Elevator practice
Goose, a PTSD service dog in training, did very well in the elevator. (We have been practicing in different locations.) On the way up, he even stepped up onto the cart!
Update from Sunny!
Update from Sunny! He got a new pig today and he hasn’t put it down he’s so happy! 🐷 Sunny is named after the favorite song of a boy who received an autism service dog from Pawsitivity, and his favorite song was "Sunshine on My Shoulders."
Home Light
Story time: (I'm writing this because I want to support one of our sponsors, HomeLight). When we had to sell my parent’s home a few years ago, we had a great deal of difficulty because they had lived in it for years and had only done minimal updates. There was nothing really wrong with it, but it hasn’t been redone in years. We thought about redoing the kitchen and bathroom, but I didn’t have the skills to do it alone. Luckily, there was a good solution.
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Pawsitivity featured in Monitor
Local non-profit trains service dogs for vets and kids
Executive director Tom Coleman with Winston, a service dog-in-training. (Photo by Margie O’Loughlin)
Posted Wednesday, January 27, 2021 10:30 pm
Midway Como Frogtown Monitor and Longfellow Nokomis Messenger
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Part 2, Notes on book "Animal Assisted Play Therapy"
Two Pawsitivity staff members will be taking a seminar on Animal Assisted Play Therapy to help us work with children with autism and other disorders. Here are some notes from a book we are studying.
Horse training:
95% of horses are trained in the traditional way (which is based on aversion or even pain)
"The horses are dead behind the eyes."
Clicker training (positive reinforcement training) is rarer but has amazing results.
Dog training:
Only 40% of training is the traditional way (which is based on aversion or even pain)
Clicker training (positive reinforcement training) has amazing results.
Tip:
Some people like to use a graveled-area with horses so they don't graze. Note that there is a disadvantage to this method because the horses will show fewer natural behaviors.
Flawed ideas:
Dominance theory of dogs (ala Cesar Milan)
Natural horsemanship for horses (same thing)
Dog stress signals (many of these signals are constantly changing so they are easy to miss):
Head:
Head-turning
Pulling head down
Ears:
Ears down
Mouth:
Lip-licking
Tense muscles around lips
Yawning
Panting
Closing the mouth (both panting and closing the mouth sometimes doesn't mean stress)
Eyes:
Showing whites of eyes
Looking at you out of the corner of their eye
Tense muscles on forehead
Body:
Freezing (whole body tense)
Shaking body (as if shaking off water)
Pacing
Turning body away (or walking away)
Horse stress-signals (even more constantly changing than dogs, so they are easy to miss, often several right in a row):
Head:
Head-bobbing
Head-shaking
Ears:
Ears back (ears forward is curiosity)
Ears flicking back and forth
One ear forward and one ear back
Mouth:
Tense mouth
Constant lip-licking
Constant chewing
Grinding teeth
Panting
Nose:
Flared nostrils
Tense nostrils
Eyes:
Eyes partially open and muscles at the top of the eye tense (a bit like our furrowed brow)
Tail
Tail-swishing
High head carriage with tail pressed down
Feet:
Pawing
Freezing
Constant movement
Sweating
The frequent dropping of manure
Lack of interest
Listlessness
Note: Extreme horse stress signals:
Stereotypical behaviors:
Weaving
Box=walking
Crib-biting
Wind-sucking
Kicking
Self-mutilation
Aggression to humans
Bolting
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Notes on book "Animal Assisted Play Therapy," Part 1 of 2
Some Pawsitivity staff are taking a week-long class on Animal Assisted Play Therapy in late 2021 to help us work with people with disabilities, including psychiatric disabilities. Here are notes from one of the textbooks.
2 methods of AAPT (Animal Assisted Play Therapy):
Directive - teaching skills or addressing problems. Always goal-directed.
Non-directive (unlike AAT/Animal Assisted Therapy, which is always goal-directed)
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New Rules For Airline Travel with a Service Dog
The airlines are subject to new rules for service dogs who are doing airline travel, to take effect on December 30th, 2020. The full details are on a PDF at the US Department of Transportation's website, but the main things to know are:
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Sunshine asks you to “Give to the Max!”
Want to join me and Sunshine and Goose and Winnie in supporting a great cause? “Give to the Max Day” is coming, and if you donate to Pawsitivity through GiveMN, all donations are doubled!
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Veterans Day
Honoring Veterans Day, we would like to introduce you to Goose! He’s our newest trainee, and he will be going to a US military veteran!