Ok, for five seconds, I want you to forget that you’ve ever
seen or learned anything about our service dogs. You’ve never heard of Viking Pups
before, you’ve never heard of a service dog, got it?
Ok.
Meet Oden.
Meet Zorn.
This lummox is Bobo (resting on Zorn, because his big old head is just too heavy).
And this pretty lady is Cami.
These are our service dogs in training.
Cute, right?
Yes, we
know they are cute. Yes, we know they are fluffy. Yes, we know you may have a dog
at home of whom they remind you. YES, WE KNOW THEY ARE A DOG.*
Do you know
what else we know?
How to
train a service dog.
A Service
Dog is a legally recognized piece of medical equipment. Yes, that’s right,
legally. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, (or the ADA), Service
animals are defined as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform
tasks for people with disabilities. The dogs may be cute and you may see them
doing something that looks like goofing off, but we promise you, the dogs are learning how
to do an important job.
There are several reasons the dogs absolutely cannot be petted while they
are working.
1.) They are working. Who honestly wants people
running up and touching them everywhere when they’re trying to focus, human or
dog? It’s frustrating for both the service dog and the handler to try to train
the dog if there are constant distractions coming at the dog, which can lead to
a flustered handler and an upset dog. Distractions set back training worse than
just about anything else, and our goal is to get these dogs ready for their
future person as efficiently and as best we can- distractions make our (and
more importantly, the dogs’) jobs harder.
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2.) The dog needs to learn to focus on the person
on the end of the leash, and that person only. Our dogs are socialized well
from a young age, particularly those dogs we’ve had from puppies. I cannot
emphasize this enough: these dogs do not
need more socialization- they need a more focused attention span. These
dogs need to be incredibly in tune with their handler. They need to be paying
attention to them and them alone. When the dog is paired up with their person,
they are going to need all their focus on that person to do their job efficiently-
if a dog is paired with someone in a wheelchair or a smaller person who can
easily break bones, the dog absolutely
cannot seek out attention. The ease in which a stocky lab like Bobo could
pull a little kid or a person who happens to be wheelchair-bound out into a
busy street, or off a steep incline, is a serious concern we have to address.
The dog cannot run off at the slightest indication of interest in giving them
attention. They have to be paying
attention to the person holding the leash, not anybody else.
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| Imagine if a giant like this guy took off with his handler! |
3.) You
cannot expect a dog to know the difference between training and their real job. These guys are hella smart, we agree with
you there, but they are still dogs. A dog will not be able to understand
the difference between their handler and their eventual person- they will not
understand the consequences of misbehaving if they do so with their client, and
so while they are training we have to act
like they are on the job. The dogs are learning how to behave, and these
rules need to be in place the entire time they are training or they will not
follow them while they are actually on the job. We cannot make exceptions
during training, because you cannot explain to a dog that this is an exception.
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| They make people's lives so much better. |
4.) Unless you are a handler, odds are you do not
know what the dog is training for or how to train the dog. Our dogs are trained in a very specific way under a set of
strict guidelines that are there for a reason. The handlers for Viking Pups spend months and countless hours learning the rules for these dogs, as well as getting to know the dog’s
personalities and the client they’re being lined up
for. Oden and Bobo needed to be treated differently for so many reasons. Not only are they being trained for two entirely different kinds of clients, they’re two entirely separate personalities and they’re at two different stages of
training- these are not things that
members of the public know or understand. It takes time and effort and understanding; these dogs are special
and are being trained for a very unique and important purpose and it’s
important to know that they are being trained by qualified handlers.
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| They lessen feelings of isolation and give love when people most need it. |
Now, our Viking Pups is
a club run on Augustana College’s campus. The dogs live in a student’s home, go
to class with us, and train in our school’s buildings. Many students assume that the dogs aren’t working,
because they see the dogs sleeping in class, or hanging out with their handler, or
practicing their tasks. But
when a handler says that the dog is working, we mean it. The dogs are sleeping in class because they might get
paired up with a younger person who will take them to school; if the dogs are
awake and antsy and alert for whole class periods, that’s going to be
counter-productive to the learning of their future person as well as the
classroom they’ll attend.
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| Little kids are distracted enough, they don't need a hyper puppy in the classroom. |
The hanging out with a handler is a
particularly resented topic at the school. I want you to go back and reread the
Number 2 reason for the dogs not being petted while working. Now, corrections only go so far to keep the attention on
the handler. The dog needs to learn that they will get love and affection and
praise from the person at the end of the leash, as well as punishment when they
do something wrong. The dog needs to want
to work for the person they’re attached to; they need to learn that working is a positive, rather than just a way to avoid the negative.
What may seem like cuddling, is actually deep pressure therapy. Deep pressure therapy can also be an important
part of a dog’s training. There are very few things in the world that can calm
a person down or lift someone’s spirits like a good session of deep pressure therapy with a dog.
Soldiers with PTSD, people with anxiety disorders or disabilities that affect their social awareness, and even people who’ve gone through significant trauma such as a child who has been abused, can all be calmed and helped by a small
gesture of love from a dog. The young lady Bobo is being paired with, for
instance, has a significant anxiety problem as a part of her disability. Bobo's deep pressure therapy is a hug. So when you see him hugging us, it is to properly teach Bobo to hug her. Neither Zorn nor Oden were
particular cuddlebugs when we first got them as puppies- it takes time and
effort to teach a dog to like certain deep pressure therapy commands, and though we do enjoy the commands like hug,
it’s also something the dogs need to learn to do their jobs better.
Our
handlers follow the rules of the club
because that is what’s best for the dog’s training. We often get angry comments or lectures if we turn down someone who asks to pet the dog. Please remember, we are not turning you down because we want to, we
are not turning you down to hoard the puppy love for ourselves. We are turning
you down because we understand the consequences breaking the rules can have on
our dogs, and on the people they will be placed with.
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Trust me when I say our handlers hate seeing you look sadly at the dogs
we are with. We all love dogs, and most of us have dogs at home that we miss
very much. We understand you miss your dogs, but there is an important thing to
remember- these dogs aren’t your dogs, and they aren’t anything like a pet. These
dogs are learning how to give a person with disabilities a life they could
never live on their own. That’s more important than you being able to pet the
puppy.
The dogs are on campus for one
reason- to learn how to help the people who really need them. Not for any other
purpose. Do not confuse these dogs with pets- they are legally recognized
medical equipment. You wouldn’t ask to play with someone’s wheelchair, or pet
his or her white cane. Treat these service dogs with the same respect you show
to that equipment, and respect the fact that the handlers are there to help
people, not to entertain.
The handlers of this club are proud
of what they do. We make a difference in people’s lives, and we want to keep doing it. These dogs are
learning a great deal from the handlers, and they are all making a difference. Our dogs are incredible at what they do; respect
that they are doing their job to the best of their abilities, and while your
intentions may be good, you might be making the dog’s job more difficult for
them and for the handler. Sometimes the dog’s person needs them very badly, and
we don’t want to keep them apart any longer than they need to be. Help us help
the dogs help their people- it’s an important job, and we can’t do it without
support and understanding from the community around us.
*Seriously, the most common reaction to ‘No, you can’t pet
him, he’s working’ is ‘But he’s a dog?!’
Quick Fixes:
Our dogs went on a photo shoot and we just got our pictures, here they are! They are drop dead gorgeous, thank you Lisa!
Miss Camicakes has come so far! She's still a stubborn lil girl, but we're working hard, and so is she! Some younger kids came up for the school's siblings weekend, and you could tell the little kids who came to watch their big brothers and sisters at training just fell in love with pretty Miss Cami.
Bobo is doing fantastic working on his bracing and his heel! His heels are improving incredibly fast, and he's working so well with his girl Juls that all of Team Bobo is proud. Go Bo!
Bo also has officially been ordered his bracing harness, the best one on the market. His team is super excited to see this studmuffin working his new gear soon!
Oden is mastering tug faster than anyone would have thought! He's putting himself to work tugging for his handlers- he even tugged a stubborn cart with two people riding on it What a pro!
Little Zorn man is getting to be a total pro at push, which he'll use to hit push plates that will open accessible doors! He's also working on taking objects off the floor and giving them to his handlers- I swear going to class makes them smarter than us!
A special thanks to:
QCCAN
The Quad Cities Canine Assistant Network is the non-profit organization that makes our program possible. As sister organizations QCCAN is an integral part of the Viking Pups mission, helping us with training, putting us in contact with clients, and most importantly, training service dogs and reaching more people who need the dogs to live better lives.
Thanks for taking all of your beautiful pictures, Lisa! They're amazing, and you show off our pups so much better than our grainy phone pictures! You're incredibly talented and deserve every bit of business you get!
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