Sodapops Training

[HersheyMint]

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

 

[ServiceMini]

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.

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.

 

[ServiceMini]

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).

 

[Kelly]

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!!

 

[Kelly]

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.

 

[TheLastMinicorn]

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!

 

[ServiceMini]

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.

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

 

[Kelly]

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!!!

 

[HersheyMint]

You and Sodapop are do awesome

 

[ServiceMini]

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

 

[JFNM miniatures]

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

 

[Josh Kennedy]

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.

I am new here. I really got into miniature horses after my son started working at a local horse farm, got involved in riding lessons, working at the farm and IEA horse shows. I am totally blind, my son is 16 years old and is sighted--he can see. I spent 7 months with Jazzy, a miniature horse that they have there. And last week I got between Jazzy and Mabel, a larger pony. I should not have, I should have been paying more attention. And I got kicked in the left knee. Jazzy is an overweight 300 or more pound, 32 or so inch tall mini. In spite of a sore knee, I'm fine and I am still going to save the money I need to buy my own mini horse. I want to train it to guide me, instead of a dog. And I want to use the training methods that you can read about on this website. The same ones used for Panda.

https://www.theclickercenter.com/pg-2-basic-training-1

 

[1roadtoad]

I am new here. I really got into miniature horses after my son started working at a local horse farm, got involved in riding lessons, working at the farm and IEA horse shows. I am totally blind, my son is 16 years old and is sighted--he can see. I spent 7 months with Jazzy, a miniature horse that they have there. And last week I got between Jazzy and Mabel, a larger pony. I should not have, I should have been paying more attention. And I got kicked in the left knee. Jazzy is an overweight 300 or more pound, 32 or so inch tall mini. In spite of a sore knee, I'm fine and I am still going to save the money I need to buy my own mini horse. I want to train it to guide me, instead of a dog. And I want to use the training methods that you can read about on this website. The same ones used for Panda.

https://www.theclickercenter.com/pg-2-basic-training-1

Welcome. I just read that extraordinary report on the Panda project. Thanks for posting it. I have never personally seen a mini horse used as a guide, but have heard of it and seen it on tv. I wish you luck in finding that special little horse when you're ready.