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Dogs in training to be Assistance Dogs have a lot to learn. And they love every minute of it!
When the puppies are between 12 and 15 months of age, they live with an ASDOG trainer.
When in formal training, their basic manners and retrieving skills, as taught by their puppy raiser, are more finely tuned. They learn how to ignore dogs and other distractions when out working.
They learn the many tasks that enable them to help and provide independence for the person
they will be living and working with and they learn to work with wheelchairs and crutches.
Work is balanced with free running and exploring time and training is done in short periods with breaks to prevent stress building up.
All training is done using marker sounds followed by rewards for steps in the right direction. Rewards can be small food pieces, play or massages – anything the dog likes at the time.
No wonder they eagerly anticipate their training sessions.
When they are calm in these situations, the dogs are introduced to shopping centres, lifts and restaurants. In places such as these, the dogs learn to lie quietly out of the way until needed.
When the dogs are trained and calm in busy situations, public travel is introduced.
At first this just means waiting out of the way on the station platform and watching the trains come and go and people pass. The first train rides are one station only to familiarise the dog with these new surroundings.
As some members of the public can be extremely unpredictable, trainers ensure they place themselves between the dogs and members of the public as much as is possible. The dogs are taught to lie down out of the way, preferably facing away from the public. This prevents them being tripped over, stared at or hopefully even being noticed. Recipients are taught this and they also
learn to remove themselves politely if they are receiving prolonged, unwanted attention from
a member of the public.
The average time it takes to train an Assistance Dog is 12 months. Another 5 weeks is often added to their training after they have been matched with their person. This is to train them in
any special task, not generally carried out by an Assistance Dog that may be required.
The total cost of training a dog is approximately $20,000 and no charge is made to the client
apart from a $25 application fee. The charity relies on donations and remains determined not
to make any charge for the training.
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