A Dog Called Fish

11/10/2021

The foundation pieces of my medication reminder task are coming along nicely. I posted the beginning of retrieving my medication bag awhile back. Now here's Fish with his duration paw target to my leg. It's fine for my purposes if he throws in a chin rest so I don't fuss with him over it. Also it's just kinda cute. I'll let my retired service dog, Phoenix show you why you want duration on the paw target this week. Learned that lesson the hard way.

10/10/2021

Been wondering about Fish? Here's your update.

I know, I know, for a blog named, “A Dog Called Fish” there haven’t been many posts about him. So let’s change that! Fisher Plays in the Yard. Fisher is now a little over 2 …

14/08/2021

Fish is loving his new pool.

14/08/2021

Things have been quiet due to my health and getting my business Wise Mind Canine up and running. If you're following the page for more general dog training information you'll find more of that on my business page.

I'm debating moving his blog permanently to a sub area on my business website to spare you all the ads and hope to be updating more soon.

Here's a sleepy, happy, Fish after a day of fun filled training sessions for tax. Whether we achieve our goals and become a full service dog team or simply do tasks at home, this boy will always be very loved.

26/06/2021

Fish is working on his settle outdoors. A critical skill for any service dog.

04/05/2021

Just for fun, here's Fish working on his retrieve this evening. We will work on this behavior chain and all of the separate pieces of my medication reminder task to fluency before backchaining EVERYTHING into one long behavior chain.

30/04/2021

Fisher is well on his way to being a quiet dog while training and working. I'd say his vocalizations are down 95% with a few weeks of work. Shout out to Leslie McDevitt's training techniques. Today I got to teach a new behavior with confidence that noise wouldn't be built into the process. Fish is currently learning a retrieve which is a core component of his future medication reminder task.

We're also learning canicross with Pawsitive Futures for a fun bonding activity. I can definitely see some applications in service work for the dog powered sports training skills. It's always nice when the sport skills we learn for fun can help in our journey to becoming a successful service dog team. Plus he looks spiffy in yellow. :)

09/04/2021

Things have been quiet here as we rode out these trying times. Fish is now very successful at his Deep Pressure Task. He's also learning to lean into my legs on cue.

Currently I am working on a behavior of his that would make PA difficult and I might document some of that for you all. He has a lot to say about life, and he's learning to breathe instead. It's not barking typically but rather general shepherd conversational talking. Noise is a common reason for a dog to be washed out as a service dog so we will see how this work turns out.

If all goes well we will get to pick up where we left off over a year ago and resume working toward public access training. If not I might continue to wait for more maturity or decide that he is meant perform tasks at home only. Either way, we will enjoy each other.

08/10/2020

Fish had a great practice outing at Cabela's today.

08/09/2020

Resting up after a trip to the forest preserve. Lots of distractions for this teenager. He saw his first deer and learned how about walking near bikes and runners. His favorite thing to watch was an area with a bunch of chipmunks running through the leaves.

04/09/2020

Fish got to work on his loose leash walking with a shopping cart. Starting outdoors, without a vest, makes errors no big deal. He was awesome, no concern about the cart whatsoever.

16/07/2020

Fisher and I did some work outdoors today. COVID-19 has altered our training plans to a slower timeline so there hasn't been much to post. Public access work takes a great deal of well, being in public, which will be a bit difficult for the foreseeable future.