We adopted Lyndon from PAWS of Central Texas.
Here, he went on his first public outing to Tractor Supply. Looks simple, right?
Well to build up to this, Lyndon had to master getting in and out of the van safely and traveling comfortably in a crate. Then, he had to show us he was comfortable in the parking lot and even with the electric doors before our Trainers took him inside the building.
As you can see from his body language in the photos, he looks relaxed. His ears are alert but not too high or pressed flat against his head. That would indicate stress. His eyes are aware and focused but not widened - the whites do not show, which would also indicate stress. Thus, a successful first outing!
Here, Lyndon is working on learning to target objects with his nose. This tool has the very professional name of “alley oop”.
Targeting is the foundation of Lyndon’s push behavior that he will use as a Service Dog to push buttons, close doors and shut drawers.
In these pictures, he is practicing touching his nose to the red target to help him learn to be precise with his position. He also is starting to add a little bit of push to his targets, causing the alley oop to wobble on its base.
As he becomes more fluent with this behavior, he will practice pushing on red targets made from red duct tape attached to doors and drawers around the training center.
We invest over a year and $50,000 into training each Service Dog. If you want to help us turn more strays into Stars, please consider supporting us with a tax deductible donation.