BS, My ASDSD

[peteyfoozer]

Thread title is short for Boone Snyder, my Anatolian Shepherd Dog Service Dog.
He joined the family last Jan at 3 months old with the intent of protecting my chickens, ducks, rabbits and the sheep I was planning to acquire, but finances being what they are, and my newest habit of falling over at the most inconvenient times and places, Boone’s rapid growth and size along with an incredible disposition, he wound up being my new Service Dog instead, as Fen threw me over for Randy and even with all the time and training I put into him, hated the job.

I absolutely do not recommend this breed as a Service Dog prospect as they are generally considered human and dog aggressive, and are bred to be independent thinkers who can be overly protective and not inclined to take direction. But I had already spent my small fortune for him and had nothing to lose, since we only go to town every couple of months, if he was unsuitable to use in town, I still need him at home.

So this is the story of Boone.

 

[baymule]

I love Boone!

 

[peteyfoozer]

Livestock Guardian Breeds (this thread should have been titled BS my ASDSD/LGD)are, by necessity, independent thinkers that do not rely on humans to do their jobs. In general they possess neither food nor toy drive, and spend more time than most in a high spot napping, saving energy and surveilling their kingdom for threats. Task training one for service work was going to be especially challenging as I needed to begin by building those two incentives into him while he was still young enough to be that malleable.

Lucky for me, Fen immediately accepted him as a playtoy, wrestling, rolling him around and playing tug with his many toys. Tug was my first big break.
Fenny would go to work with Randy, leaving me to entertain Boone. By playing tug with different items, he quickly learned to place things in my hand. I would then trade for a cookie to teach him to let go. This evolved into bringing me whatever I pointed at as we tugged with many different items, and he learned their names and to search for them in different places, the floor, table tops, different rooms, etc. It also led to his learning to open the back door, which has a lever handle, by employing a macrame doorpull attached to the end. Now he could let himself in and out at will, making potty training a breeze. All these tasks were learned in his first 6 weeks with me and set him up for “learning to learn”
He was a really cute little fart, but t didn’t stay little for long!
His rapid growth made him very clumsy, which was often hilarious!

 

[heirloomgal]

I really look forward to seeing more of these posts about Boone! I have been learning to train with my own dog for the last 6 years and really enjoy it. I've got a long way to go still, but I'm starting to hit my groove with it.

 

[peteyfoozer]

I really look forward to seeing more of these posts about Boone! I have been learning to train with my own dog for the last 6 years and really enjoy it. I've got a long way to go still, but I'm starting to hit my groove with it.

Are you doing general obedience training, Service Dog training, or LGD?

 

[heirloomgal]

Are you doing general obedience training, Service Dog training, or LGD?

General obedience basically, respecting thresholds, a decent heel on walks, a decent recall under pressure, basically steering him to looking to us for direction as much as possible in all situations and not defaulting to his own ideas. He's a hound so, not super natural to him, esp recall. Lots of relationship adjusting, as we started at 0 and have had to work our way up. We've used what we've achieved in obedience as a foundation for trick training, like back stalls, ringing bells, object request retrieval (like you mentioned in your post), jumping arm hoop formations, little bit of weave pole stuff. We took a scent detection class in the fall, and have started him with wintergreen and some boxes. My gosh that has been slow! Sometimes it really seems like he's really getting what we want, couple direct hits in a row, and then he nudges the wrong box or goes back to what looks like guessing again! It's the most frustrating exercise yet! If you have any tips I'd love to hear! I really do love dog training though, and my daughter is really flying with it.

 

[peteyfoozer]

Sounds like you are doing awesome! It gets frustrating sometimes as learning isn’t linear but a well trained dog is a joy to partner with! Much respect! I believe a hound would be much tougher to train than an LGD breed!