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Training Black

Long time no write

I see it has been a while since I have written about Black. He still amazes me with how good he is. I have never trained a dog or animal that learns so easily and quickly. He has taken to service work like a fish takes to water. We had a little set back with Black having trouble with his ears. He has ear infections that affected his work for a while. He is now healing and back to work 100% .
Black has one of his tasks down where he apply's deep pressure on son when he is upset. Black does not love this task but he is good about doing it for son. He obeyed son the other day without my support. I was so pleased with both of them. Son for knowing what he needed and what to do and Black for obeying him without my command. I found a trainer who is going to help me train Black. I am excited to find someone close who can help me with heeling. Black does great heeling in stores and crowds but on the sidewalk I have to deep reminding him to heel. She also sayed his other tasks will be easy to train. I had Black on a down stay when I met her and she had her dog on a down stay near by. I was very proud of how good Black did. I will start up with her in January.
Well christmas is coming and all the kids are getting excited. I think we will viset petco and get Black, Daisy and Jessied some presents.
I wish you all a merry christmas and a happy new year.

Access Training

Black has been doing real well on his training. On Monday I took him to Wal-mart for some practice and my daughter needed some things. I walked on Black's right side with a training chain on and a loose lead. My son was on Blacks left with a short lead on a flat coller. I was impressed with how well Black did. He acted like it was no big deal. He tried to sniff some material that was near him but I told him no and moved myself to leasen the temptation. He did so well that We went yesterday to Goodwill and toys r us. He was doing wonderful. No access problems and peaple were nice and friendly. we had a few kids and a adult come ask if they could pet him. Since he is being trained as a Autism assist I directed the questions to my son who did wonderful answering their questions. Employees at the stores try and not notice we are there especially wal-mart which I think is funny to see them turn their eyes away quickly. After our shopping we went to IN n out burger but ate outside as I am not sure if he is ready for that yet. We did drop some french fries near him. He tried to go for the first one but I made a noise to remind him to ignore it. After that he did great. He had a hard time staying down but I think the cement was bothering him. I will make him a settle mat this week and see if that helps. After we ate we went back to the car and gave him some water and son gave him his leftover hamburger for a treat. We went to Petco at the end and I took his vest off and let him pick out a toy. He got a squeeky chicken and a plush squeeky bone. I purchased a Gentle leader so that son could later learn to walk Black without being pulled. I also bought a clicker to start clicker training him for future tasks. Black is really impressing me with how well he has taken to being a Service Dog In Training. I feel that we are lucky to have such a wonderful dog in the family.

July 4

Hope everyone has a safe 4th of July. Black is doing very well in his training. We might start a service dog class next week if we can work out some payment and Black is accepted. Black is doing great on his sitting, heeling and down stays. His recall is good. When called he comes but is slow and meanders if he feels he is going to be put in the backyard. I have been working with Black on going up and down stairs slowly and to keep pace with me. He will sit on a stair if I ask which is pretty funny to see. Training has been going slower this week since I am working with my daughter dog also for 2 weeks. Black loves it having my daughters dog Chiodos visiting they run and play which is funny to see since Black is big and Chiodos is small. Having Chiodos around has been good for Black as he was a little rough with my younger kids when off leash. Chiodos is making it where he plays more gently. I have been having training moments with all three dogs taking turns doing a task. It seems to me that they learn from each other and they seem to compete on how quick they obey. Well off for now.