Balance support
From Service Dog Training
How to teach your dog to provide balance support while walking and standing.
- work in progress*
Contents |
Preliminaries
The most important thing to consider when teaching balance work is your dog's physical capabilities. Doing full balance support requires a large enough dog to support your body weight, as well as a dog that is physically developed enough and physically sound enough to do this work. Providing full balance support should be restricted to fully developed adult dogs of sufficient size (usually a minimum is about 55-60 pounds) and have been screened by a veterinarian to insure they are physically capable of the work. This means screening for hip and elbow dysplasia, and any concerns specific to the breed you have chosen.
First Steps
The first step to teaching your dog to support you is to teach your dog to resist against pressure placed downwards on his shoulders. When you have your dog standing next to you, try placing a moderate amount of downward pressure with one hand in the center of your dog's shoulders. Your dog will likely have one of two possible reactions to this pressure. Some dogs will consider this a request to lie down and will flop down politely. Other dogs (the more stubborn variety, like I have) will either stand impassively or actively push back. Make sure you brace yourself before trying this exercise in case your dog lies down on you suddenly. If your dog stands or pushes against you, teaching bracing will be much easier. I will be breaking the remaining training advice into two sections, one for dogs that lie down under pressure and the other for dogs that actively resist the pressure.
Bracing while standing: Dogs that lie down when pressure is placed on their shoulders
The easiest first step when you have identified that your dog prefers to yield to pressure is to either teach or review a stand-stay command. There are many websites and books that describe ways to teach the stand-stay command so I won't go into it here. Once you have taught your dog to stand stay, place yourself in a stable position (sitting may be best if you are not confident standing without support) and call your dog to you. Give the stand-stay command and praise the dog when he complies. Very gently place one hand on the dog's shoulders and give just a tiny bit of pressure. If the dog maintains the stand-stay reward and praise the dog. If the dog begins to lie down, let up slightly on the pressure and repeat the stand-stay command. Gradually increase the amount of pressure you place on the dog's shoulders while he is in the stand-stay position, rewarding the dog for holding his stance. Once you are confident the dog will hold his position under a fair amount of pressure, change your body position (if you were sitting, stand, and if you were standing, sit) and repeat the exercise so the dog understands that he should maintain this position when pressure is placed on his shoulders. Many dogs get the hang of this very quickly, especially if they have an established stand-stay command. At this point you can add a specific command for this behavior, if you want to use one. You may instead wish to teach the dog to brace every time he feels downward pressure, especially if you plan to teach him to brace you while walking later on. If you only want the dog to brace in a stationary position, you might get more use out of a command. Once your dog is comfortable with you putting downward pressure on his shoulders directly, you can add a mobility harness if you plan on using one. These harnesses are specifically made to accommodate downward pressure on a dog's shoulders. The addition of the harness may cause the dog to backslide in his behavior briefly as it is a slightly different sensation, but he will adjust quickly with praise and reinforcement.
Bracing while standing: Dogs that resist when pressure is placed on their shoulders
If your dog stands firm when you put pressure on his shoulders, teaching the basics of bracing will be fairly simple. The main issue here is to ensure your dog braces consistently and steadily each time you apply pressure. Reward your dog each time he braces until he does it consistently. Once your dog is bracing consistently, change your position. If you have been practicing by putting pressure on the dog while you are sitting, then stand, or if you have been standing, sit. Practice in this different position until your dog braces reliably in both positions. At this point you can add a specific command for this behavior, if you want to use one. You may instead wish to teach the dog to brace every time he feels downward pressure, especially if you plan to teach him to brace you while walking later on. If you only want the dog to brace in a stationary position, you might get more use out of a command. If you will be using a harness with your dog, this is a good time to introduce it into your training and practice bracing using the harness.
