Hello!
My German Shepherd was 18 months old when I adopted her from a regional rescue. She wasn’t bothered by my wheelchair, loud noises, or commotion around her. She was already gentle and partially trained. I was looking for a dog that I could train to do some service dog tasks and be a family dog.
She is motivated by treats, balls, and being outside. From many training videos, I learned you needed to know and use her motivators.
Working against me is that her intelligence comes with her judging if I am offering a big enough reward for the task. I frequently call this her teenager mentality. I suspect that she learned this from my teens.
I was able to train her to open a cracked door and find treats. From there, we stretched it to press “outside” button, sit at the back door, find ball, get ball, and bring ball.
Finding a safe way for me to take her on walks has been difficult. I am concerned for her safety if she gets away from me. I also don’t want to be pulled out of my wheelchair.
I sent her to 2 weeks of training where they were able to take her out in public, have her lay down, drop her leash, walk away, and she would watch but not react to anyone nor anything. The trick? Using a too small prong collar. It was digging into her skin. Poor girl. That stopped.
I am moving to a new plan for walks and adding my items to the find/get/bring list. I will keep you posted.
Life, Humor, and MS 