# Sodapops Training



## ServiceMini (Sep 25, 2021)

So I decided to use this to document some of the training Sodapop and I have done/will do together.  I'm going to be going through and going from when I first got her, to now, and posting her training and what she's learned.


This is her on our first walk together, learning how to lead next to the walker and get used to the village. She accepted the walker very well, with no real fuss. She was very curious about everything on our walk, and whinnied at most people she saw. We took things slow, and for this first walk only went around the block before heading home for a nap and some rest. This was her second day of lead rope training.

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## ServiceMini (Sep 25, 2021)

This is the third day we had her, I was working on teaching her to follow me around and pay attention to where I was, the same way I do with all my other animals when they're babies or new to me. I especially find this important for either very small or very large animals. But I thought it was important for her to know that following me = good things, where as not following = nothing happening. She typically doesn't follow me around much, but she does come when called and is aware of where I'm at, which is all I really want. 
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## ServiceMini (Sep 25, 2021)

This is from the day when I first started working with her on scratch-interruption, one of her tasks for when we're in public. She was at the point of consistently licking my hand or nudging it when undistracted. 

To train this, I held a carrot in my hand and lured her to my leg and started scratching, and waited until she made an attempt to get the carrot out of my hand to give it to her. Over time she knew that scratching meant she had to bump my hand strongly (which makes me stop scratching) to get the carrot. Once she fully understood this, I then removed the carrot from my hand and started giving it to her after she tossed my hand up.

To counter this becoming a nosey/demanding behavior, I also worked with her on me holding a carrot in my hand and letting her try to get it until she gave up; and over time she learned the only way to get a treat is to behave and be polite- unless I'm scratching. I always use the 9-10 ratio. 9 times out of ten, she must be polite and not beg for a treat in order to randomly get one for behaving well. 1 time out of ten, I will scratch and she will be rewarded for interrupting it. Making behaving well the most rewarded means she doesn't learn the bad behavior of begging, but still learns how to interrupt scratching. She is now at the point where when I'm scratching, she will toss my hand away a few times before starting to lightly paw at my foot if I don't listen, which makes me listen very well to her.   

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## ServiceMini (Sep 25, 2021)

This is from a ride to the park, where she road in the bike-trailer for the first time, and met her first service dog friend! It was also the first time she wore her vest. 

Here we were at the park, and she was just learning how to not-nibble grass while vested, and to ignore people calling/talking to her.




This is her practicing 'Front Block', where she stands in front of me sideways, useful in two scenarios. One, to create space between me and a triggering person, so I can calmly interact. Very useful for certain people who don't know what personal space is.  The other scenario is to help keep her safe; to keep her within my view and using myself as a shield to make people leave her alone. Very useful for kids in stores, people trying to pet her, or agressive dogs. My service dog was taught to do this as a puppy, largely to keep people from grabbing at him, and so this is the very first position I started teaching her to get into whenever I sit down/stand for awhile. We are still working on connecting it to the name 'Front', but she lures into this position and knows to stay there very well by now.




This is of her and Oden, a service dog we know. He was beautifully behaved, especially for never seeing a horse before. It was so nice to see her so relaxed with him right there. She was trying to boss him around a bit by walking right into his face and pinning her ears, but after being told no by me a few times she stopped and settled right down. She's my little sassy pants!

It's incredibly important to me to have her comfortable around dogs and other animals; as we have a serious problem where I live with people bringing untrained dogs into public, or allowing them to be off leash in public/in their lawns while we're on walks. Again I try to use the 9-10 ratio. 9 of her encounters with other animals are positive, to offset the 1 time it's not (we've already been lunged at a couple times, and once a dog made contact with her), so luckily she still loves dogs. She has a poodle friend bigger than she is that she winnies at to come say hi every time we see him. 


I find it particularly cute how she followed where Oden looked! 



This video is the final bit of training we did that day, where we had gone up to the splash pad to watch the water and adjust to kids screaming and running. She did so, so good this day, it made me so amazed to see how level headed she was. We practiced walking over a playground, practiced walking over a wooden bridge, and she met loads of little kids. 

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## ServiceMini (Sep 25, 2021)

Soda pop learning her first trick, 'Smile'! She is still learning distance, but now I don't need to be in front of her to get her to smile.  (Also, if there is a way to include multiple videos in a post with text in-between, can somebody tell me?  ) To teach her this, I just tickled her lip a bit. 
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## ServiceMini (Sep 25, 2021)

This is her using her ramp to get down the stairs. We have it one step down to slowly work on her coordination and muscles needed for doing stairs (something all service horses need to learn), and because having it all the way up was just too steep for her. She adapted to the ramp very well, and it helped me not need to carry her down the stairs every two hours for potty training. To teach her how to go down the ramp, I actually started by teaching her to walk up it. Once she mastered that, I put my hand on her chest to help her keep from just rushing down it; as doing it slowly and methodically is safest. After awhile, I took my hand further and further from her chest. This was still fairly new to her, so she rushed down. We were showing her progress with this video. Eventually this will be helpful to get her into cars with too high of a jump for her. We found this ramp that is rated for 500 pounds, and have tested it to 325 pounds. It folds in half, and has teeth on the top to help with traction so it wont slide off the stairs. A very good find! 
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## ServiceMini (Sep 25, 2021)

This is her potty training setup. Adult horses can hold their business anywhere from 2-6 hours when fully trained, with the record being a very stubborn boy who refused to pee for about 10 hours. Sodapop is fully pee-trained, and honestly pee-trained herself in a matter of days to go to her litterbox or wait to go outside. But litterboxes are needed for indoor horses, as it's super important to keep their gut moving. Her litter box is a kids wading pool, and we use fine shavings. There is a product called Sani-care that is wood and clumps when wet. Poop training has been harder, but at 4 months old, we are at the point where it's not unusual for her to go a full day without any poo-based accidents. Night time is a different story, but it's getting better. My secret weapon has been mandarin oranges. She gets one little slice of one every time she uses her litter box, or goes potty on command outside. I think the biggest hurdle has just been age and waiting for her to physically and mentally be ready. We're at the point now where the only time she has accidents it's in the same room as her litter box, and she is busy eating. When eating it's only a 30% chance she'll realize she needs to go before it's too late. But it's so incredibly hard for her to make herself stop eating just to go potty, much like any other baby.

The process has been simple, just leading her into her litter box every time she starts to go and reward it, paired with tying her in her freshly-cleaned pool untill she went potty and rewarding her. Also taking her out every 2-ish hours for a few minuets, we're now up to every 4 hours as that seems to be her natural gut cycle.





This is her after her second bath, she did wonderfully. She allowed me to wash her all over, no rearing or bucking like she did during her first bath. I started with her hooves and very low water pressure, then slowly worked up to a normal water pressure and her upper body and face, giving her breaks every 3-5 seconds and giving her occasional little bits of cut up carrots. She didn't enjoy her bath, but she did let me get all the mud she'd gotten into off of her lol.

This was also taking during the two weeks at my grandfathers house, where she lived with a doggy door to go out into a fenced in area, and without her litter box, instead having a vynal-covered corner that was fenced in (around the doggy door), or wandering the house with me right behind her to make sure she had no accidents. Surprisingly, her potty training was BETTER when she came home to her litter box- it's when she started pooping regularly in her litter box instead of having accidents. My only explanation for this is age and maturity, as I was expecting it to have the opposite effect on her.




This is from last night, where we went to a football game. She did fabulously, we worked from our home up to as close as we could get; and she handled it so well that she was falling asleep standing there. We worked on not eating grass while standing, grazing when given the okay, and standing calmly next to me while people pass without whinnying at them or trying to go up for pets.





And this final video is from tonight, working on stairs! Stairs are probably the hardest thing to teach in my opinion to any animal, but they're something that all service horses need to learn how to manage. They need to be able to use their core, balance, and coordination all at once to navigate them. Going up is the easier part to teach; although going up slowly, pausing between each step is harder. Sodapop can go up most stairs, although we're working on going up them slowly. We stick to small staircases, of 2-5 steps.

Going down is MUCH harder. We started with the ramp on the second-going-down step. This way she had to step down one step, with my hand in front of her and on her shoulders to help her keep her balance. Then we started learning on the back steps, which are three steps, not very high, and about a foot long- giving her MUCH more room to navigate each step. At first I had her going down at an angle- so her hind hooves could step onto the same step as her front hooves before the front went down next. So all four feet were on the same step at once.

After she mastered going slowly down them at an angle, we slowly straightened out until she mastered putting her front hooves down and quickly pulling her hind hooves down to the step her front hooves just came off of. For now we stick to small, wide sets of stairs to build up her confidence slowly, and to build up her muscles and coordination.

In all honesty, this is probably the only part of training that scares me. It's also something that I wouldn't be doing if it weren't a necessity. Training my dogs to go down one step at a time was hard, but with a horse it's just scary.  

And now, with the exception of one video that refuses to load, we're all up to date!  I'll be updating this with various training we do, and how we go about it, as there's honestly no real record of a step-by-step raising a service horse. Hopefully by documenting everything, someday it can help others see where we made mistakes so they can avoid them!
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## Cayuse (Sep 26, 2021)

Are you training her for yourself or a client? She's cute as a button!


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## HersheyMint (Sep 26, 2021)

This is a great documentation. I enjoyed very much.


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## ServiceMini (Sep 26, 2021)

Cayuse said:


> Are you training her for yourself or a client? She's cute as a button!


She's for me.  I'm a service dog trainer for clients worldwide through video and text assistance, but I decided to personally switch to horses as they live so much longer and can safely do mobility work. I would need a mastiff for the mobility work I need; and their fully-trained workspan is only 3-5 years before retirement. So a horse was just more logical.  I have considered, if she works out as a well stable-minded and able-bodied mare, possibly breeding her after she's fully trained before my service dog retires to train her foal to donate, but that's years off and fully dependent on how she matures. So far the need for service horse temperament younglings and adults is far greater than the horses available who have the right temperament.


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## Cayuse (Sep 27, 2021)

That's interesting! I have a form of arthritis that is slowing me down alot and I can't see myself ever being "horseless" though at some point it may happen. The option of a trained service mini is appealing to me.


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## ServiceMini (Sep 27, 2021)

Cayuse said:


> That's interesting! I have a form of arthritis that is slowing me down a lot and I can't see myself ever being "horseless" though at some point it may happen. The option of a trained service mini is appealing to me.



As far as I know, there is only one training facility, it's in Florida.  I'm in a group with the person who runs it. If you have any questions, feel free to ask! ☺


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## Kelly (Sep 28, 2021)

This is AWESOME!! Great job, she is doing wonderful!!


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## ServiceMini (Sep 30, 2021)

Guess who's graduated to a bigger set of stairs! Very proud of her. We practiced going down with me holding her coat for her (She is so tiny I'm using my dogs jacket on her and it fits perfectly) to help her keep her balance, then with her going down with me in front to keep her from rushing down and tripping. Going down slowly is hard for her, but is already getting easier and easier now that we're actively practicing it more. We are also working on going down the front steps of the house, which are 'normal' regulation stairs. On those she wears a special vest with a handle on it so I can help her down. As she's building up her balance and ability to coordinate it's getting less scary to work with her on these. She much prefers going up stairs.




We also worked on her walking in front of me, and she's been doing so well. No more lagging far behind on walks. ☺ 
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## ServiceMini (Oct 1, 2021)

Soda just pottied on command for the first time!! We were out grazing on her lead, and I made her stop for a bit and then asked her to go potty, and she finally peed! When asked!  This is a HUGE step towards starting public access. Once she is pooping on command, we can start going for short public access trips! I am so proud of her. This is one of the bigger milestones for any service animal in training; it allows us to have our animals try to potty outside before we go outside.

To train this, I have been pairing the phrase 'go potty!' every time she potties, ever sense I got her. It's been building a mental connection, and she is finally old enough to start controlling herself enough to try pottying when asked to. So proud of my girl!


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## HersheyMint (Oct 1, 2021)

Oh she is so awesome and so cute. Your works shows


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## ServiceMini (Oct 2, 2021)

HersheyMint said:


> Oh she is so awesome and so cute. Your works shows


Thank you so much!!  She makes training easy!

Today we went on a short walk up and down the street without my walker. We worked on starting to move, stopping, then speeding up and slowing back down, making sudden turns or circles, or backing up, while staying in a heel. She did so well, but we need more work on slowing back down! Once she gets going, she just wants to keep going lol. Maybe I can trailer her out to the park and teach her to trot next to my bike on a long leash and a dog harness on the grass? She never runs on her own, expect when she is on a walk! I have only seen her run once on her own, and beyond that it's when a teen the next road over jogs up and down the road with her for me (which she LOVES). Her fastest pace is a quick walk usually, although we've been practicing trotting/walking/trotting/walking.

She is doing good peeing on command now, but has been on an accident streak lately for pooping; but such is potty training. It's never linear. Funnily enough; when I came home today from a trip with Ponyboy (my service dog), I found her in her pool pooping! So it's a little bit of progress at a time.

We've been working on liberty work in the back yard, and she is starting to understand following in a heel position and learning to turn and keep close. We're working on this leashless, as we're switching to a hands-free leash (it goes around my waist or over my shoulder) as soon as she fully understands heeling and positioning commands so I can stop holding her leash, as it aggravates my MCAS and makes my hands blister and rash up.

She is starting to respect 'leave it' for longer than a second or two, but we still need to solidify it with grass. But I am so proud of her. She comprehends what it means, she just still has baby self control; so with age it will get easier. I usually don't expect young animals to 'leave it' for very long. So if she goes for grass, I say leave it, she stops and then ten seconds later goes for it again, I'm still proud of her even as I tell her to leave it again. I also use the 9-of-10 method on this, where 9 out of 10 times she will be rewarded for responding to the leave-it command, so she understands that usually it's better to leave it than to ignore me. Once she hits a year old, I will expect her to be able to leave something alone for a few minuets, and at two or three indefinitely. But that comes second by second, and through countless reputation and praise and rewarding the wanted behavior.

She also seems to be picking up on my Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome with all the walking we do. About 30-60 seconds before an episode of extremely fast heartrate + low blood pressure + starting to faint, she will either freeze and refuse to move if I am standing, or will come and nuzzle me with her chin while I'm sitting. I caught a photo of her doing this yesterday; she lays her entire head on my lap and sways her head back and forth.




She does this VERY consistently(Started out once in awhile, and now it's every time when we're out of the house with zero alerts at home when Ponyboy is there for me), which is exciting. It took Ponyboy two years to start alerting to my fainting spells and heart rate changes. If she is picking this up (it will take a few more weeks of consistent alerting for me to be fully convinced, so I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much), and I can shape it into a consistent alert, then it will make going places in the summer months far more possible. Ponyboy HATES the heat, and the heat is very triggering for my physical health issues, so with Ponyboy not working in the heat means we stay home or indoors any time it's 75F or higher out, a huge portion of the year. Having a horse in the heat is much different that having a brachycephalic breed dog in the heat, so it's possible I could go out safely during the summer.

I am hoping to teach her to nudge my hand to alert when we're walking instead of freezing. This should be fairly simple. I will need to teach her to nudge my hand by saying a word, and then cue her to nudge my hand as soon as she freezes up. By doing this every time she alerts and only treating after she's nudged my hand, she will learn to freeze then nudge my hand without a cue, and hopefully will voluntarily phase out the freezing. (Explaining for future service animal trainers, and anybody who is curious  )

The only way I can tell that it is an alert when we are walking vs a fear response is that there is no rhythm or consistency to it beyond me instantly having an episode after she freezes paired with her freely moving again as soon as I am back to normal. 

I am rewarding this heavily every time she does it now that she's proven to only be doing it before I have an episode. But I will not be trying to shape it for a few more months, to avoid putting stress on her when she alerts. Avoiding stress for young animals is key in building a mindset where working/training is fun for life-long _wanting _to work.

Sorry for the book lol. I am just very interested in documenting all of this, in hopes that someday it can help others. 

So far known tasks are: 
Scratch interruption- mastered inside, but only around 80% of the time outside, and 30% of the time when outside eating

Front- Very good at, but needs work when the rollator isn't there and I'm staying still for awhile.

Possible fainting/heart rate alert. Alerts 100% of the time when outside for the past twoish weeks, 0% of the time when Ponyboy is around or I am inside.


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## HersheyMint (Oct 3, 2021)

I find your training very interesting. I love hearing how well Sodapop is learning.


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## Silver City Heritage Farmstead (Oct 4, 2021)

I appreciate all this documentation as well. It motivates me to get out and DO things with my four-legged crew, instead of just feeding and running back inside.

What are you using to record your video? A cellphone or camera? How do you set it up?


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## ServiceMini (Oct 4, 2021)

Silver City Heritage Farmstead said:


> I appreciate all this documentation as well. It motivates me to get out and DO things with my four-legged crew, instead of just feeding and running back inside.
> 
> What are you using to record your video? A cellphone or camera? How do you set it up?



Thank you!!  I hope that you're able to hang out and have fun with them <3 

I use my phone typically  I am lucky enough with her alerting me when I'll have an episode that I can keep one hand on my walker, or take my hands off completely long enough to record short videos or snap photos.  I have dug out my proper camera though now! 

I am actually in the process of getting a custom vest made for Sodapop; but I'm unsure how much it will cost. But I'm hoping to also be able to get a tripod, or something to set the camera up on so I can record videos of both of us together to show how I train her new tasks, or how to train different tricks. I know I learn much better through viewing lol.  

When she is doing public access, I actually have a go-pro I use on my service dog to record out outings at times (the nice thing about being in a single-consent state for recording stuff) incase we run into legal issues. Usually at Walmart, as they allow any animal into the store. But I'll be attaching it to her to record our outings once in awhile.


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## Kelly (Oct 5, 2021)

ServiceMini said:


> Usually at Walmart, as they allow any animal into the store.



Walmart allows horses into their stores? Any kinds of pets?? Any animals?? I did not know this. I knew Home Depot and Lowe’s allows animals, but didn't know about Walmart. Cant wait to go to Walmart with a pony! I love taking them into different stores for training and desensitization. Thanks!!!

Sorry to be off topic, but do you know of any others stores that allow horses? Besides your typical pet store….. Petco, petsmart…


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## Kelly (Oct 5, 2021)

Update: I just called Target & Kohl’s and they both said ”Yes” to pets! Oh my! This opens up so many new adventures for us 



What kind of vest are you getting her?


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## ServiceMini (Oct 6, 2021)

Kelly said:


> Walmart allows horses into their stores? Any kinds of pets?? Any animals?? I did not know this. I knew Home Depot and Lowe’s allows animals, but didn't know about Walmart. Cant wait to go to Walmart with a pony! I love taking them into different stores for training and desensitization. Thanks!!!
> 
> Sorry to be off topic, but do you know of any others stores that allow horses? Besides your typical pet store….. Petco, petsmart…



Technically, Wallmart is not pet friendly, but they have a HORRIBLE policy of not questioning animals.  I cannot count how many times my service dog has been lunged at in stores, and they refused to kick the agressive animals out. Federal and state laws also state no animals in carts, but they allow it anyways. So i'll be using the go-pro to video tape for legal reasons incase any pets try attacking her, because pets tend to either be super quiet or completely freak out at her.  But as for pet-friendly stores, I do know a lot!!



Lowes
Joann Fabrics
Bass Pro Shop
Barns n Nobles
Icecream shops and other outside-venders are typically pet-friendly

As for vest, I'm either commissioning one to be made, or making it and then commissioning someone to embroider or use a circut to iron on words  Here is a photo of the designs! It will have pockets and a handle for me to hold to help her down stairs.


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## ServiceMini (Oct 6, 2021)

Also, for a Sodapop update:

She managed to crack her head open on an antique sewing machine.  She has a nasty cut, but the vet said it will heal on its own and to just keep it clean. So far it's been healing very quickly.

Tonight we went for a walk, and somebody was sweet enough to donate a dog jacket to her! It's a horse-type dog jacket that her golden retriever had before she passed. She brought it out as we were passing by her house, and came over and Sodapop let her put it on her and stood still as she adjusted it and everything! I will need to grab photos. But she has gotten to be so good at letting other people handle her too.  

We were also charged by a dog who got out of their house, luckily they were very friendly! I got between Soda and the dog as they came running over, and was able to catch him before he got to her, but she never stopped eating grass. She's a bit too mellow sometimes! Even with all the barking, she just stayed calm. We walked all over, and practiced ignoring lawn mowers today which she didn't have any trouble with at all.


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## ServiceMini (Oct 12, 2021)

Today Sodapop met a Great Dane, a youngster who is called Norma.  I just love her. She was very friendly, but also very confused and really wanted Sodapop to play with her LOL. Some of the pictures of Soda and Norma make them look close to the same size, but Sodapop is only about half her size.




Her alerts have still been 100% , so I've been documenting them carefully.

I was surprised the other day. I haven't had a full on meltdown near her before, but the other day I did when I got some horrible news. She came over and nudged my hands out of my hair and nuzzled me until I started petting her, and was more cuddly than she's ever been before. It really awed me to know how gentle and caring she can be, when she's typically friendly but aloof. She just insisted on being center of attention, doing all the tricks she new and licking my cheeks, something she's never done before. She likes to give kisses, but usually she licks feet instead of faces. 

It made me very proud of her. She really is a natural, and has adapted so well to her line of work. She seems to thrive off of having something to do, and it's nice to see that she does it even without treats lol.


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## HersheyMint (Oct 13, 2021)

She sure is special


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## ServiceMini (Nov 9, 2021)

Hey all! It's been awhile sense I updated!

Life has been very chaotic lately. I fell while looking for cow skulls in the woods, and bruised the head of my femur about three weeks ago! So no walks what so ever, and most training has been put on hold.




Sodapop is doing good though! She's growing out her winter coat, and because she's been spending so much time outside, I haven't shaver her down again yet.


We had a little fire out back, and she did great around it. In fact, she enjoys it so much due to our friends coming over that when she saw someone else with a fire down the street a few days later, she started whinnying at them trying to get them to come say hi!






This is her on her walk with a nice teen girl who takes her out every so often for me around town.  She enjoys seeing the big blow up decorations! 


Speaking of Halloween, she did dress up and help me hand out candy! She was whinnying at every group that walked by, hamming it up by giving kisses and trying to shake hands through her fence. She finally met my brother, his wife and my neice, they were all charmed by her. 










So far for training, we've taken quite a bit of time off. Which isn't really very concerning for me, as I have the goal of having her fully 100% trained by four years, and she'll be six months tomarrow.  Slow is fast when it comes to training.


What kind of training have yall been working on? Did anybody else dress up and hand out candy or go trick or treating?


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## HersheyMint (Nov 10, 2021)

She is so precious!!  Mint was an unicorn and Hershey wore a Hershey kisses hat for Halloween


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## Kelly (Nov 10, 2021)

She is getting so big! What a cutie!!

Cool costume! I love the handcuffs! Thunder was a bumble bee.

I hope you are feeling better. Moral of the story, DO NOT go into the woods looking for cow skulls, it can be very dangerous!


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## ServiceMini (Nov 10, 2021)

Kelly said:


> She is getting so big! What a cutie!!
> 
> Cool costume! I love the handcuffs! Thunder was a bumble bee.
> 
> I hope you are feeling better. Moral of the story, DO NOT go into the woods looking for cow skulls, it can be very dangerous!




The sad part is, I didn't even find the cowskulls!  I am starting to be able to stand for awhile again, but much walking lands me back in bed pretty quickly lol.

Thunder looks adorable! 

And I'm sure Hershey and Mint were super cute too  @HersheyMint


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## ServiceMini (Nov 20, 2021)

Small training update: Sodapop is now pooping on command!! We STILL haven't gone anywhere non-pet-friendly, as we're currently lacking a vehicle that is ours, and mom is all sorts of afraid of her having a poop accident in the vehicle we're using despite her having a diaper she wears in cars because she used to prefer pooping in them (which apparently is just a horse type of thing we've gotta work through lol).

We're basically done with house training as well.  I am so proud of her, she just needed time to physically and mentally mature enough for it to 'click'. I think Six Months is about the time when it finally fully clicked, as we haven't had any accidents sense just before she hit that mark.

We managed to get in a walk the other day as well! She was thrilled, as we haven't walked sense I hurt my hip. We took about three hours to get a little over a mile and a half done, but I needed lots of breaks in my rollator to avoid doing too much strain on the hip. But she definitely enjoyed walking, and was letting out little whinnies at everyone we saw.

Still no update on her vest. I gave it to a friend of my mothers to put together as she plans on opening a sewing business when she retires, but this is the first vest she's making. So I also included her vest I made her, and a old vest I used to use on her before I started marking her as a service horse. It's been over a month now, so I'm starting to get upset; as I could have had a professionally custom made one for much less in this amount of time, with embroidery. This will be without embroidery, so I'll have to custom order more words. But I do have my first batch of words for the vest!




How clean cut they are makes me sort of wish I had a vinyl cutter of my own! A friend made them for us, it's the facebook page I use, an 'ask for photos' one, and the Instagram I use.  I got two of each. This way people can just take a photo of her information to look us up later lol.



Here she is with my shepherd mix, in her first bit of real snow sense I've had her! She loved it, which is the opposite of what I expected given how she loves standing by the heaters LOL. She is still all shaggy, as she's been spending a lot of time outside given how bad my hip was; but I'm hoping soon she'll be returning to a full-time house horse. At night I put her back outside to prevent her from having accidents while nobody is awake to reward her for using her litterbox. And for now she isn't getting too super heated while inside, but I know as her coat keeps growing, she'll get pretty warm and need to be shaved.


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## HersheyMint (Nov 20, 2021)

Great progress


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## Willow Flats (Nov 20, 2021)

The picture with your dog puts her size into perspective! Too cute.  Do they play together?


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## ServiceMini (Nov 20, 2021)

Willow Flats said:


> The picture with your dog puts her size into perspective! Too cute.  Do they play together?



My dog Ziggy (the one in the photo) ALLWAYS tries to get her to play.  Sodapop doesn't have any of it lol. They do like to herd each other though! Sodapop will run around and Ziggy runs circles around her, and inside Sodapop will herd Ziggy room to room. Sodapop also loves shoving her head under Ziggy and lifting her up over her neck for some odd reason; I try to keep her from doing it but once in awhile she sneaks a quick dog-flip, and Ziggy just stands there on her front paws all confused. I'm lucky my animals all love each other so much LOL.

With my other dog, she'll grab his dogtags and shake them around  This video is from when she was younger. Ponyboy is much more relaxed than Ziggy, Ziggy paws at her when she tries shaking her tags. 

View attachment 20210702_162820 (1).mp4


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## HersheyMint (Nov 20, 2021)

That video is so cute! I don't know how you get anything done while she is there. I would just want to hug on her....all day


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## ServiceMini (Nov 20, 2021)

Yall I am SO Proud of Sodapop. Along with no accidents inside for a long time now, and finally understanding pooing on command, she had a MAJOR make-dad-proud moment!

We were messaged by a neighbor asking if we'd bring her down to let some people who were visiting meet her. The dad (who seems a bit nervious around all animals, less so around Sodapop though) opened the door wide up and Sodapop went up one step halfway, stopped, went back down and pooed outside after peeing on the way down the street. I was SO proud of her. Of course she didn't realize we were staying outside, and afterword's was very stubbornly trying to get inside where it was warm.







Not sure how impressed the dad was with her pooping in the driveway, but I'm super proud of her little noggin working out to go BEFORE she thought she was going inside.

But it made me so proud! It really showed me just how much she 'gets' pottying in the proper places now. It makes me excited to start public access soon, as soon as I get her vest in and get the labels made for it

It also makes me question how anybody could not want her little fuzzy butt inside at a party.


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## ServiceMini (Nov 26, 2021)

Okay, so we've done public access training twice now, and she nailed it both times! 

The first time we went to dollar general for a quick shopping trip at dollar general after a visit to country max. She did amazing, even though someone brought in a pet dog after us. This was November 21st.



We practiced 'Front', Touch, Positioning cues, and leave-it, along with a few scratch interruptions. She did amazing, and showed zero nervousness!



After she did so well at Dollar General, we decided to try out Walmart in her new-to-her Harness (it used to belong to my service dog before he got his new vest!), which helped a lot in teaching her to walk slightly ahead of me instead of directly next to me. We did Walmart on the 23rd.



It shocked me, their staff are trained on service horses! So we had no access issues at all, just asked the legal questions and that was it.  I am so proud of her, we practiced her tasks, and she caught a fainting spell and made me sit down, then continued to rub her face on me until it was over, even with people trying to distract her. She made me so proud!

I will say thought that it was slightly unnerving to be ALL over Facebook after our trip (and many people weren't kind).
But it's to be expected until people in the area get more used to her. And at least people sent me photos of us together!





After Walmart we returned to Country max for more bedding for her litter box, where she was a complete doll and loved getting attention, then we went to the local gas station. 
It shocked me how many people know about service horses, or about Sodapop in particular! 

Her newest thing is that she interrupts me from shaking my leg, something I do that precedes having a meltdown, so I know to stop and find a way to calm down.


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## minihorse (Nov 26, 2021)

Amazing, cool pics and nice story. Great job Sodapop.


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## Capriole (Nov 26, 2021)

Sodapop is AMAZING! Doing all that at only 6 months old!


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## Willow Flats (Nov 27, 2021)

Good to hear she is doing so well and that you are being welcomed into the businesses. I have read several news articles over the last few years featuring minis as service animals, so it's great that you are seeing and bringing an awareness out in the world!


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## HersheyMint (Nov 27, 2021)

Great outings for you both. I'm proud of Sodapop too!! Great pictures!


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## ServiceMini (Nov 27, 2021)

Thank you everybody! I am super proud of her and how far she's come. I was planning on four years before she was fully trained, but nope! She even hates letting me go places alone. She really seems to 'get' working.  




Willow Flats said:


> Good to hear she is doing so well and that you are being welcomed into the businesses. I have read several news articles over the last few years featuring minis as service animals, so it's great that you are seeing and bringing an awareness out in the world!



Thank you!  I carry around a print out of the ADA law with us just incase we aren't welcome somewhere, but so far haven't needed to use it which I am thankful for. There are three in my state including Sodapop, and they are becoming more common as people see how well they do.


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## ServiceMini (Jan 4, 2022)

Hello everybody! Wow it's been awhile sense my last update!!
We have worked more and more on public access training; mostly not begging for treats and standing still.

We have visited Aldis, where she had to walk through a room with three sides of it being sliding glass doors; and she didn't care at all! She looked longingly at the carrots that were on the shelves when I grabbed a few bags, and sniffed towards the basket of the cart where they were, but didn't actually move to try nabbing anything. Pretty impressive for a baby!



Afterwards I had her go potty outside on command, as she was starting to signal to me during checkout that she had to go. I am super proud of her for that! It really shows she comprehends not pottying indoors; even in large busy places.

The only issue we had was right after we put our cart away. A woman swung into the parking spot super close up to us and the van, then hopped out of the car and started grabbing towards Sodapop over and over again trying to reach her face and lead rope to pull her closer to pet; even as I was telling her not to and that she was working. What bothered me most was that she went "Oh okay, so I can't pet her?" Then instantly tried to again.  It really upset me; because that's just plain dangerous. Between whipping a car around inches from a horse and a person, then grabbing at an animal you don't know, and above all a service animal. I'm extremely thankful that Sodapop just knew to back up with me (the lady just kept following us back, almost the entire length of the van), and didn't miss any alerts. Sodapop seemed unfazed, but I was shaken up and annoyed, still kind of am!!


Last night she showed off a bit of a training, even if she was slightly mistaken. I was bouncing around dancing and singing, which I haven't done in a few months. Sodapop came running in from the other room when I started, looked at me, then started trying to interrupt my dancing like she does when she interrupts my harmful stimming/arm flapping when I'm stressed out! She started nudging, pawing, offering tricks, and giving lots of kisses and sniffing my face all over. It took a couple minuets before she realized I was okay and let me go back to my dancing! We've been joking that in reality she was just telling me my moves need work, they're so concerning. 

Training-wise we've been focusing on standing still, pooping on command on grass (she's finally figured this one out, and is doing it very quickly now!), ignoring grass on walks by voice alone which she is getting better and better at, and more alerts. She now does Fainting alert, Anxiety alert, and Panic attack alerts! She is working on scent training for panic attacks, but has shown amazing natural abilities at scenting stress hormones. She prefers when I am sitting down; she likes to put her nose right by my mouth to sniff it, but we're working on building more and more distance. We've also been working on pairing together finding my mom with the words 'Find Grandma' at home and when we're out and about.





Today we went to Walmart again! She wore my service dogs old pajamas that are too big for him, as it was pretty chilly! She luckily was only outside for less than two minuets going in and going back out. Over all she did really well. She is doing great at positioning herself in front of me when I stop walking; something I have her do to avoid people sneaking up and touching her without permission. She moves automatically in front of me every time we stop now when I don't have my walker. Luckily today I felt pretty good and with how flat stores are I was able to leave the walker at home; it gave me both hands to help lure her into positions to make it harder for people who were trying to inch in for pets. I am very excited for when her wording gets done for her cape! Maybe it will lead to less people trying to pester her.


She caught a few anxiety alerts, including a scratching episode. We had a man following us around talking about how Walmart was a barn, and how he was just waiting for her to kick someone and poop all over the store. I was tempted to turn around and point out that she's probably better potty trained than his kids were, and that I was more likely to kick someone than she ever would be, but I refrained LOL. Also had the typical questions of how to get a 'certified' Miniature service horse, and explained to a few people that there are NO legal certifications, registries, or ID makers. They're all just scams. 

I think the biggest area she needs improvement on is waiting calmly while standing still. She assumes the moment she gets into position and gets a treat/praise, she can wander around again. So working on standing still and not turning around and trying to re-position(aka, switch from 'front' to 'heel', then back to 'front' looking for more treats LOL).


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## Kelly (Jan 4, 2022)

AWESOME!!! Maybe you could teach her some of your fancy dance moves!!?? And then post a video for all of us to see  you could line dance together!!


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## Kelly (Jan 4, 2022)

ServiceMini said:


> Also had the typical questions of how to get a 'certified' Miniature service horse, and explained to a few people that there are NO legal certifications, registries, or ID makers. They're all just scams.



To be a service animal, do you have to have something from your doctor on file stating you have a service animal? Or something filed through the ADA?? Just curious on how it exactly works.


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## TheLastMinicorn (Jan 4, 2022)

Thank you for sharing this process with us, I am really appreciative of seeing all the effort and skill that goes into training a service animal and hope more qualified trainers like you take on equines to meet what I'm sure is quite a lot of need. Showing everyone how it's possible and what it takes helps legitimize them to the public, plus it's fun to watch!

Also love the PJ's!


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## ServiceMini (Jan 4, 2022)

Kelly said:


> To be a service animal, do you have to have something from your doctor on file stating you have a service animal? Or something filed through the ADA?? Just curious on how it exactly works.



Nope! Those are both common myths.  According to ADA, all that needs to be is 1) That you're disabled 2) That the dog/horse is trained to assist with the disability by providing some sort of work, not just emotional support. In order to be allowed in public they must be housebroken, not interact with merchandise or the public, and be under control of their handler.  There are also two legal questions businesses may ask, and if you answer wrong, they have the right to remove your animal but must provide other accommodations to let you do whatever you came to do. Same with if your animal is out of control, has an accident, or touches merchandise or other people without permission or when not tasking (such as picking up a item their handler is buying). There's also certain rules to follow in restaurants and stores, such as no feeding your animal from tables, no allowing them into furniture or carts, not letting them sniff walls/shelves, ect. and depending on the state, very steep fines for faking a service animal, and even jail time.

To bring them to work, you do often need a doctors note stating you require a service animal (usually a sentence or two stating your name and that you need one).

To fly you need a LOT more paperwork, and they no longer allow miniature horses (although the community is lobbying against this, as all service horses on flights have done great), as it's covered by a different law than ADA.

Animals in training are also not federally protected; but Sodapop already meets the minimum requirements of a fully trained service horse legally plus new york state protects service animals in training, so it's something we don't need to worry about. But if we travel, then luckily she'd already be covered by federal law.

It does however take roughly two years to fully train any service animal, and longer if they will do any type of mobility. Feel free to ask any questions! I am all about education. 





TheLastMinicorn said:


> Thank you for sharing this process with us, I am really appreciative of seeing all the effort and skill that goes into training a service animal and hope more qualified trainers like you take on equines to meet what I'm sure is quite a lot of need. Showing everyone how it's possible and what it takes helps legitimize them to the public, plus it's fun to watch!
> 
> Also love the PJ's!


Thank you so much, and welcome to the forum!  I'm so glad you're enjoying the process <3 Feel free to ask any questions if you have any!  And I love them too!! She is refusing to let me take them off now lol


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## Kelly (Jan 4, 2022)

Oh WOW! The horse I just sold has become a service horse and it makes my heart melt! The new owner has gotten a note from his doctor, although I’m not exactly sure why… but it is truly impressive the amount of medication he is off of now.

These little horses are just so amazing!!!


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## HersheyMint (Jan 4, 2022)

You and Sodapop are do awesome


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## ServiceMini (Jan 5, 2022)

Kelly said:


> Oh WOW! The horse I just sold has become a service horse and it makes my heart melt! The new owner has gotten a note from his doctor, although I’m not exactly sure why… but it is truly impressive the amount of medication he is off of now.
> 
> These little horses are just so amazing!!!



That is awesome!!  It's so good to hear of more service horse handlers! There is a group on Facebook just for service miniature horses with the majority of handlers in the world if he ever needs help with training. <3


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## JFNM miniatures (Jan 5, 2022)

Great to see your progress with Sodapop! Haven’t written yet, but I’ ve been following the progess all along!


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