Zoey Service Dog - Extraordinaire

04/29/2024

100% THIS!

03/31/2024

Service dogs are able to accompany their handlers in almost all public spaces (exceptions include sterile environments and burn units). Here is Service Dog Zoey at an appointment with her handler. On the left she is in the waiting room ignoring the other people in the room. You will also see her in a down stay on her mat, during the appointment, even though Zoey isn’t staring at her handler she still knows when to alert, if needed. At the end of the appointment during check out, Zoey continues to be quite attentive to her handler to make sure she isn’t needed for a task. Service Dogs need to be able stay focused, but also know when to settle nicely next to (or under) a chair or exam table.

03/31/2024

Zoey, doing her DPT job.

Here is Service Dog Zoey doing the DPT task after their handler was having a really rough day. DPT is short for Deep Pressure Therapy.

This task involves her laying across her handler's legs to help ground them and to help minimize the effects of a panic attack. By doing this she also decreases my sensory overload and will “kiss” them when they're crying to help them re-group.

Panic attacks are very real, and a lot of people experience them to some degree or another.
If you need help training your Service Dog please reach out to us!

02/03/2024

09/07/2023

We had a great time at Zoey’s powder shoot photo session! Thank you Savannah Rae Photography L.L.C!!

08/24/2023

I absolutely love beautiful Zoey!! And I think Pink is her color!

06/17/2023

Zoey did very well at all the busy travel plazas, even had to squeeze her into a small bathroom stall since the handicap ones were occupied. She did some body blocking which needs a little work, but she watched my back, had eyes on me while a little boy continued to stomp at her. She did very well and I’m incredibly proud of her.

03/25/2023

Zoey is finally tired after her outing today. We shopped at Harbor Freight, Advance Auto Parts, and Home Depot. No videos cause I’m not good at taking videos of myself and Zoey. Lol. She did really well today.

03/23/2023

Never stop teaching! Repetitions help, but not to many because it can become frustrating for the dog. Here we are reminding her of her “leave it” cue. I was even able to put one on her paw, earlier in the training session.

03/07/2023

Zoey's looking great in her new harness set up!
She is also on instagram as Zoey_SD_Extraordinaire

02/21/2023

💜💙💚💛🧡❤️

As a force free dog trainer, I've been called it all.

"Cookie pusher."
"Purely positive" (PS. there's no such thing.)
"Passive."
"Push over."
"Soft."

One of the most common misconceptions about force free dog training is that all we do is throw cookies at the problem. Puppy is peeing in the house? Use cookies. Dog is biting guests when they stand up? Must need more cookies.

While it's true, I use a lot of cookies in my training, force free dog training is about so much more.

Force free training is about learning how to listen to dogs.
It's about learning a language, and then using it to communicate with each other.
It's about building bonds built on trust and respect, instead of fear and obedience.
It's about giving choices, and respecting those choices.
It's about showing a dog that they can be safe.
It's about teaching another sentient being in a way that they are best able to learn - and this way will absolutely not different from learner to learner.
It's about compassion.
It's about science and all of the laws that govern behavior analysis and change.

And yah, there's some cookies too.

02/21/2023

Todays outing.

02/08/2023

Oh Zoey. Such a good girl at Ace Hardware today. 💓