Sargent Pupper Barnes

A blog following the training and life of Sargent.

[secret-agent-sargent]

In case anyone was wondering, Sargent is still most definitely a spoiled brat and loving it.

[secret-agent-sargent]

I feel like it’s been a while since you’ve posted, how are you Sargent and Friday?

I completely didn’t see this, they’re doing really well! Friday is now a fully trained service dog that absolutely loves her job, as well as achieving her Rally O titles (from no title to RE in 4 months- I’m so proud of this dog!) and working on her obedience and hunting titles. 

Sargent is a glorified couch warmer and absolutely loving it! My girlfriend is his absolute favourite person and he regularly ignores me or tries to kick me off the couch to spend time with her lol. 

I am active on Instagram @secret.service.dog if you guys want to see more updates! It’s unlikely I will become super active here again!

[secret-agent-sargent]

What breed of dog are you getting?

I’m getting a Belgian Groenendael! He looks like a small bear and I’m in love!

[secret-agent-sargent]

I haven’t really posted since I got Friday, but the pack is growing again so I thought I would make another post lol. I’m now one of those crazy dog people you’re warned about that drives an insane distance to get a puppy...

[secret-agent-sargent]

Thank You Jasper

Today, I am so thankful that I have Jasper in my life. He has been coming to work with me instead of Sargent because I don’t quite trust Sargent around children yet. So I took Jasper to work today, just like I do three days a week (I don’t want to over work him, so I leave him at home two days). IT started off relatively normal, I wasn’t feeling 100%, but that’s not unusual after a long week. What is unusual is that I slept almost 10 hours last night. When I head down to the front desk to grab some keys, Jasper tried to drag me out the front door. I completely ignored him and instead went back up to my office, Jasper dragging his feet behind me. Within half an hour, I was dizzy and shaking with a brutal headache and Jasper looking at me like ‘well, I tried to tell you’. I kept working though, a lot of what I was doing was at a desk, so I wasn’t really at a risk of falling or anything and it did little better. But any time I got up, Jasper tried to get me through the front door. It got to the point that every time I turned to head back to my office, Jasper would lie down facing the exit, or try to cut me off from where I was going. I ended up calling it a half day and left at noon. 

This is the look Jasper gave me as soon as I got in the car. He kept looking at me like, ‘see what you made me do? I had to work. That was effort. Now get your ass home so I can go back to bed.’ As I was driving home, my brain kept getting worse and worse. Luckily I didn’t hit the lowest point until I got home. I can’t be happier with Jasper. He is the best dog I could ask for. We have our ups and downs, but he has never failed me. The best part is, I never trained him to do this. He completely trained to do all of his tasks with minimal guidance on my part. Thanks for being awesome, buddy. 

[secret-agent-sargent]

I can't believe it's been a whole year without you buddy, miss you every day.

[levathian]

The fact that I Don’t Seem Autistic™ is mostly a sign that I’m spending way too much time and resources pretending I’m allistic so you don’t get uncomfortable. I’m not “high-functioning” or “well-adjusted”, I’m behaving. I had to go through years of abuse so you don’t get embarassed when I flap my hands in public.

Don’t use “You don’t look autistic to me.” as a compliment.

[autisticeducator]

“You don’t look/seem autistic” is one of the biggest insults you can say to me.

[twobigears]

Any recommendations for cheap-ish, decent ingredient, non-perishable training treats? I typically use Happy Howies or cheese but I’ve got a five-day trip coming up with no way to store cold treats. Cloud Star and Zukes seem to be decently priced on Amazon, any other recommendations??

[secret-agent-sargent]

Pet Botanics, Merrick Power Bites, Fruitables (the baked or soft flavours), Bixbi pocket trainers, Stella and Chewy's Wild Weenies, Crumps Mini Trainers (or the cat treat versions of their treats, I especially like the shrimp), and Purebites are the brands I can think of. Pet Botanics are similar to Zukes and can be cheaper.

[service-polarbear]

What they don’t tell you about having/training/raising a service dog

It’s like having a young child with you. Even the most trained dog still has to be cared for and monitored and you have to do things for it that it can’t do. It’s rather inconvenient and sometimes having a service dog seems more inconvenient than your disability, especially when your dog is still learning.

There’s a HUGE learning curve for you, the handler, to adjust to just having a dog with you. It’s awkward and it takes a long time to get used to having a dog all the time. Siting at a desk, going to the bathroom, using an elevator, leaving your spot, walking to a vending machine, it’s all now very complicated and takes twice as long.

It’s very awkward and embarrassing at times. You don’t want to do simple tasks in public because you have a dog and it would just be weird for some reason.

When you run into other service dog handlers, it’s just really awkward and weird because you know you are both on edge wainting to see who’s dog will start acting up and impede your own dog.

Seeing other people with disabilities that could benefit from a service dog gives you guilt, like you’re not “disabled enough” for a SD or that you are privileged to have an SD.

Family discovering that you have a service dog is so uncomfortable. You know they are going to judge you and say things like “why do you need a service dog?” because they are family and thus feel comfortable telling you how to live your life and criticizing every aspect of your life aloud and to your face.

If you also have a dog who is just a pet, you feel bad leaving them behind all the time.

[the-disreputable-service-dog]

^ v accurate.

[millenniallust4death]

One of the best places to notice heeling effort is the about turn. During slow pace, cue the about turn (I look at my right armpit), turn and freeze. Does your dog try to line itself up with you? Does it forge on ahead swinging its rear out? Does it lag and catch up?

When your dog does any of these things what is your response? Do you keep moving? Help it verbally? Stop and wait for the dog to make the correct choice after a correction? Slow down giving it time to catch up? Are you holding the dog accountable for its training or letting things slide?

Matthew Twitty, excerpt from a post in the Lakeland Canine Academy Facebook group (19 April 2019).

Martin used to do this in his heeling practices. Or about turns with over rotations (360, 540, 720°). About turn and then sprint forwards or backwards. About turn and then send the dog to a fly. Being unpredictable keeps your dog from checking out in heeling. Be sure to video yourself!

[gustavowasright-deactivated2022]

What helped my abouts the most was editing my body language. I am super clumsy so it’s something I had to spend an excessive amount of time practicing outside of training, and will probably have to spend gobs more time doing so in order to be as easy-breezy fluid as I want to be. It’s hard for me to do ANY movement where I have to think about multiple aspects of my movement at once, lol - having to focus on controlling my footwork, speed, head movement, torso movement, and what point of the swing my arms are in really hit home for me how difficult heeling must be for the dog. It’s still something I struggle to consistently control. I don’t have good body awareness, lmao. 

A big aspect of editing my body language WAS slowing down. I’d careen through our abouts with how fast I was flipping. Happy is fast, but not that fast. Slowing down has really smoothed them out (Megan suggested this and she was totally, 100% right). 

The unpredictability aspect also really helped us, from over rotations, to an erratic pattern of turns and halts. I find doing an erratic pattern causes Happy to load more than she does in long patterns without a lot of variety. Several of your suggestions are new to me - I will have to try about turn then sprinting forward, or moving backwards. 

[millenniallust4death]

Senta perfected looking like she was attentive but was actually totally checked out. Martin did a lot of weird things to see if she was phoning it in. Bosco was always super engaged but needed extra rotation work because he is lazy with his huge ass. Biggest piece of advice that Shade gave Martin for Bosco’s about turns was to stop slowing down for Bosco. Martin didn’t even realize that he was accommodating Bosco’s laziness; Bosco spent a few reps being left behind until he learned to speed up. Being left behind was the end of the world for Bosco.

[millenniallust4death]

schitzhund said: It’s so funny the different things an individual dog can find rewarding or punishing! Senta and Bosco are really good contrasting examples.

If you see videos of Senta heeling, her appearance is all shaped behaviour, none of it is “real”. The head up, ears forward, wagging tail, upwards body collection, appearance of attention, etc. that was all broken out and shaped as tiny pieces. With Bosco, it’s all offered behaviour; that enthusiastic, engaged picture is “real”. Martin did the work with Senta to challenge himself as a trainer. A dog like Senta is frustrating but she will make you level up in training skill. How do you create an engaged picture from a dog that has zero motivation for the work?

[anshelinasholie]

me for 3 years straight: “sorry i haven’t been myself lately”

[baptizm-deactivated20200524]

Bosses be like “the fact that you clock out on time and refuse to come into work early or on your days off shows you’re not committed to the job :/”

[academicssay]

The best things in academic life are-

[To purchase full text click below]

[millenniallust4death]

Bosco’s Problem:

He wants faster delivery of his meal outside.

Previous Solutions:

1. Yelling. Satisfying but not allowed.

2. Jumping up and doing a box turn on the window in the door. Satisfyingly clear communication but *really* not allowed. Yelling from the Human.

3. Intense circling. Unsatisifying.

Current Solution:

Spitting orange ball at the door. Makes a pleasurably loud bang sound. Ball taken away. Going to have to give this more thought.

[sadhoc]

“i’m in kind of a weird mental place right now” i say, as if there are times when i am not in a weird mental place

[millenniallust4death]

“You can fit so many feral cats in here.”

[adventuresinchemistry]

Least favorite lab equipment?

idk it really depends on the day

but my favorite lab equipment will always be our hand crank centrifuge

[jewishdragon]

im sorry the what

[adventuresinchemistry]

this bad boy, for when you’re too lazy to walk up two flights of stairs to the shared lab space with the preparatory centrifuge but not too lazy to put some elbow grease into spinning your shit down

[metricparty-deactivated20221104]

Method: Samples were centrifuged at whatever rotations per minute (RPM) Joey “the beast” McRipped could achieve on his saucy days. We’re not sure how fast, but it was impressive. Supernatant decanted off and….

[weekend-writer]

I need a video of this bad boy in action like right now.

[adventuresinchemistry]

I come bearing gifs

[valtsv]

i wouldn’t survive one of those “evil doppelgänger” movies because like i barely have any self-concept dude… like some bitch shows up and tells me they’re the ‘‘‘real me’’’ and i’m an imposter and they’re going to kill me and take their rightful place which i stole from them i’d just be like i don’t even know who i am, man

[valtsv]

if YOU’RE me… and I’M me….. then who’s the double????????!??

[fangirltothefullest]

Ok but like this is hilarious to me??? You’re sitting there and your evil doppelganger appears in your living room after haunting you creepily and youre all scared and they’re like muwahaha I will now kill you and take your place! And you’re just like so relieved and you say my dude I have no sense of self and my life amounts to Not Much… I have taxes and student loans and like the economy is shit if you want my life go ahead and take it.

And the doppelganger is like wait what?

And you’re like, in fact, I’ll give my life to you so long as I can go live in the woods as a hermit with wifi and stuff. Just remember to feed the cat and try not to do the murder thing.

And the doppelganger is like wait you have what now…?

And you’re just listing off the shit you have yo deal with? Student loans, no money, tiny apartment, cat…. and youre like, you should know what my life is like, you’re the one who wants it. Also don’t go to the grocery store two blocks away my ex works there and you’re totally gonna have to deal with that embarrassment if you walk in. Oh and also I work like three jobs so you probably won’t have time for any murder sprees cause like the rent is real expensive my dude. And I’m allergic to gluten and nuts! Anyways have fun! I’m gonna go become a bog witch and live off plants and not have responsibilities see ya!

And the doppelganger is like NO WAIT COME BACK THIS WAS A MISTAKE-

[injuries-in-dust]

Bold of you to assume I’m leaving my cat behind.