The Training We Didn’t Know Was Training: Learning in All the Wrong—and Right—Places
If you’re new to this service dog public access training series, be sure to catch up on Part 1 and Part 2! These early chapters follow Lady Priscilla’s progress as she prepares to navigate Halloween Horror Nights with confidence and calm.
Thank God for Emily.
We found her first, in those hazy early days when Lady Priscilla was still shut down and entire sessions were spent on learning to allow herself to be petted. A young, inexperienced, but incredibly eager trainer at PetSmart, Emily has an almost preternatural gift for assessing what Lady Priscilla needs and making it happen.
She’s our “challenges” and “weird stuff” private trainer, the one where we can walk in and say, OK. This dog is balking at weird textures under her feet. What happens if we’re on an airplane and have to evacuate down a slide? And without thinking twice, Emily will wrap a foam dog bed in a trash bag and teach Lady Priscilla to hang out on it. She’s been the one rock-solid consistency in our lives since shortly after adoption day a little over a year ago. I doubt that will ever change.
Jenny Returns
Meanwhile, Jenny rematerialized from the proverbial fog, 6 months after our last day of reactivity class, with an offer we couldn’t refuse: CGC class.
The CGC—Canine Good Citizen—is a foundational milestone in many service dog training paths. It’s a 10-skill test designed to demonstrate basic manners, stability, and handler teamwork. Dogs must remain calm through greetings, loose leash walking, distraction exposure, and supervised separation. For some, it’s the final destination. For others—like us—it’s a rite of passage. A quiet, confident yes to the question, “Can your dog really do this?”
Lady Priscilla wasn’t quite ready yet, but we knew we would be.
And we knew exactly who would help get us there.
Of course, these were all simply foundations. As gifted as the trainers are, there’s only so far they can take your dog…at least, unless you’re wealthy enough to pay someone to walk around in public with you for months on end. So with the basics firmly in place and three different trainers cheering us on, it was time for us and Lady Priscilla to focus on the business at hand.
We’ve already told the story of Tunnel—the command born of a simple need to get Lady Priscilla through tight spaces, which quickly became a fully generalized and absolutely essential command for service work. As it turns out, that’s also haunted house training. Without meaning to, we were teaching her how to walk into the unknown and trust the process.
Meanwhile, Halloween last year sort of snuck up on us. Were just so busy between work and real life and all the training. But one day it dawned on me that Spirit Halloween was open for business. What better place to test her resilience around giant scary animatronics and unexpected noises and gallons of stage blood?
We had been doing service dog training at the mall for a few weeks, and after a rocky start that involved startling at an obviously fake tiny bright pink toy dog that was moving ominously, she was doing really well. So after a vet visit one day, we headed to the nearest mall with a Spirit store.
She. Was. Fascinated. Watched the animatronics with a strong curiosity, but absolutely no anxiety. Walked eagerly through the curtains into Spirit’s little mini version of a haunt (projection only, no actors). Yay tunnel!
Stepped back when one of the animatronics made a loud sudden sound, but didn’t react inappropriately at all. Yay relaxation protocol!
Calmly watched the kids running around (yay mall training right by the big indoor playground). All in all, a total success.
Of course, you can’t train for HHN without tourists. Pretty early on, we wanted to try again, but did you know that CityWalk doesn’t actually have a single service dog relief area?
By this point, we were really starting to understand how it all fits together. And a big part of her early service dog public access test training consisted of sniffing it out in the parking lot, going inside for a bit, and then sniffing it out again. CityWalk required a long walk to and from the garage, plus however long there, with nowhere to sniff it out.
Enter Disney Springs. On an uncrowded weekday morning, she easily navigated the security line and the outdoor mall atmosphere. Unfortunately, it was boiling hot, so we didn’t stay long. But that didn’t matter. Lady Priscilla rose to the occasion, drawing compliments from onlookers for her manners and skills. First big theme park-adjacent outing since the CityWalk debut was an unmitigated success!
Continue to Part 4: The Accidental Curriculum
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