Living with a disability, be it chronic pain or another, means days don’t always go as planned, and it’s good to have a back up plan for days with your service dog when you just don’t have the energy or patience for a full day of training, playtime, and more.

On your bad days, follow these tips for taking care of yourself, while still fulfilling your service dog’s needs.

Work for Meals

  • Do a series of short commands/exercises in order to have dog work for their meal. This can be done by feeding the meal in small bits throughout the work, by having the food out nearby for impulse control practice, or by practicing a few things at breakfast/dinnertime and then feeding the full meal. ​
  • Dogs like to expend energy & accomplish things
  • Makes meal time more exciting & engaging
  • Works up a hearty appetite; some dogs won’t eat or will eat very little if they haven’t done much that day
  • Let’s you control how much food your dog eats at a time; great for feed bolters
  • Teaches your dog to eat anywhere
  • For reluctant eaters, this can be a good way to engage your dog & make meals fun
  • Dog may be more likely to eat all of their dinner
  • Provides mental stimulation to dog
  • Gives handler a chance to see how crazy or laid back their dog is around meals & food in general
  • Practice dog’s impulse control around food; great time to introduce a command for eating
  • ​Great Time to Work on Frustrating CMND or New Thing b/c Higher Motivation

Benefits to handler

  • Fitting 1-5 exercises into a 20 minute session allows you to cover a lot of ground but expend less energy
  • Ensures dog will eat all or most of their dinner on days where not much gets done
  • It fulfills three daily necessities with one act (meals, training, mental stimulation)​

Treadmill Time

  •  Investing in either a used human treadmill or a dog treadmill can be a life saver when you live with a disability!
  • Gives the dog exercise
  • Teaches them to be at ease with things moving beneath them
  • Doesn’t expend energy for you
  • Great way to let the dog release energy before a walk, making them less likely to pull or be a jerk, and more likely to listen and learn​

Puzzle Games

A. Puzzle Boards

  • Encourages problem solving
  • Teaches dog to use mouth & paws effectively
  • Impulse Control: Ask dog to sit/lay down before & after puzzle session
  • Give a specific cue to do the puzzle; ours is “find treats”​​

B. Hide Treats in House

  • Hide dog’s favorite treats, like small plates of PB, throughout the house. Under boxes, behind chairs, etc and send the dog to “seek” or “find treats” depending on the command you use. When the dog finds it, their reward is getting to eat it.
  • Encouragers problem solving
  • Encourages dog to use nose first instead of eyes to find things​​

Dog trying to get treat from sealed box

Handler in Chair or Bed

Handler remains in a chair or bed while running through a series of exercises or commands with the dog.
Unless you are wheelchair bound, it’s easy to get caught up in always working with your dog while standing. You sitting or lying in a bed changes the variables of the training situation for both you and the dog, and often it’s enough of a change that regular commands & actions become more of a challenge. Dogs learn by associations. That’s why when you first teach something new, it’s a good idea to always practice it in the same place with the same distractions until the dog understands it. A piece of that setup includes what you, the handler, are doing. When you taught sit, were you standing or kneeling in front of the dog? Let’s say for 3 days, you only did sit kneeling in front of the dog, but on the 4th day you tried to stand. Did the dog blatantly ignore you, as if they didn’t understand? You changed the set up, without realizing it. When a dog is first learning, you want to go slow and not switch it up, but once the dog has learned their commands and is reliable, then it can be creative and clever on your part to go out of your way to mix it up.
Your Service Dog Might Need to Be Able to Do the Following with You in a Chair:

  • Come to heel and sit
  • Come to heel and lay down
  • Be in heel and stand
  • Move into a bracing stand (if bracing is a task)
  • Sit, Down, Stand on your right side
  • Come to one side and crawl under your legs or chair to “tuck”
  • Hand you objects
  • Do alerts (if an alert dog)
  • And the list goes on.

With you in bed, your dog might need to be able to:

  • Come to the edge and sit, lay down, stand
  • Brace for you to get out of bed
  • Tug items from far away to the edge of the bed
  • Bring you objects
  • Do paws up to hand you things
  • Do alerts
  • And so on​

​Make a list of all the commands and exercises your dog needs to be able to perform both with you in a bed, and in a chair. Once you have that list, practice this exercise at home first, then try in public when you feel your dog is ready for the challenge. Practicing at home gives you a chance for refreshing the dog’s memory on the command, room for corrections as needed, and the chance to integrate playtime if your dog needs more engagement.

Tug for Dinner

Dog Tugs Rope to Reveal Tray of Food Out From Underneath Another Object

  • Tie rope to lightweight tray
  • Pour a little food on the tray
  • Hide the tray in/under another object (something it can slide out of)
  • Make sure rope is accessible
  • Go!​

At the end of the day, if you’ve done one or more of these things, your dog will have been provided for, and you won’t have the burden of feeling guilty for not having “pushed through.” Living with disability is a full time job, and some days you won’t be up for pushing through, which is completely fine! It’s easy to beat yourself up, but it doesn’t help anything. Try out these tips for a guilt-free day with your service dog on your rough days. Chances are, your service dog will be glad for a lighter work day and the extra snuggles!

You can sign up for a Free consultation to start training with me here, or email me to sign up for a Coaching session to ask questions about living with and training a service dog.