Nothing Butt Huskies

Kodi and I have developed quite a bond, spending nearly every moment of every day together since his arrival in our home.

Watching him following me around the house, wanting to be wherever I am, so comfortable with my power chair, I realized he might be able to help me as an assistance dog.

Kodi has been working on general commands since he was about 3 months old. Some he’s mastered, some he does when he feels like it and others he acts as if the commands are coming straight from Charlie Brown’s teacher. (Typical Husky stubbornness.)

I thought perhaps we could start with some simple tasks, the two things I have the hardest time with when I’m using my power chair… picking things up off the floor and closing doors behind me.

I went on some sites to learn about ‘owner trained assistance dogs’ and learned some basic commands that are often used. I also bought a clicker.

I have been working on commands such a ’sit’, ’stay’, ‘wait’, ‘come’, ‘lay down’, ‘off’, ’shake’, ‘drop’, ‘go inside’ and ‘heel’. As with any Husky, he sort of decides when he wants to listen. He knows all the commands and can do them when it suits him, some more consistently than others. I reward with tiny bits of pupperoni whenever he completes a command.

Now I’ve introduced the clicker and he’s responding well to it. He knows if he hears the click he’s done the right thing and will get a treat. I can distract him from unwanted behavior by clicking, which diverts his attention to me.

I started working with him in the house when we were playing fetch with his ball… telling him to ‘get it’ and ‘bring it’. When he would bring it to me, I told him to ‘drop it’ but we had a hard time with this command, as Kodi can be a bit protective of his things. I offered a treat if he would put the ball in my hand first, so we swapped and he’s now willing to put the ball in my hand whether I have a treat for him or not.

I started ‘assistance training’ with the command ‘paws up’. I wanted him to put his front paws on my lap. He didn’t understand, until I physically took his paws in hand, saying ‘paws’ and placed them on my lap, saying ‘up’. After repeating the command and demonstration a couple of times he was able to put his paws up on my lap following the command and the offer of a reward.

We have been successfully working on ‘paws up’ when I’m putting his Halti and Backpack on or taking them off. Outside the door, I ask for ‘paws up’ and he stands up so I can access the house keys from his backpack.

I introduced the command ‘pick it up’ when we were playing. I tried dropping an old clicker with a flex-ring on it, on the ground and saying ‘pick it up’. He wasn’t interested. I picked it up and touched it to his mouth repeating the command. We did this many times, until he picked it up in his mouth, but immediately dropped it. As soon as he did so, I rewarded him.

I didn’t want to stress him with it, so once I had succeeded in getting him to pick it up, we went back to playing ball. We’ve repeated the exercise several times over the course of a week, each time he would pick it up for longer periods of time before dropping it on the floor.

Several times, we have accomplished ‘pick it up’ and ‘paws up’ and he’s delivered the clicker to me, in my hand.

After we are more consistent with these two commands and he’s able to pick up other objects we’ll begin working on closing the door behind me.

When we leave the front of the house, I have to take my chair out first, Kodi follows, then I have to turn around, without running over his feet, holding the storm door open, and reach into the hinged side of the front door, pull against it until it swings close enough for me to grab the handle and pull it closed. It’s quite an awkward dance in a six foot square space.

The front door has a knob and a handle. I plan to attach a piece of ‘playground rope’ to the handle with a large knot on the other end. When we go out, he will be taught to turn back while I hold the storm door open, take the knot in his mouth and pull the door closed.

Kodi is doing wonderfully, learning these new commands and responsibilities.

Today we increased the weight in his backpack by putting a can of soup in each pouch, to help increase the benefit from the exercise he gets while walking, since I can’t go farther distances, having more to carry makes him work a little harder. He did wonderfully. We played outside four times today until he was played out.

Keeping any dog, but particularly huskies properly exercised is key to successful training. Burning off excess energy helps them focus on the job at hand.