#chasetheservicedog

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After a busy day, I think Chase is trying to tell me something 🤣 I'm going to take his advice and turn in. Blessings to all for a great night! 

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Chase loves to dig his whole snout into the snow 🤣😂🤣

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“Mom, can we please go to bed?”

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Chase enjoying some relaxing time on the deck.

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Chase is all buckled in and ready to go run an errand with us. Since we don't go out in public places as frequently, he gets quite excited when we get in the van these days! 💕

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Chase stayed home while we attended a Newsboys concert. He had a lot of playtime with family members and got a special treat of lounging on the couch. It sure was uncomfortable not having him by my side!! ❤️

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Unbreakable Bond

Chase is such a snuggler! This is becoming one of his favorite things to do later in the evening ♥️💞

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Chase and Vicky 1/28/2020

I take a photo with Chase every day when I come downstairs in the morning. I look forward to having a photo diary of us aging together. Today’s was uniquely hilarious 🤣😂🤣

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Chase enjoys birdwatching ♥️

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Chase Completes Wheelchair Training

After taking a little break from foot training, to focus on Chase’s ability to ignore food on the floor that doesn’t belong to him, we finally completed the sequence today. This was the first task I taught him on my own that took multiple steps and I’m amazed at how quickly he caught on. He knows the sequence so well, I could probably give the cue one name and he would complete all the steps involved. I’m reluctant to do this because there are times when I just need a part of the task done or need to pause in between.

Chase is so eager to learn, practice and master new tasks. As I said before, he is very food motivated (another thing we have in common 😂), which makes his desire to learn and practice the task extremely high. But many jobs he does for me are done so frequently throughout the day that a “Good Boy” and a stroke on this neck is sufficient praise to motivate him.

I am keeping a list of things I’d like for him to learn to help me further. Next on the list is mastering the deck sliding door from the outside. In the winter, I don’t go on the deck so we remove the ramps that allow me to get out there. Once we think the final snow has fallen, we’ll put the ramps back so I can go out and teach him the proper standing positions for opening and closing from the outside. Initially, when he started opening and closing the patio door from the inside, I had to block him into the proper angle using my wheelchair so could get the best leverage. Eventually, he no longer needed me to do that and I can give him the command to go outside without being near to the door. He has learned which way he needs to stand to tug in each direction. Since he loves to sun himself on the deck, I’d like for him to be able to let himself back without needing me. Our alarm system has a feature that chimes when an entry door is open so I will always know if he goes out or comes back in. Right now, he stands at the door and barks once or twice. If nobody comes fairly quickly, he barks twice again. I discourage him from barking unless I’ve given him the command to “Speak” so once he can open and close from the outside, there will be no more need to stay at the door to prevent the bark.

This video is actually a splice of two videos because Chase needed a bathroom break 😂. In the end you’ll hear him emit the barks to have somebody open the door. He also likes to bark at rabbits but totally ignores the excessive barking from the 3 German Shepherds, 1 Husky and 2 Yorkies across the back yard from us. On the advice of my Helping Paws graduate follow up trainer, I’m working with him to get a pristine recall. Sometimes when I call him from another area of the house to come to me or to come back to the house, he lopes. By changing the excitement in my voice and rewarding him with a party of diced carrots and apples or other healthy treats, his pace back to me is becoming much more rapid with urgency. Once we have a perfected recall down, he will be conditioned to come to me no matter what the distraction.

For my next Chase video, I’m going to enlist the help of my husband to follow us around the house showing all the wonderful ways Chase helps me. He truly is a blessing! So without further ado, here is Chase handling all the motion needs of my legs/feet in my wheelchair. There is a second 1-minute video following the initial one where we went through the process and Chase shows his stuff 😂 He nailed it!

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Chase-deer

Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen and Chase 😂 

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Ready to work!

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Chase loves his Arm’s Reach Co-sleeper for pets! 

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Catching a little “dog nap” ♥️

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Chase loves to play in the snow!