Vest designs I made and hopefully will get one day. If I get a Christmas one I'm using it even when it's not Christmas because I love Christmas. Noël will be for more then just our autism but I want my vests to say autism service dog so people know why I act like I do cause I stim a lot, I'm Nonverbal, meltdown in public but I'm worried might get access issues if I have autism service dog on my vests
- What's with the hat?
- I don't know. Found it in the science lab. Thought it would help.
Day 11 - The Hunter
Knows the killer’s weakness and the best way to beat them. The Final Girl typically teams up with them to finally nail the killer. Usually, they’re considered the other final character to survive.
He was a little overwhelmed coming right out of the car. Even though we got there a half hour before it opens there were still a ton of people in the lot and half of them were changing into costumes. So I alternated between letting him just take it and rewarding for check ins and simple obedience (I use sit, down, sit, spin, treat a lot) to gauge his readiness to work.
We stayed in the parking lot for about 10 minutes before he was ready. He kept pace with me nicely on the walk from the lot to the actual fair grounds. I was pleased with him ignoring the crowds around us given that we had to pass really close to others at times.
We saw some really cool costumes including a person with a big mushroom hat, someone carrying a prop sword that was bigger than me, and a stroller decked out in bells to look like a fairy wagon.
He alerted to a hr spike and did DPT across the street from the entrance. There was a huge crowd waiting at the entrance and there was a lively opening speech complete with loud cheering. And while he was interested/clearly watching he didn't stop tasking.
At one point a pair of character actors dressed as royal guards, each holding a spear, saw on the ground and approached. They stopped a respectful distance away and asked if I was okay. I thanked them and told them my service dog had it covered.
When I was ready we wandered around the area, went over a wooden bridge that squeaked, and did more simple obedience. Then we went back down the path to the car for a water break. It was more crowded now and we were going against the flow of foot traffic, but he still kept in a loose heel and paid no mind to the people.
After getting water we went back up towards the entrance. I stopped by the trail end and put him in a relaxed down so he could practice being settled near heavy foot traffic. He checked in consistently and was paid for it.
As I was debating going all the way to the entrance or calling it a day, he did get startled. Two people, each pushing a stroller, came down the hill towards us while squealing at the top of their lungs. I don't think they even noticed Forte until he popped up and barked once. They were most likely trying to entertain the kids in said stroller.
He recovered quickly and laid back down on his own but I took that as a sign he about done with the outing. We'd already been out for an hour and a half and it was starting to get too hot out. So we went back to the car. I had another internal debate about putting his cooling vest on and heading back up or just leaving. Part of me didn't want to end on our only bad note and wanted to go back for some pictures.
But ultimately I decided against it. He'd stayed at a calm pace on the walk back and didn't balk at any of the other strollers we passed. So I'm counting it as ending on a good note actually.
Haven't posted in a bit cause mostly we have just been doing stuff like sit, down and stand because my mental health has not been letting me do any training more then that but today I had the energy so we did some heeling next to my crutch he did good he's not wary of my crutches anymore. Something that we just got done with is retrieval training and he did really good I was playing with him with a toy and I dropped it so he grabbed it and gave it to me. So I got some treats and kept dropping it for him to grab and hand to me he surprised me. Towards the end of the session i grabbed a empty water bottle which is the item I've been using in his retrieval training and for the first few drops he would not pick it up but after a bit he finally did so I jackpot him and ended the session. Tomorrow I'm going to do more and maybe try some different objects but I think I should stick to empty water bottle and tug for a few days then add a new object
Atypical Body Target Training - Hind End Targeting
Aka I'm teaching my service dog to booty bump doors and drawers shut because he already likes to do this particular behavior so now it's going on a cue bay-bay
I dearly wish I had a target stick right now but we're making this work with my hand
Currently he has the cue down to target my hand with his ass and now we're transitioning to targeting soft pieces of furniture before transferring it to a door.
Bonus happy chupacabra at the end as I throw him a toy reward
unless your "golden retriever bf" can detect changes in my heart rate like my golden retriever service dog is going to be able to do then he isnt worthy of that title