Hi everyone! I missed writing about service dogs, and today my service dog prospect puppy demonstrated that she has successfully learned appropriate vocalization for her future occupation! I thought I’d write up my methods to celebrate.
My prospect puppy is a Pomeranian. Poms, like all spitz breeds, love to talk. But I have chronic migraines and an aversion to many sounds. Plus, it is only appropriate for service dogs to vocalize in public if it’s directly related to a task (like a yip for seizure alert). So the very first thing I did when I brought Iris home was to teach her when it’s OK for her to bark, and how to escalate the volume and intensity of her vocalizing. None of this happened immediately, it took almost three months of consistent efforts.
Continued after the cut.
Teaching appropriate vocalization to service dogs
Published
ForLoveFromFear 