As with any relationship with a living creature, a service dog partnership is always changing, developing, and adapting-on both ends of the leash. That's why I like having a breathing, thinking, reacting dog to help me rather than a robot. My partnership with Morey is continually growing and changing, which keeps me from becoming too stuck in my way.
As a service dog partner, the rules I apply to my dog have sort of a pendulum swing to them. I tend to start out very strict- enforcing sitting while being petted, perfectly straight positional commands (heel, front, etc.), and requiring a down to be in a close, curled up position. Then, over time I tend to relax more and lower my standards. And accordingly, Morey lives down to those lower standards and starts seeking out attention, doing sloppy commands, and sprawling out all over the place when asked to do a down. When I finally come to realize how far we've slid, I have only myself to blame. My dog has done what has worked for him and received no instruction to do something different. Then, it's time for the pendulum to swing back in the other direction for a while to tighten up some of the slack that I have allowed.
Thankfully, I'm a dog trainer and so I know how to fix my own mistakes in this area. Morey will be finding that it's time for a mini-boot camp to get back into working condition and he enjoys training so this won't be too much of a challenge. Consistency is important with dogs and I need to be better about finding a midway point between my extremes. But until then, we'll just keep ticking away, back and forth, back and forth.
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