Raising Bennett: ethically raising a therapy dog | Website

Raising Bennett: ethically raising a therapy dog

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22.01.2022 I’m so proud of Benny. Why? This looks weird to be something to be proud of hey but this is an elderly Serbian neighbour of ours that speaks about one word of English and keeps reaching out and speaking to the dogs and leaning over and staring at them. Benny used to leap a mile and be very stand off’ish. Today he went up and had a hand sniff and allowed a bit of a head tap from her. That’s huge for him! I can’t communicate with this lady how to greet or how to do training so ...all I can do is manage Benny. This is where my ethics in training and therapy dogs come to the fore. He is not a petting zoo to people if he feels scared. You’ll see he does NOT have a head halti on and never will. He will never be forced to interact if he doesn’t want to. I will never allow anyone to touch him if he does not consent. I won’t pull him into interactions or force him to sit or lay down and not move until I give him a release cue. He can leave any time he feels unsafe. Why? To me that’s only fair and ethical for a start. He has rights too to not be an object for human gratification. It’s up to the human to earn it. And secondly I want him to communicate to me when he feels nervous. If he can’t flee and I make him freeze, what comes next if I remove those options to him? Fight! Bite! I won’t put him in that situation. He has never growled, he’s never snapped at a human, nothing. Because I have always given him choice and freedom to leave at any time. Halti’s, correction chains, spray bottles and compulsion have no place in therapy dog training for these reasons. Choice, consent, control and positive conditioning definitely do though! See more

22.01.2022 Part 2 of my interview with lovely Shadia from Autism Actually about all things Autism assistance dogs.

21.01.2022 I’m often asked by clients how often they should train their dogs and how long for etc. I thought I’d do a snapshot of a weekend for Benny. When we go for walks I mix in doing some rally obedience training with play and sniff time. We went to the Wyndham Pet Expo for an hour on Sunday to wander around but also work on his ability to focus on me in such intense distractions and do some positive conditioning to lots of strange things like loud speakers, kids everywhere, face paint, farm animals, lots of dogs and prams and wheelchairs, the list goes on! It’s all ‘training’. They’re always learning, it’s just a matter of what you choose that learning to be. As you can tell though I kept it super simple at the expo. I don’t expect him to do rally o in the middle of all of that. Looking away from a duck was impressive enough for me!

13.01.2022 Trying to get work done with a teenager that hasn’t had a walk yet. Impossible.

12.01.2022 Benny came along to a medical appointment Lil had at the vet clinic today. He had some handling done too and got loads of treats and pats. He found it all pretty boring and just fell asleep on my leg. All of this building up that the smell of vet clinics, staff, clinic rooms, handling from nurses etc predicts treats and fun will help for when he might need stressful or painful procedures done. He lay on his back for belly tickles too and got his hips and legs extended and other tests mimicked. He thought it was the best! He’s even been sleepy for the rest of the day from his big adventure