How Do We Train Our Puppies?
We Make Training Fun For Our Dogs
Puppy Training
What happens in the first two months
This is the most critical month of puppy training. Immediately schedule a wellness exam with your veterinarian, and get the first or second round (sometimes breeders/shelters have already given the first round) of vaccinations for your 8-week or older puppy.
What happens in the second stage of a puppy’s training?
Next are the foundation skills. Learning how to learn is the key during this period. This can start around 12 weeks if humane methods are used. Behaviors like nose target, paw target, wait, leave it, and eye contact form the basis of other behaviors later on (including service tasks). It also includes teaching concepts such as moving with the handler, being able to work at a distance from the handler, adding cues to behaviors and learning how to generalize behaviors to other locations.
What happens during a puppy’s third stage of training?
Next comes teaching the dog service tasks. These rely on previously taught foundation skills and the creativity of the handler or trainer. These are behaviors that specifically mitigate the medical needs of the handler. In relation to other behaviors, these are typically easy to teach and quick for the dog to learn. Since the dog already knows how to generalize and has been working on distraction training, this is when they are introduced.
What happens in the final stage of a hearing dog puppy’s training?
Public access is a stage where the dog is learning how to function as part of a team and looking out for the needs of the hander. General behaviors should be trained to a high level as should the needed tasks before starting public access training is started. Here is a blog post on how to know when your dog is ready for that.
How a deaf person and a hearing dog become a partnership
Dogs have an incredible sense of hearing. They can use this keen sense of hearing to listen out for things that a human with a reduced ability to hear would not be able to hear. More than their ability to hear well, dogs are also invaluable as service animals thanks to their intelligence and highly trainable nature.
We offer ongoing support to all our hearing dog partnerships
Our involvement with a hearing dog partnership never ends. We will always be on hand to help, support and advise the partnership throughout the dog’s working life. Depending on the hearing dog partnership, our team may visit the deaf person and their hearing dog in their own home, or at regular community-based sessions.
