Yesterday, while boredly searching YouTube for service dog videos, I ran across a member with tons of training videos pertaining to assistance tricks. (I'll add a link later, when I find it again.) I've watched them before, but never pursued them for lack of time. This time I decided to give it a go. The simplest one(I thought) was pulling socks off, so I started there. Mud really surprised me, because not only did she very quickly learn to be careful of my toes, but she picked up on pulling the socks off(and giving them back) in a matter of maybe 5 tries! I was so proud and excited. I'll have to video it and get it up here. She did so good. She already knew how to bring me my keys, and a kleenex, and various other objects, but I haven't tried anything further than that until now.
Which led me to another discovery...lol...one reason why retrieving breeds are great service dogs...
They are soft-mouthed.
Border Collies are certainly not bred for retrieving(although they are known for being enthusiastic tennis ball retrievers...not quite the same thing). Fortunately, I have already done lots of work on teaching Mud to be soft-mouthed. I'm very glad I did the sock trick after the Easter Egg trick, and various other tricks that required teaching her to be soft-mouthed. Otherwise I'd have tender toes--and a dog that would probably be less willing to take my socks off, lol!
So...now, I'm hooked and trying to decide what I want to do next. :doglaugh:
Which led me to another discovery...lol...one reason why retrieving breeds are great service dogs...
They are soft-mouthed.
Border Collies are certainly not bred for retrieving(although they are known for being enthusiastic tennis ball retrievers...not quite the same thing). Fortunately, I have already done lots of work on teaching Mud to be soft-mouthed. I'm very glad I did the sock trick after the Easter Egg trick, and various other tricks that required teaching her to be soft-mouthed. Otherwise I'd have tender toes--and a dog that would probably be less willing to take my socks off, lol!
So...now, I'm hooked and trying to decide what I want to do next. :doglaugh: