The 5 Supplies Every Service Dog In Training Needs

Kongs are an essential part of our training program.  Dogs need to chew every day.  Chewing helps relieve anxiety and destructive boredom.  They are also a great tool to keep a puppy occupied during your daily training (like during boring office meetings or afternoon luncheons).  Kongs are a very inexpensive option to allow your dog or puppy to get out its chewing energy.  They are reusable and easy to prepare on a daily basis.  I suggest getting at least 3 Kongs so that you can always have a frozen kong in the freezer for your dog at all times.  Feeding through work to eat puzzles like Kongs can also teach persistence, the type of persistence needed during alerts to low blood sugars.  Click on this box to be taken to Amazon to purchase your dog’s Kongs.

Again, like we stated before, dogs need to chew every day.  Chewing helps relieve anxiety and destructive boredom.  However, dogs have preferred chewing substrates.  Kongs arent going to solve every chewing problem your dog has.  Antlers are hard, natural, do not have an odor and leave no residue behind after dogs get done chewing them.  They also last a very long time, sometimes up to 3-6 months for moderate chewers.  They are great to put in purses and pull out at the coffee shop to keep your puppy occupied while you are chatting with a friend or at a 4 day conference with your coworkers.

Teaching your dog to stay in one place around distractions is a large percentage of his public access training.  Using one of these Kuranda beds around the house to practice staying can help your dog succeed with this incredibly difficult task as a young puppy.  These Kuranda beds are chew proof for young puppies and clean up easily.  Once you have your dog understanding he needs to stay on his bed no matter what mischief is going on in the house, you can start moving his bed into different rooms in the home, teaching him the concept of generalization.   The public is loud, obnoxious and unpredictable to service dogs, teaching your dog a solid stay can go a long way to protect your dog from the public and help place and keep him in out of the way in dangerous high traffic areas.

We used to recommend our students use make up remover pads for collection of spit samples to train with.  However, when our students went to try to use their samples, they frequently stuck together in their containers in the freezer.  Using these dental cotton rolls can help to remove this unfortunately side effect of spitting on cotton and then freezing it.  They are only a couple of dollars more than using makeup removal pads but can save countless headaches when it comes to sneaking cotton rolls into your dogs training and make your job just that much easier.

When you store your scent samples you dont want to use just any old storage container in the freezer, you want to use something that will keep them from absorbing the scents of the environment they are stored in.  Scent samples that smell like your mothers brisket arent going to help your dog understand that he needs to learn how to distinguish your scent from the smell of last nights dinner.  These containers are used by scientists across the world for long term storage of tissues and fluids for use in science experiments.  Stop using inferior equipment and invest in something to help you and your dog succeed in this complicated job.