have several characteristics that make them excellent candidates for psych work in appropriate programs. We offer meet and greets with some of our in-program and graduated dogs to demonstrate why these breeds are our top candidates and are happy to discuss all options. We will not train toy breeds to do service dog work. Q. Do you train “program completed” dogs and pair them fully-trained with handlers? A. This is something we can discuss based on an individual handler’s needs. We prefer in most circumstances for service dog prospects to spend some time at home with their future handlers whenever possible. However, sometimes that isn’t feasible, and we will work with you to find a plan that works. We often offer a hybrid program where puppy boards with the trainers during the week and spends weekends at home for bonding with their handler. Many handlers choose to do this for at least a few weeks during potty training! Q. How do I know if a service dog is right for me as part of my health management? A. Service dogs are incredible tools and support. They can provide so much independence and confidence for folks living with disabilities. But they are also a substantial investment of time and emotional labor, aside from cost. Most handlers we know, no matter which program they come from, are surprised at how hard it is to learn to work with your service dog, even when they are impeccably trained. Partnering with an animal means that we also have to consider that animal’s needs and plan accordingly. Most handlers have a bag full of their dog’s items and “just in case” things that they also have to bring with them. It takes time to fully pair with your service dog, understand when they are offering help, and learn to take that help! When it is meant to be, it can be incredibly powerful, but it is not a management option for everyone. We have found that service dog handlers who have other modes of support as well (medication, community, whatever that looks like for them) do best as handlers. Those folks who are hoping that a service dog will be the primary “treatment” for their health needs will be very disappointed. As powerful as dogs are, they are not a cure for any symptoms or disability. Ejay is always available to schedule a time to talk about what life is like as a service dog handler. It’s one of the benefits of working with someone from a lived experience! Q. How do I get started with a Ruff Translating Service Dog? A. If you have read through this and feel ready to move on, let’s chat! Please set up a call with Ejay using his online call calendar, and we can answer further questions and talk more in depth about your needs. Please note that we are incredibly committed to finding the ideal candidate for each handler's needs, and finding that candidate can take up to one full year when working with responsible breeders before even beginning the training process. Electronic collars (or e-collars) are one of the most maligned tools in dog training, and one of the tools most likely to be referred to as “abusive” by single-quadrant (often referred to as pro-positive) trainers and their advocates. Typically, we see e-collars referred to universally as “shock collars”, for example in the recent banning of specific tools by a major retailer.
When we talk about e-collars we are referring pretty exclusively to the ecollar technologies brand of tools, which are based in a TENS system and have a simple vibrate setting. For clarity, we do not use non-TENS (shock) units, and recommend against bark collars. If I (Ejay) had to give up all of my other training tools, from collars to cookies to leashes to even my beloved crates- I would go to the ends of the earth for my damn e-collar. But, why? Let’s talk about it. First and foremost, RT does not train on a constant pressure pattern. What the hell does that mean? Many trainers use a method popularized by Larry Krohn, in which you hold a low level stimulus down on an e collar until the desired behavior is performed. So for example, I may give my pup a command, and then hold the e-collar on a stim setting until I get that command. I personally am not the biggest fan of this, as someone who works with two primary groups of people- pet owners with several behavioral modification needs, and service dog clients. I understand the methodology and even to a degree why it works so well. However, I don’t think that it is accessible to many owners not incredibly savvy in the nuances of dog training, and honestly what we see often is an increase in obedience compulsion rather than a development of a dog to think and choose the wanted behaviors. Instead, we use a technique that I began developing ten years ago, and have continued to expand upon as our clients and colleagues have grown with us. In short, we pair the sensation of pressure (first and often exclusively on vibrate or stimulation levels under 20) with a verbal correction marker, and command repetition. The process of conditioning a dog on this tool will often time take us weeks, and we refuse to rush. The goal is for the dog to have a fair sensation attached to our verbal correction which increases reliability with the initial request and provides a reasonable interruption. But that is only one aspect of utilizing this valuable communication tool. For example recently Cara began adding a positive reward marker on her e-collar for Jonas, which is a technique that I have also used for deaf and blind dogs who need an additional communication marker. She learned about this not from me, but from her own work with another trainer. In our discussions, she snapped a puzzle piece into place for me around advancing many of our clients use of the tools, and even the way I use the tool for my own dogs versus how I am teaching, specifically our more advanced students. This is to say, nothing is fixed in time or space when it comes to teaching dog training and we are allowed to evolve our methodologies even if the techniques we have developed already seem “sufficient”. The use of e-collars should change substantially as the technology changes. It hasn’t changed as much as it should based on our understanding of dog cognitive processes. When the e collar is maligned by other dog professionals, or even pet owners, it is most often done so in a way that assumes that all usage of the collar is punitive, and pain based. I take no joy in harming dogs and have the constitution of a bowl full of jello if my personal dogs experience so much as too short of a nail. I also have this deep, abiding respect for the emotional and intellectual intelligence of dogs, and understand that a more simplistic method of training that offers only food or the absence of food is undermining the engagement relationship necessary for many dogs to be successful in learning. I do not think that applying low levels of stress to a dog, including physical stress, such as a simple vibrate sensation is abusive by any stretch of the imagination. Why the ecollar is maligned is pretty simple to follow- the technology has changed over time, consumers have had access to cheaply made, more painful tools, with no real instruction. Dog training is often considered a luxury service full of charlatans. It seems so simple- the assumption that people use these tools to cause pain because they are frustrated with dogs and so called “certified” trainers would never do such a thing. The truth is that nothing is ever that simple. Ruff Translating proudly identifies itself as committed too allyship to owners of reactive dogs and to owners self-identifying with a disability. These two (sometimes overlapping) groups represent a very large consumer population for dog training companies. Service dogs, while representing a very thin profit line also cost upwards of twenty thousand dollars for initial training, and likely additional expenses for mantainence training. Reactive dogs, particularly those with bite risk potential may honestly spend close to the same over the lifetime of a dog seeking to work on behavioral modification. The focus of our topic today is a tool, but the economics can’t not be overlooked. It is extremely expensive to train either a reactive dog or a service dog. Even with substantial investment, many of those same owners still find themselves on our doorstep. There are a lot of tools and tech that we offer, but the least of which is not the ecollar that makes our program different. Ultimately, if folks are going to invest in us and our methods, we really want them to be able to execute the same level of response as we do with their dogs. E-collars are adaptive. We can personalize the settings to each individual handler, and dog based on their timing capabilities, the behavior we are seeking to resolve or train and the individual learning style of both parties. Moreover, e-collars are an equalizer, allowing clients with physical limitations the ability to still continuously communicate with their dogs. Here is an example: We are training a service dog in training who has recently discovered that his handler can not chase him. This is very exciting to the eager pup, and has resulted in him basically baiting his handler with some spicy behavior and then avoiding her completely because... he can. This is not malicious on the dog’s part, just part of the training process even though he is overall a very engaged student. Dogs are dogs though, and he is also in a developmental milestone stage that is notoriously sassy (basically a dog teenager). What is the solution here? If my client were fully a member of the Abled community, I would suggest a house leash, guiding the pup away from the unwanted behavior and redirecting to another activity. My suggestion remains the same here- only in this case my client will hit a small button on a transmitter, sending a vibrate sensation to her dog. The e-collar is non-directional, so the sensation is just step one, her pup has been taught that the feeling of vibrate is a pause- and we need to stop and pay attention to our handler. It is not an immediate solution, but it does allow a handler to have her service dog in her home, and reinforce the training we are working on without undue physical burden. Dog training has become ableist in nature. We expect that if someone is to own a dog, they must be able to physically overpower, lure, exercise, understand etc etc. This is not reasonable, I may argue to anyone, but particularly to those of us with some types of disabilities. Folks with disabilities deserve the companionship of a pet dog too, and also deserve service dogs if they need them as part of their treatment plan. If this means that they have access to tools that allow them agency in communication, we as trainers have the responsibility to modify our training programs to teach those tools. Read that again. The above scenario is just one example of a client needing a way to tell her dog “no” with the additional layer of mobility challenges. We could also be talking about clients who have language differences (as in, some folks have periods of being non-verbal due to a variety of health conditions), clients who can’t visually see what/where their dog is up to, clients with sensory processing issues, etc etc etc. There are countless variations of the human condition where getting a hold of your dog (for attention, behavior interruption, etc) would be made much easier by using a push button than basically any other tool in training. Consider reactive dog clients, also. Rescue dogs are incredibly popular options for bringing a pup into your household. Unfortunately, behavior screening, rehabilitation and support are less available then they should be for those who rescue dogs. ALL dogs need training, and we see plenty of non-rescue dogs come to us for behavior modification. But there is a persistent myth of “if you just love them enough” a reactive rescue dog will be cured of their unwanted, sometimes dangerous behaviors. Love and patience only go so far for a dog who is so shut down they can’t walk down a street because of extreme fear, or a dog so reactive they are actively asphyxiating at the end of a leash. You still need both, but also professional help. I firmly believe it is an unrealistic situation for many handlers to learn timing, luring, marking etc while their dog is mid-reaction at peak level. We are still teaching all of those things, we are also just teaching them through a very clear and concise method that allows space in the reactions for the owner to regroup when it is done properly and giving a tool that allows physical control without physical overpowering. This is is about safety, and for many handlers- the ability to take their dogs, whom they love, outside at all- not just about interrupting the unwanted behavior. An e-collar is not going to be our first or primary recommendation in any training case, from reactive to service dog. There are many prerequisites and assessments that my team makes before we move into teaching an e-collar, partly because the method that I have developed requires a certain amount of baseline command response and comprehension. But once we do- I can tell you without hesitation- that it makes an incredible amount of difference. Dogs that we have worked with for over year, who have been unable to function around other dogs or even strangers are able to have play groups, attend social events, and have a 100% reliability with recall. The ability of an owner to be in constant communication and reinforcement with their dog is life changing in terms of consistency. I am tired of arguing about e-collars, about defending their usage, explaining how we do what we do, and why. Mostly because the opposition is inherently rooted in ableism and the tool itself has been unceremoniously laid claim to by trainers from a police background. You do not have to be a hard line, law and order trainer to appreciate the value of an e-collar. But you do have to be ableist to believe that there is never a use for one. Adaptive equipment, such as paging your dog using a safe and effective technology should not be controversial. But it is. And it is high time we start talking really about why rather than hiding behind animal welfare straw houses.  Decompression is the process of relieving stress on your dog. Most of the time when you hear about decompression it is in regard to new rescue or puppy adoptions. There are so many articles and processes meant to guide you on how to reduce stress when you bring a new dog into your house. But what are we actually talking about when we talk about reducing the stress rate on dogs, what actually allows dogs to lower their stress level, and how do we use that in our training to ensure that when we are teaching skills we are also offering appropriate processing and relaxing?
Decompression is not “free time”. Decompression for dogs does not mean that you are letting the dog do whatever it wants- or doing a completely unstructured walk. That is a fundamental misunderstanding of how dogs think, and what it requires to settle anxiety or overstimulation in dogs. Recently, I have seen the resurfacing of a concept that I keep hoping will die, the idea of “dog led decompression” on walks or in other environments. The concept is that dogs need time to “lead” their handlers exploring scents etc. This isn’t a new idea, and may even be useful in certain contexts- but it’s also not decompression. Free time for dogs is fine, but it should always come with ample handler check-ins and boundaries. Why? Because it’s completely unsafe to give your dog free reign. We have a tendency to assume that decompressing for a dog is synonymous with what we may want as some humans- increased freedom. It is unwise to think that a lack of structure will somehow translate to the absolution of unwanted behaviors. At the end of the day, dogs are still animals, and frankly- shit happens. So what is "decompression" when used properly? Decompression is a training tool to increase a dog’s coping skills while also providing appropriate biological release of the pressure that comes with living in the human world. But much like if you were rising from a deep dive, and rose too quickly- you would suffer consequences, you are going to have a nervous or highly excited dog if you remove all structure. For example, if you are teaching a dog to have impulse control around prey animals or small dogs- you may have them hold place while presenting a distraction that mimics a prey animal (think like a squeaker toy) and offer rewards for holding position. At Ruff Translating, we would also correct any mistakes through guiding with a leash. The biggest reward is the release of earning the toy, that is what takes the pressure all the way off the dog. That, versus letting the dog just go ham on a toy with no boundaries- is the difference between teaching decompression, and overstimulating a dog. Controlled play is an excellent method of decompression. Again, we aren't talking just free for all ball chasing or tug (which also has it's place) but play as a release from structure. A huge component of relieving stress on your dog is channeling their natural energy and interest (drive) into a focused activity as a reward for impulse control. Here is a sample exercise you can do as part of a decompression protocol: While practicing going into a crate, and waiting for a release to exit, use your crate door to set a boundary if your dog tries to exit before you have given your release marker. Once your dog is holding position, give your release marker (most of our clients use "break") and guide your dog into a game of food chase, ball chase, or toy chase. Repeat this exercise until your dog has a light pant, then put them into a longer period of crate rest (2-3 hours of nap time). This can be done with dogs of all stages of crate training- because it is not solely about the crate. While of course you are adding value to the crate by playing a game- you are actually getting your dog into the right state of mind to use their crate properly. We crate train not only because we want to prevent damage to our homes or injuries/illness to our dogs, but because we want to teach them how to be still, and relax. Decompression activities can also include puzzles, snuffle mats, high value/long lasting chewing activities, conditioned relaxation massage, conditioned relaxation positions, and working for meals. When should you be thinking about decompression for your dog? Whenever your dog is exhibiting stress behaviors, or you are increasing the challenge of training substantially (either for rehabilitation purposes, or not), or there are big life changes. If a member of our community adopts a dog, we generally recommend focusing exclusively on decompression for 3-4 weeks before starting any time of focused training aside from leash manners and crate training. When we are teaching e-collar, we do a lot of decompression work as the process of learning this tool involves teaching complex markers as well as practicing object permanence. Decompression is useful when you move, add a member to your household, have a new baby... the list goes on. Many trainers and rescues will also talk about a "decompression protocol" which is just putting together exercises and boundaries meant to create a lower stress response and higher coping capability for your dog within a period of time. The key to making this a successful use of your time and energy is structure. Creating easy routines for your dog to anticipate, even if those routines vary in time-frame creates stability and predictability for your pup. This is important because the human world is scary and confusing. If you want your dog to be reliable, you need to be equally as predictable for them. Here is a sample of what a day may look like for a dog needing decompression: Morning: Potty Break, 1/2 breakfast fed in a slow feeder in crate Late Morning: Structured walk 25 minute walk (in heel, no marking), 1/2 breakfast fed for offering "look" outside Post Walk: Any remaining breakfast put into crate, 1-2 hour nap post walk Early Afternoon: Potty Break, Practice place holds for 45 minutes in increasing durations. Periodic place releases into play. Late Afternoon: Structured walk 25-30 minutes Early Evening: Wobble kong, puzzle, snuffle mat (any food game) solved inside of crate, Crate rest for 1-2 hours. Later Evening: Umbilical cord leash practice (for those unfamiliar, speak to a trainer about this) 30-40 minutes. Bedtime Routine: Last potty break, 15 minutes of conditioned relaxation massage, high value long lasting chew in the crate, goodnight pup! Additional Recommended Guidelines for Decompression
This may seem like a highly structured day, and it is- intentionally. One of the major reasons we see increasing or unresolved anxiety is from dogs who are unclear about the expectations before they are given freedom. Dogs tend to show a substantial increase in anxiety when there is a lack of structure. While my dogs do not need to follow this protocol all the time, we revert back into it when we travel to help establish some boundaries, or anytime we see the development of problem behavior. Training is a lifelong relationship, and there are always going to be periods where you need to refresh things to improve behavior, especially when you have a pack. This is a tool in the kit to bring your dog back down to a baseline expectation of behavior. It is the place we build off of to create dogs that are capable and comfortable with both boundaries and their doggie free time. A tip for creating a decompression protocol for your own dog is to consider your dog's natural biology, and work with it. For an easy example- we now know that sniffing lowers the stress rate in dogs by lessening their pulse rate. One could hypothesize (and some do) that this means we should meander and allow a dog to dodge every which way to sniff. This isn't exactly capitalizing fully on this amazing discovery to reach our training goals. I find deep stress relief in cooking a very elaborate meal- but I don't have time to make a 7 course dinner every night. Instead, I make time and space for cooking as a hobby. You can kind of create the same expectation for your dog, while still utilizing this valuable biological trick. You can use a snuffle mat or ball as a higher value reward during your decompression "place" practice. We find that if we include scent-work-like exercises with our dogs we can work with them for a longer period of time with better results. You can also pick a "sniff break" spot on your structured walks. The key is to make it a conversation between you and your pup- just because they like to sniff doesn't mean that is all our walk is for, or that you will never allow them to send that desperate pee-mail they have been drafting- just that the choices are not solely up to them. It is a partnership. If your dog is demonstrating any "back sliding" or resisting training sessions, or just generally overtired from a long ass year- integrate some decompression. Put yourselves on an accountable schedule, and stick to it for 2 weeks. Then slowly start reintroducing privileges. Your dog will thank you, and so will your trainers. Keep those pups cool, calm, collected, and engaged!  Ruff Translating is a balanced dog training company. But outside of the professional jargon, what does that mean? For us, it doesn’t just mean that we use prongs and e-collars.
There are many dog trainers who identify as either “force free” or “pro-positive”, which is meant to indicate that they only use 2 quadrants of the 4 quadrants of learning, as described by operant learning theory. Here are the four quadrants, for those of you new to the world of animal behavior, and/or dog training. Skinner’s basic outline of the four quadrants of operant conditioning: Now, let’s dive down a bit more so that everyone is sure of what we are talking about in specifics. Positive Punishment This term indicates that some kind of aversive is applied with consistency until a behavior stops or is completed. For example- A typical e-collar training technique (not used at Ruff Translating) is to apply a low level stimulus during a command (recall typically) until the animal completes an action.Then, the pressure on the stimulus is released- which allows the animal to be rewarded with the absence of punishment for completing the action. Positive Reinforcement A positive reinforcement is the simplest concept to understand- we add a reward to the desired behavior, ie- a treat or a toy (even praise!) as a reward for completing the desired action. Negative Punishment This is when you remove something of high value in order to curb an unwanted behavior or draw out a desired behavior. For example, you may withhold a treat if a dog who knows an action doesn’t complete it. Withholding food is a negative punishment. Negative Reinforcement This is when you add something to a situation to get a different, more desired learned behavior. For example, leash pressure in response to a lunge at another dog. See also- a verbal correction. There is a widely known and highly public debate of which of the quadrants should be used in training dogs. It has become incredibly divisive and is something that Ruff Translating deals with everyday. Dog trainers who are highly in tune with only negative punishment (removal of food) and positive reinforcement (application of food) are portrayed as the “kinder, gentler” option for puppies, etc. Unfortunately, this narrow scope just isn’t always effective long term, once the food disappears, often so does the taught commands. Most K-9 trainers (police dogs, etc) are as well versed in the four quadrants, but tend to lean (this is a big generalization) towards negative reinforcement as well as positive punishment. Again, this is sweeping, and my attempt at trying to give context to where Ruff Translating finds our footing. Operant Conditioning is useful in understanding how to apply specific tools or actions based on creating an environment where we can better communicate with our dogs. But unlike a simple chart, there are no hard lines when it comes to understanding how these things play out in the course of training a dog. Things can get muddled very, very quickly. When I work with a dog, one of the first behavior assessments that I tend to make is the response to human voice as well as simple body language. I often work with dogs who are incredibly shut down. Many of these dogs are rescues who have been shipped, shuffled from place to place, and though likely not experiencing direct violence in previous homes, not exactly familiar with how to be successful in a human home environment. Usually in these assessments I will be met with a highly vocal, defensive animal, snapping, and lunging in my general direction. Often, I will be met with a shuddering, growling, eye dodging, scared little dog gremlin incapable of making friends. My initial response is always the same- pass me the leash. Generally, if given enough time and space to work, I can slowly use the leash to settle a dog. Maybe not to the point of being friendly, or engaged, but calm enough for me to have a conversation with the owners and start unpacking a training plan. If I was to offer 9.5 of 10 dogs food in this state, I would escalate their behavior. Or, they will come take the food as a reward, and then go back to their gremlin like state. Instead, I use gentle leash pressure, very firm, unyielding body language, slow breathing, and engagement to settle dogs. It’s a quick dance of moving them towards me, and away from me, and setting boundaries using simple dog body language roughly translated into human actions. I do not immediately throw them on a tool like a prong. I also do not feed them immediately. But where would this fall under the operant conditioning chart? More or less, everywhere. I apply short bursts of pressure to a leash to keep the dog close to me, but not able to over engage with me or the environment, which would be negative reinforcement. At the same time, I get the dog moving in multiple directions, trying to get them to follow my actions and engage, which could easily be positive punishment as I move the dogs around with constant short busts of leash pressure. I reinforce calmness, or enthusiasm with only verbal praise, depending on how well a dog responds to my actions, which would positive reinforcement. The entire action is generally done without the use of negative punishment, unless the clients who own the dog are a high value reward, which can be the case. Leaving out one aspect of this routine would never produce nearly the same amount of results. They have to work in conjunction. It’s not a clear cut category, actions overlap. The further that you dive into learning theory, the more muddled it becomes, and that's not a bad thing. More over to an extensive degree, focusing just on the types of methods used (some methods SHOULD be off limits- looking at you, Jeff Gellman) really limits the agency of the dog in question. All of the recent scientific data shows that dogs are actually deeply emotional, and incredibly keen at discerning human intent, health, and even mood. They plan actions, they have memories. When we reduce complicated relationship building to simply understanding an operant conditioning chart, we are underestimating our dogs to an incredible degree. One of the reasons we don’t use front clip harnesses for leash training is that I believe the restriction of movement without the benefit of clear communication, is a form of constant positive punishment. Constantly restricting the movement of your dog, by physically overpowering them and controlling their shoulder movements, is not a gentler method of training. Nor is it likely to produce an actual understanding of walking on a leash. But if we think of it solely in human terms- it LOOKS like positive reinforcement more than a prong collar does. It is only until we unpack the physical action, that we see the actual effects. Dog training has been in many ways, reduced to simply teaching a few key words, and feeding them as a reward for those positions- or forcing them into those positions for an undetermined amount of time. Sometimes a combination of those things. Why on earth would this be the place that we start? I understand why we may have started in this place, just wanting to communicate some basics. But this is not where Ruff Translating feels the focus of dog training should start, now that we have a more collective broader understanding of dog cognition and processing, nor is it actually historically how dogs and humans have collaborated. Instead, we need to be focusing on teaching our clients how to read dogs. Firstly, those teaching better be pretty good at reading dog body language. I’ve spent years, and countless hours, reading, studying and practicing understanding dog body language. We are going to get parts of it wrong- “dog” isn’t our first language but we should be making every attempt not to anthropomorphize but to instead really understand what’s going on. Dogs do not think or process the way we do. The structure of their brain defines evidence of this. But they are still highly emotional, and intelligent creatures. We often limit them by impressing our own feelings or assumptions on them. If a dog appears frightened, many people assume that fear is permanent (she’s always been skittish), rather than looking at ways that you can teach confidence rather than directly challenging a dog with their highest fear. We need to be teaching our clients how to form a different, stronger bond, with their dog first and foremost, so they can then fully understand how to train. Then we need to be teaching how to give your dog the skills to work through challenges, not just commands. Establishing a working bond takes time. When someone walks into Ruff Translating, they are often super nervous, (just like their dog), and scared that because they have sought help from a balanced trainer, they are going to be met with hard lines, and forceful punishment. Unfortunately, aside from the use of operant conditioning, K-9 training also reproduces many of the same issues in a training environment as exist in the institutions where it was created, because it is reproducing that inherently biased system for pet dogs. Thus, often it is not a conducive environment for queers, BIPOC, non-veterans with PTSD, other folks with disabilities, and other civilians to connect with their dogs outside of a command/response frame work. Those fears of violence or aggression are not realized when we apply balanced training, but we are capable of setting an appropriate boundary through the technical definition “punishment” if the case before us requires it. We bring out a wide variety of tools when there is a communication stutter- as an extension of allowing communication to move more freely. For example, we use prong collars because many dogs can’t feel pressure or understand what it means without those rounded, safely applied, mama-dog-mimicking little points of contact. Many of our handlers have substantial mobility issues, and can’t provide direction to their dogs without tools. We do not hold pressure on a prong to cause pain. We do not pop hard and mean. We don’t even sell prongs without a lesson on how to use them fairly, kindly, and to help your dog. It’s very similar to finding the right bit (the piece of a bridle that settles in a horse's mouth) for the right horse- tool selection can even change with each training situation you are in, to better affect what you are asking your dog to do. When I am trick training- it’s all lures and treats. When I am training for public access- and the stakes are very high for a service dog- I am not taking the food route, this requires a direct line of communication and a hair’s width of precision. I would like a bluetooth to my dog’s brain, which is leash pressure and body movement as well as engagement and verbal praise. The very first thing we do at Ruff Translating is teach foundational eye contact. We now know that there is a bonding hormonal exchange through direct eye contact. That hormone (oxytocin)acts as a familial love potion, literally. You can tell so much by the way a dog engages or doesn’t with eye contact. That combined with head position, tail position, tension, movement, and micro-expressions gives our trainers a place to start. And the place to start is to get your dog to hone in on your goals, your shared goals, and your boundaries as a handler. We can’t do anything until we build the relationship. Sometimes this happens quickly, other times it can take months. It is always worth doing, and there are a myriad of training exercises to help it along. But the point is that we aren’t starting from a place of punishment, correction, or even command response with food reward. We are starting from the place of relationship counseling. Just because your dog adores you, and is friendly, does not mean that they understand or trust your communication. Often friendly dogs are just a result of genetics, life experience and general temperament. A goofy, friendly, household pet is not necessarily trained in the slightest. Ask yourself some questions about your dog... Does your dog look to you over most distractions? Does your dog respond when you look in their direction without verbals? Can you get a tail wag with a smile their way? Can you communicate a “no” with a glance and body language and get results? Can they predict your actions based on how you move, and anticipate activities other than a walk or feeding time? Are they unsettled? Do they pace? Startle easily? Do they eat well? Do they have injuries? Is there pain that is limiting mobility and influencing behavior? This is where we focus our training. The connection and understanding, and when we do the rest comes along much further. There is no secret sauce in dog training, there is no magic. There is commitment, hard work, and a keen sense of observation. There is time and patience. There is persistence. You can take your dog to a group class and have it perform beautifully, including in dog sports, basic commands, competitions- you name it- but there is so much more out there. There is an ability to have the closeness you can see with a well tuned service dog handler and their dog, military dogs paired with a combat handler, and those experiencing homelessness with a pet. The connection is the actual magic. When you spend the time to learn how to communicate with your dog, and better read their communication, not only do problem behaviors improve but general stability, and frankly- tolerance for each other’s blind spots. The bond overrides the annoyances and allows you to work through them, or set a boundary that works for you both. This may sound humanizing, but it is not. It is very different to understand that a dog has desires and feelings then to believe those mimic ours. They are different, a dog’s sense of self is tied to a much different emotional understanding since they have evolved to engage with us as a method of survival. If you want to work with trainers who are deeply committed to building a bond with your dog, that’s where we fall. If you want to learn how to build that bond with your dog, we are here for you. If you want to be sure that your communication is clear, we are constantly working to clarify those lines the best way we can- through tools, through food, through verbal clarity- through engagement like eye contact. That’s what balanced training is to us. It is understanding that working with any animal is not just about getting results or about whose method’s work better- it is about taking the time to start from a place of comprehension, however shoddy, and then work towards making it clearer. That is training at Ruff Translating. We are not former soldiers or police officers. We are not hard line trainers. We do not use constant pressure e-collar stimulation and we are not rough handlers. But we are direct and we do think your dogs can do better, with your help. That help needs to be balanced and respectful of the very highly intelligent species we work with. I do not believe based on our scientific research of dog cognition that dogs are cookie eating machines. It is simplistic to believe that a dog can be given a high value food offer or removal and they will do anything you want. They will work for food and you can use it to reinforce- but if that is your only tool, you will be quickly limited and carrying a cookie bag for the rest of your life. That cookie bag may or may not be effective given the environmental distractions. There has to be more. And there is. We just have to take the time to learn it. “Are you force-free?” The caller on the end of the phone asks. “We are balanced.” I reply and everything is lost in translation. Somehow, years of connecting with dogs, years of study, courses, apprenticeships, field work are reduced to this simple interaction. I can feel the caller’s hackles go up. The internet struck again. I can feel visions of me blowing guns off to teach dogs not to be scared of loud sounds with no warning, prong collars with pointed ends, this is what’s summoned in reference to “balanced”... who wouldn’t be turned off? Instead we have visions of polo shirts with logos and treat bags, with dogs jumping all over each other and called “play” on the other end. Both extremes will harm dogs and why folks are confused. We are force-free, honestly. But we aren’t pressure free. We believe dogs are capable of experiencing an appropriate amount of pressure (not necessarily physical, it can be verbal encouragement) to work through their fears or reactivity and then be handsomely rewarded. But that’s not what the caller is asking. They are asking me to define a life’s work to a category, and the category they hear doesn’t even describe close to what we do here. I go on to explain more of how we work, and hope for the best. Based on our success, I know we are what folks are looking for. I am not sad to hang up the phone for lost business, fortunately, our results speak for themselves. But when I hang up the phone I am profoundly sad because in limiting our conversation to tools, we aren’t having the conversation we need to have. “Are you committed to changing the way my dog and I interact, and helping me learn how to do that safely, fairly, and with some fun?” Yes, yes we are. If you are too, we can help. |
AuthorEjay Eisen Archives
December 2022
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