Great timing on this new video today.
First, it’s funny (and I can definitely use a laugh with all the serious stuff I’ve been writing about here lately), and, second, it gives you a real behind-the-scenes look at just what it takes to train service and hearing dogs to perform actual tasks for people with physical issues who really need them (as opposed to all the “feelgood dogs” I see stories about daily – sorry, said I wasn’t gonna get serious).
Rob and Joss from radio station KFGY in Santa Rosa, California do “we come do your job” stories, and, as part of that, went to the Canine Companions for Independence National Headquarters and Northwest Regional Center that are co-located there. Lotta familiar faces and places in this video that bring back great memories for me and likely anyone else who’s been to the Santa Rosa campus:
Lots I could say, but here’s the one key concept I want you to take away from this one.
Amidst all the humor, note how big a factor the human end of the leash is. A common comment from CCI graduates after attending the two-week Team Training at one of the regional centers is something like “We learned very quickly that the dogs were not gonna be the problem – we were. The dogs were very well trained – the trainers had to train US to be able to be smart enough to work with them.” One of those “I’m joking, but really I’m not” things.
That’s something that gets lost in the discussion about service dogs – most people naturally think about the dog taking care of the human, especially if it’s someone with severe physical issues, but they don’t think about the human taking care of the dog. And that’s a HUGE part of the equation, something you need to be thinking about whenever you see service dogs talked about as a possible solution, both for a group of people and on an individual level as well. The top organizations know that, and it’s a key part of evaluating whether someone is a good candidate for a dog.
And that also means that a key piece is having trainers who not only are training masters when it comes to the dogs, they also have to deal with a wide range of people with varying physical abilities and personalities, with some associated emotional stuff going on in some cases as well, and they have to be able to effectively train them to work as a team with the dogs. That’s something that even those of us closely associated with CCI forget about a lotta times, and why I have such a tremendous respect for those trainers.
Again, a great video.
I'm very active with Canine Companions for Independence as a volunteer, to include being a past member of the Veterans Task Force and puppy raiser. Retired US Air Force Chief Master Sergeant with my last assignments at the Air Force Academy as the Fourth Group Sergeant Major and Dean of Faculty Superintendent.
Jul 30, 2010 @ 12:57:33
Spot on, Al!!! As you can easily see in the video, the dogs are trained to do the tasks and do them quite well. However, a dog will only perform this work when there is a leader (read: human) in the equation whom the dog can both respect and trust. Dogs are naturally followers and individual dogs do things in a pack that benefit the pack, which includes itself. That’s why we call it a service or hearing dog team, it’s a pack consisting of the human and canine. The human provides leadership the dog can follow and provides for its physical needs, the dog is then very happy and willing to perform tasks that benefit the human and therefore its pack. It’s a two-way mutually beneficial relationship.
The trainers in those short days take people and train them how to provide leadership for the dog that it will naturally follow. This is how the team is built and how the dog transitions so easily to its new “forever person”. Having been through this experience personally and continuing to live it on a daily basis, I can see quite easily why the dog will not open the fridge for Rob and Joss. What you don’t see on camera is the all-important five or ten minutes of instruction from Chuck on what Rob was doing wrong before he tried again.
Thanks for pointing out that it’s the trainers working with the end of the leash that doesn’t have the collar clip that is equally important to the teaching of “tricks” to the four-footed critters.