A big part of becoming a service dog is being able to ignore distractions and practice impulse control in a variety of situations. In this video Zion and Zeplyn are training in a pet store. You will see our trainer Brooke dropping tasty tidbits and the dogs practicing "leave it" while practicing holding a "down stay". This is especially difficult with a cheese stick in front of them, and a lady holding another dog just over Zeplyn's shoulder! These service dogs-in-training make it look easy, but these are just two of the over 30 commands that they need to master on a consistent basis in many different situations. All of our dogs start training at eight weeks old because it takes many hours of training and practice to become consistent. Besides mastering their commands in a variety of situations, they must pass a public access test. I will show you a video of that in next month's newsletter!