Off-Duty

A common question I get is how my dog knows she’s not working anymore! The answer is quite simple. I want to preface this with this isn’t how every Service Dog is trained, there are many different cues to tell a Service Dog whether they are working or not.

My dog knows when her vest goes on, she’s working. The program I got my dog from, Ultimate Canine, trains their dogs this way. She becomes professional with the vest on and when the vest comes off, she goes into puppy mode!

Another way my dog knows if she’s working or not is through the environment. When we’re at home, she doesn’t task nearly as much as in public. And that’s simply because I don’t need her to. So she knows, she can be a puppy at home.

The last way my dog knows she’s off-duty is when I give her the command “free dog.” This means she can do whatever she wants (within reason).