Kate, who lives in Connecticut, was unable to find an experienced service dog trainer in her area to complete training of her black Lab, Arvis. She traveled to Western Mass., every two weeks with Arvis, to do two days of training lessons with Sharon. Next, they enrolled in At Your Service Dog Training’s Public Access 2 class — training in public locations as a group. Recently, Kate emailed Sharon to update us on Arvis, who has completed his training and is working successfully as a service dog. Here is some of what Kate shared.

Thank you for your positive words and support regarding Arvis completing his service dog training. You gave us a great foundation and always made us feel like we were capable of becoming a successful working team.

Arvis has demonstrated his first task three times now. When I’m sleeping I do not hear the door bell. He came to get me each time and would not stop bumping my arm until I got out of bed. In addition, he has successfully signaled and led me out of stores when I had gone beyond my medical limitations. 

Arvis now accompanies me to the swimming pool where he will lay inches from the water for over an hour. Other pool patrons are totally amazed and some request to be next to my lane so that they can be closer to Arvis. Even with this extra attention Arvis never moves one inch. Arvis also has come on several bus trips with me, which have required him to ride on buses, ferries, trains, small commuter vans filled with people, etc. Last, he now accompanies me on tasks of daily living. I can’t even begin to put a number on how many compliments Arvis has received on his exemplary behavior.

Here’s what Kate wants people to know about working with At Your Service:

At Your Service Dog Training is a comprehensive program from start to finish. Sharon Wachsler is an experienced trainer with a solid foundation in dog behavior, psychology, and best training practices. I appreciated the in-depth evaluation of my dog and me as a handler before accepting us into the program. It was reassuring to see that she did not place every team at the same starting point and it was not a guarantee to be accepted into her program. I liked the standards she set for both the dog and handler to be considered for her program.

My dog and I had mastered most of his basic skills, through numerous training classes, prior to beginning Sharon’s program. I was very pleased that she did not hold our team back based on the progress other teams had made in the past or the present. She creates a strategic training plan for each client team, complete with copious training observation notes and a detailed homework assignment after each training session. Sharon wants to see her clients be successful but she is not the type of person who will accept payment from a client team that she knows is not going to be able to pass the very rigorous standards of The At Your Service Dog Training program.

Last, there are a few very special things that stick out to me when reviewing my time in Sharon’s program. First, she was very generous with her willingness to accommodate my schedule. Second, I appreciated how she provided training about the ADA laws surrounding service dogs in training (SDits) vs. Service Dogs and role-played how to deal with strangers coming up to my dog and me while we are working together in public.

Last, I enjoyed her creative approaches to training and how she packed so much learning into each session. I always felt she recognized how hard my dog and I were working between sessions and moved us through her program accordingly.Entering into and committing to self-training a service dog with At Your Service Dog Training is not for everyone. It is a significant commitment both financially and emotionally as it is not a guarantee that a dog-handler team will be a successful graduate. Sharon is not able to control her clients so that they devote the necessary time and energy into the extensive training required of a SDit. However, if she happens upon a motivated dog-handler team with all of the prerequisite behaviors and attributes she attributes to potential success, then there is no one better to propel them along towards becoming a fully functioning service dog team. 

In sum, Sharon is a caring trainer who not only has a solid foundation and understanding of training service dogs but also a compassion and dedication to helping those with mental and/or physical disabilities. I’m extremely happy with my entire experience with Sharon Wachsler, the owner of At Your Service Dog Training and would not hesitate to recommend her to other disabled individuals who wish to have assistance training their own service dog.

Hello Sharon,

Thank you so much for reaching out.

Deus continues to be Deus, but he also continues to make lot s of progress. He loves the relaxation protocol and that has become part of our everyday life. He sits around calmly while I cook and clean and he waits patiently while I do things in the kitchen and other parts of the house. He waits quietly and enjoys getting his treats.

He is doing a great job with fetching and dropping balls and other items.

He is now walking off leash when we go for walks and is doing an excellent job with the Here Here recall. It is amazing to see him running back when I say Here Here…He has been doing an excellent job with this except for yesterday when he went chasing a coyote. I was grateful that he came back was not hurt and that things ended well.

There is room for improvement for keeping him calm when strangers come. He is making progress in that area as well.

I actually was away for 4 days during the holiday and I had a new dog sitter come and stay and Deus did really well. He was really good with her on the walks and everything went well!!!!

So, he is growing and maturing and so am I. I am way more relaxed and we are trusting each other daily. I am more confident about everything and that is directly related to my work with you. Everything that you taught me comes into play regularly as I work and train Deus daily. I now leave him in the house while I am away…..

We still have a ways to go and so much to learn, but we are well on our way.I hope things are going well for you and your work.

Best,

Marjorie

Hope you had a nice holiday! Molly and I spent a few days at my Mom’s house. Really good update 🙂

I was able to use both my Mom and sister for some good reps of the distraction training games we played during our lesson and she did excellent! And then, we had a night where my aunt and uncle came over which usually would have sent her over the top- but I was ready having prepped her with some reps of the “break, say hi” exercise before they came and OMG what a difference! She did amazing!

It was almost unlike her because she was SOOO focused on me that she almost wouldn’t even say hi to them, but that is honestly such an improvement for her that I will take that because I honestly NEVER thought that would be possible for her! She was always out of control with excitement when people came over, especially people like my aunt and uncle who are essentially “new” because she rarely sees them so that is extra exciting to her. I was amazed!

I honestly NEVER thought that would be possible for her!

I started holding off treats a bit more to get her to engage more with them in order to see if she would say hi longer- she ended up being able to at times but each time I was still able to call her right back to me! I’m like still in shock lol! And because my uncle is a very loud and extroverted type of character which is especially overstimulating to Molly and she still did amazing!

Also, today back in Boston, we went out on a walk and I used the “click for noticing you exist” technique and basically did a combo of both click/treat for any attention/even turn of the head towards me as well as completely stopping as soon as she got too far ahead. Doing this as well as I think the prep-work of all the exercises we have done around people-distractions resulted in a SUPER loose-leash walk with zero need for the Gentle Leader! She wanted to stay near me and I only had to employ a full stop a few times.

I also found that even in more populated areas where I would usually have to rein her in on a shorter leash due to her tendency to just randomly pick out people that she believes are clearly waiting on the sidewalk for her arrival and/or people talking/laughing loudly and then just walk straight up to them- but today I noticed that due to all the games we had been playing she now is giving ME the attention instead and there was no need to hold her close on leash! Thank you SOOOOO much—you are amazing! Just one lesson and so much improvement! I mean, I will give Molly some of the credit hahaha, she is a smart cookie and has always learned so fast.

Just one lesson and so much improvement!

But wow, this has been what I knew I needed all along but never had another person to do it with- I knew I needed another person to set up these people-distraction practice scenarios like we did in our lesson to teach her the foundations of what I needed her to know when out on the street, but I just never had another person to do that with. Even my Mom, I had asked her so many times and she would say yes but then never was “available” so I think even having her in lessons with us and just her commitment to this in general is now making her want to be more involved and motivated to actually do so. Thank you!!

What a MAJOR difference working with you has been compared to the nightmare of the last service dog program…

Anyways, what I want to add is just what a MAJOR difference working with you has been compared to the nightmare of the last service dog program/scam we went through. From our first meeting even, I remember driving home with my Mom and we couldn’t stop talking about all the differences! I kept saying things like, “and the fact that she even has all those worksheets! And that she even WANTS to talk to my therapist! And that she understands PTSD and CARES enough to want to know what my signs and triggers are when working with me!” I was just shocked, seriously, because the last program had NONE of this. Your worksheets on dog training were well beyond their knowledge and also well beyond the basic time/caring that they spent on their clients/dogs.

Like the fact that you spent time making the client portal and making those sheets and that you KNOW all that stuff- those people had zero training worksheets to give us, no knowledge on training to even tell us beyond just demonstrating a few of the same things every time we saw them with the same demo dog that over time we came to notice was just abused and overly fearful of this man (came out later from several families that the demo dog had actually bitten their children on visits to the kennel, UGH). They also not even once asked to speak nor even write to my therapist, nor even asked me to fill out any worksheets on my disability!

I immediately felt comfortable with you because there is a true level of empathy

You are so incredibly thorough in understanding the person, and I immediately felt comfortable with you because there is a true level of empathy there because this is something you have gone through yourself. I think that really helped me feel comfortable too. Throughout everything so far, you have been so incredibly kind and patient with me and have put me at ease. I can tell that you genuinely want to help me and Molly and that you care about doing whatever you can to help us succeed. Usually with most people, I feel too judged and anxious to work with them on something like this, especially when it involves me performing tasks in front of them. So the fact that I feel I can do it with you says a lot.

As compared to the other program I went to and I’m sure even “good” programs but ones that are just big factories of service dogs that spit out tons of dogs a year, I think that working one on one with someone like you that actually understands and makes such an effort to get to know all aspects of me and Molly’s life together and my disability, I think makes such a difference and I think ultimately is what will set me up for the best success in the long-term.

You go above and beyond by doing things like making accommodations for my disability to make things easier/work better for me such as filming the lessons so I can review them later or working with me to come up with specific ways that I can manage communication to the public about her since that is something I struggle with (the last place never gave me cards like the ones you just emailed me! So thoughtful and helpful- the difference between this and the last place is just so profound and such a welcome relief to me and my Mom that it’s hard to describe in words, we finally feel like we are in the right hands and can relax!). I’m so grateful and happy to have found you and to finally not feel alone in this process!

June 17 (after Opie’s second lesson)
Hello Sharon,
We cant wait for our appointment and to continue working on our progress. So we had some great things happen between last update and now. We had one night our neighbor was having band practice so she tried all her dogs outside while they practiced inside so I hooked opie up and we practiced getting closing to the trigger. We got to the fencing no problem till her dogs wanted to come closer. When this happened we reatreated and started again. I was super impressed with opie and being that close. We had another day we were sitting eating lunch and the neighbor walked by with his dog and he ran to the fence and we were able to get him to come back and stay by saying thank you opie and treating him. So awesome compared to were we were.
We cant wait to see you tomorrow and hopefully the rain holds off on us.

July 17 (after Opie’s third lesson)
He will play with ball and ignore neighbors and disengage from them with it. Still a little on edge with them for a bit then starts to forget theyre there. Kongsickle and milk bones are perfect to give to him for when strangers come over.I cant seem to get my hand eye coordination right during the turn with him. But working on it.  We still havent gone for walk other than to the mailbox and back. But no encounters yet during it. I am perfect with the planned agenda for Friday

 and cant wait to work on it more and talk about future opie goals. 
Cant thank you enough again from where we were till now. 

Aug 22 — after Opie’s fifth lesson
Hey Sharon,
Opie is doing good. Sometimes the neighbors dogs are at fence line and it takes a little work to get him to disengage but it happens and we dont have to drag him away. We also have been to the lake once. I went down while all the neighbors dogs were out and with our clicker we got past them with a few looks but no barks even though the other dogs were going nuts! Then when we got to the lake since it was a dull day it was pretty dead and he did fantastic on his new harness with long leash swimming around. We even had a gentleman launching his boat and using his name and positive praise opie didnt bark and kept coming back to me when called. He got one little arfff because i tried to see if hed come back without me calling him but after the arfff I said opie and he came. No barking at bikes, we use our ball when people are walking and he chases it and ignores them. No one on one interaction with other dogs(still makes me super nervous to try) and i try to make sure when i go to lake it’s a dead time so if there is a person we can make sure we keep space to work and not overwhelm. He didnt love other dogs that were on our walk but we know how to walk away. Thank you so much again!!! Amazing!!
Still super happy with progress and we know we have tons of work to do but were super hopeful since our training days. 
Thank you thank you thank you!!!