Q&A on Sharon's Work with Dogs and Their People Menu Bar Sharon's Dog Training Background and Experience What Sharon Can Offer You and Your Dog(s) What People Say about Sharon's Work with Dogs Sharon's Dog Training Background and Experience Q: I notice from your humor columns that you write about your service dogs quite a bit. Did you train your own service dogs? A: Yes, in 1998 I trained Jersey, a five-year-old Bouvier des Flandres, as my first service dog. She worked for me for three years. However, soon after she completed training she developed glaucoma and lost vision in her right eye. Later she became arthritic in her hip. I found a successor dog to train so that Jersey could retire and become my pet. I got Gadget as a one-year-old rescued Bouvier in July 2001. He completed his training in December 2002. Q: What is a service dog? What does your service dog do? A: Service dogs are a type of assistance dog. Assistance dogs are highly trained professional dogs -- guide dogs, hearing dogs, and service dogs -- who work in partnership with disabled persons to increase the independence, safety, and mobility of the human partner. Most people know that guide dogs assist their blind or low-vision partners to independently and safely negotiate the environment by guiding them around obstacles and across streets and stopping at curbs and steps. Some people know that hearing dogs assist their deaf or hard of hearing partners by alerting them to sounds of, for example, an alarm clock, a stove timer, a crying baby, a ringing phone, a doorbell, a smoke alarm, or their name being called. Service dogs are trained to assist people with other, usually physical, disabilities. Common service dog skills include retrieving dropped items, seizure alert and/or response, and pulling a wheelchair. My service dog, Gadget, has been trained to perform the following skills: retrieve dropped items bring the phone to me in an emergency go for help to a neighbor in an emergency provide bracing support for walking or standing transport medication, water, wallet, and other supplies in a backpack pull my wheelchair pull a specially designed cart open and shut doors turn off lights carry grocery bags from the car to the house lick envelopes Q: How did you learn to train dogs? A: I have always loved dog training. As a child, just for fun I trained my border collie mix to sit, lie down, roll over, and jump through a hula hoop! When I really needed reliably trained dogs, I did a lot of reading on the subject and asked questions of anyone who would listen. I read books on obedience training, service-dog training, assistance-dog issues in general, and behavioral psychology; watched videotapes on dog training; and spent thousands of hours e-mailing with other service-dog partners and trainers. I also read up on various general dog information and breeds of dogs before deciding what age and breed of dog I wanted to get and how to set up my home and my life to accommodate a dog. But most of the learning happened through trial and error once I started working with my dogs. By closely observing my dogs -- learning what they responded to and what they didn't -- I fit my training style to their learning style. And, just as importantly, before I started working any new skill, I had a "lesson plan" that took into account my own needs, lifestyle, and limitations. In my experience, knowing yourself and your dogs -- combined with love, patience, and creative problem-solving -- is the foundation to good training. Q: What method of training do you use? A: I use a method called "clicker training" that was pioneered by Karen Pryor, an animal behaviorist and former dolphin trainer. She is the author of the best-selling book, Don't Shoot the Dog . Clicker training is known by many other names, including operant conditioning and conditioned reinforcement. Basically, it is a way of using positive-reinforcement training, along with a marker signal, to communicate in a very precise and efficient way to your dog. It is an extremely effective, fast, and fun way to train. It obviates the need for punishment or "correction" used by traditional or "choke" trainers. I adapted many of the skills from the Teamwork books, put out by Top Dog. Teamwork and Teamwork II provide dog-training instruction, written by people with disabilities, for people with disabilities to train their own dogs. What Sharon Can Offer You and Your Dog(s) Q: What consultation services can you provide to dogs and their people? A: I can provide the following types of assistance, by e-mail or telephone, and, under rare circumstances, in person: Assistance-dog resource and referral. I can give you information about assistance-dog equipment, vendors, trainers, programs, organizations, and e-mail lists. In some cases I can tailor information to your region, breed of dog, and/or type of assistance dog and/or the skill you are training or seeking to train. Service dog creative problem solving. I can help you brainstorm and/or find resources for you on tricky problems. These may run the gamut from how to build, sew, buy, or commission an unusual piece of gear or other piece of service-dog equipment; to how to work through an irritating behavior in your assistance dog; to how to start the search for a successor; to how to set up a lesson plan and regimen for training. Emotional support for people with disabilities who are considering getting a dog, who are new "dog parents," or who are new assistance-dog partners or trainers. I know from personal experience how hard it can be to get unbiased information about how to find, train, and care for a dog -- let alone a service dog -- when you have a major disability. Everywhere I turned -- the service dog programs, the breed-rescue organizations, the private trainers -- I received conflicting, and often discouraging, information. Then, when I got my first dog, in between feeling elated and filled with love and joy, I was also overwhelmed, exhausted, scared, and lonely. None of my friends were "dog people" and none of the "dog people" I contacted knew anything about my disability. The people who really saved me were other people with disabilities on the Internet. With preparation, planning, and support, you don't have to go through what I did. I can help you choose the right dog for you, prepare for your new family member, set up a dog-care schedule, plan "respite care," and be there for you to help you cope when the pup throws you a curve ball. (And believe me, he will!) Training consultation. I can help you train your dog to be a well-mannered, obedient member of the household, whether as a pet or a working dog. I don't just know how to train dogs to bring dropped keys and open doors. I also know how to teach them to sit and stay! If you want to learn to mold your dog into a pleasant, nondestructive member of the household, I can help with that. If you want to teach your pup to nudge you when the doorbell rings, I can help with that, too. I'll start with a general assessment of your situation and move from there to potential book or video recommendations, training or lifestyle suggestions, or a lesson plan. I can't train your dog for you, but I can do something better: help you figure out the best way for you and your family to contribute to a sane, happy, doggy environment. Q: Are there dog-training situations you will not take on? A: Yes. I will do a free initial consultation with you. If we feel like we have potential to be a compatible team, we can decide how we want to work together. However, there are some situations that I am not comfortable taking on. These include the following situations: It appears you are not serious or motivated to change your behavior to affect your dog's behavior (e.g., if you think it's "cute" that your puppy is mouthing your arm or jumping on the dinner table, even after I have explained why those behaviors are problematic); the type or level of assistance skill training you need is beyond me (such as guide-dog skills), unless you are aware that I do not have experience in this area and you are seeking my help for other aspects of the training (such as creative problem solving); I think your dog has a behavioral problem that I am not qualified to address. In particular, if you dog has aggressive tendencies, such as biting, growling, or other potentially dangerous behavior I will urge you to find an animal behaviorist/trainer in your area who can work on this crucial safety issue -- for your dog's sake, as well as for the safety of yourself and your family and neighbors. What People Say about Sharon's Work with Dogs Q: What do people have to say about Sharon's skills as a dog trainer? A: HF, an organizing coach, says, "I have seen Sharon use clicker training with her service dog Gadget to bring groceries from the car to the front door; bark on command; be quiet on command; stay in a long, quiet down-stay; turn off lights; let the cat in from the porch; and much more! I'm very impressed with her mastery of this form of dog training and her ability to train her service animals to do complex tasks." LT, an artist, says, "Cloudy is my six-year-old Dalmatian, who used to bark, steal food from the table, jump on people, be aggressive toward other dogs, pee in the house, and the list goes on. I adopted her from the dog shelter when she was one and a half years old. Cloudy has a diploma from an obedience school that focused on choke-collar training. So every time she misbehaved, she got a negative warning both verbally and physically (a yank on her choke collar). Her behavioral problems improved somewhat, but she tended to pee when being reprimanded and was even more aggressive toward other dogs. When I became Sharon's neighbor, I witnessed her two well-behaved dogs almost daily when they took their walk. And every time they walked by our house, I had to make sure that Cloudy was locked in so she wouldn't harass them. The situation took a 180 turn when Sharon asked me to be part of the training process to teach her new dog Gadget to come to our house barking for help when instructed. It was an amazing experience to be part of it and watch how Sharon shaped the behavior of her dog. During the entire process, Sharon also showed me how to improve my dog's behavior. Instead of the unpleasant warning and reprimand I used to give my dog when she misbehaved, Sharon told me to focus on the positive behaviors by clicking the clicker she gave me along with the food reinforcers. The first difference I noticed after using Sharon's method was that Cloudy's house-peeing behavior disappeared. There's also a stronger bond between the dog and myself. I dare not say that my dog is perfect now. But if you'd seen her before we met Sharon, you'd notice the difference right away. Because of Sharon, I can say this for sure, there's one more happy person and one more happy dog in the world."   .
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