Boone’s life isn’t too complicated. He spends the day with me …well actually he spends every minute with me unless he is choosing to play LGD in the back yard to the chickens, rabbits and Mister the horse. He’s also been quite effective in telling us if ranch dogs have snuck out in the middle of the night to chase calves in the back pasture or even corral by the big barn. He hands me whatever I point at or ask for, which is very handy. He picks husband’s laundry up off the floor every day and gives it to me to sort into the hampers, gives me whatever I drop (glasses, phone, etc) searches for and locates my meds. the channel changer (Randy loves turning on TV then leaving house. I truly dislike TV )

He goes out each morning with Fen and the man, to do chores. He then comes back in, eats breakfast, then chuffs at me with a decidedly judgmental look on his face.

Apparently there is a daily cookie quota I am supposed to meet, but usually fail to.

Part of my daily entertainment, as he is so huge, and our house is so small, is to toss a mini milkbone across the room and watch him stretch for it, to avoid getting up. It’s amazing how long he really is.

He enjoys going to town and meeting new people. (Very unusual for his breed) Being an introvert, it’s actually been a good thing for me as people always stop to ask questions about him, which is about the only thing I am comfortable talking about.

At 30 1/3 inches at the shoulder, and #135 lb last time he weighed in, he is the perfect size for me to hook my fingers in his flat leather collar so he can help me forward and keep me upright. I’ve had several nasty falls without him. I was only employing his mobility skills outside and in town, as usually I can pinball off of walls or furniture in the house and keep myself from actually landing, but last time I went over backwards, spraining my wrist and the big guy ran to check on me, stepping on my hand, dislocating my thumb and peeling the hide off the back of my hand. My thumb is still pretty painful in spite of using my comfrey ointment which worked wonders on my wrist. We work together now, making sure he's next to me at all times. I could use a walker in the house, but it’s pretty inconvenient trying to get it around stuff, as I said, the house is very small. I actually gave away the dining table years ago because I couldn’t get my wheelchair past it when I was completely non ambulatory, so having Boone’s help has been a game changer.

Still, he IS a puppy still at only 15 mo. and easily bored. I’m limited to enrichment games to entertain him. He particularly likes if I get a handful of kibble and toss it across the room so he can use his skills searching each bite. It’s most fun when they go under stuff as he can actually rearrange the furniture to access it 

He does let himself out back when he wants, but seeks me out the moment he returns inside. It’s still a little unsettling the way the bathroom door gets yanked open if he suspects I’m in there. If so, he boops my face then leaves. As I mentioned, he is really big, with an extremely broad head and each time he comes in from his nightly patrols, he slaps my face with his monstrous tongue, I guess to let me know he’s watching over me while I’m (or was, until he smacked me in the face) sleeping.

He dislikes the long drive to town and back as much as I do (2 hr to small town of Burns, 3 1/2 to Nampa, ID where we do all our shopping and errands) and cries during the first 30 min of the trip, although he always jumps in his seat willingly and doesn’t mind at all going from place to place while in town. It’s the 4 hr drive that gets him.

All my doctors know him, and the hospital people have always had nice things to say about him, both when we took TheMan in and when I went to have my hand x-rayed.

He's so well mannered and does extremely well, no matter where we go. He's very adaptable and doesn't mind staying in motel rooms or anywhere else as long as he is at my side. Last summer's road trip was a definite culture shock for him, as we spend our lives in solitary, pretty much not doing anything except taking occasional trips into town for meds and supplies, but we drove for hours at a time, meeting and visiting friends and family, often with lots and lots of people around. He enjoyed the attention and made the most of it.

And occasionally, his method of introducing himself was perhaps less than distinguished, as in the case of my son...

Luckily, strangers always let me know “He’s a BIG dog!” as I might not remember.

Except when we go out to eat. He doesn’t fit under the tables, and he likes to mansprawl in the aisleway. I recall his size easily, then.

I’ve used positive reinforcement for all his training. He’s responded really well, particularly for a breed developed to think and work independently without any direction from their humans. “ Obedience “ and compliance are both against the LGD nature, so Boone is my unicorn.

He is a dedicated, opinionated, playful gud boi, and I’m darn lucky to have him.

Boone : boon | bo͞on | noun 1 [usually in singular] a thing that is helpful or beneficial

 

A lot has changed and a lot has happened this year. One of the main things, is that Fen is no longer acting as my Service Dog. Even though he is exceptionally bright and was able to perform all the tasks I needed, he HATES going to town. He also hates being home with me during the day so he is now Randy’s ranch dog, doing nothing but lay around in the grease up at the mechanic shop, but that is what makes him happy.

Boone, the Anatolian is now my Service Dog. He has really surprised me.

Before I go further, I want to explain that using a Livestock Guardian Breed as a Service Animal is usually a bad idea, as they tend to be both human and dog aggressive by nature of their job. They are also not known to have toy or food drive so training is difficult, then there is that independent thinking problem, where they don’t tend to do anything you ask unless they had already chosen to do that thing.

However, it was becoming clear early on that Fen was not going to succeed at Service Work and I needed help. Therefore, I began letting Boone sleep inside at night to increase our bond, and began intentionally building both food and toy drive into his still malleable personality. Fen taught him to play tug which was the biggest lucky break. Using tug as a motivator, I was able to teach him to open the doors in the house (ours have levers, instead of knobs) and pick up and hand me things, and eventually send him to bring me things. Nothing happens by accident, and while I was considering using Boone as a Service Dog at home, I began to experience frequent falls. There was no warning I would fall, no dizziness or anything, I would be walking along just fine, then suddenly crash on my left hip and shoulder. Over and over through the winter and spring it happened.

I realized I would need Boone to, in addition to all the tasks Heath and Fen performed for me, be a mobility dog. At least until we figured out what was causing the falls and how to prevent it.

Now, I began to look at Boone differently.

He was definitely going to have the size I needed for mobility.

By nature, LGD’s are masters at economizing motion and energy and are happy to lay around, appearing to sleep all day, so long rides to town, laying under a restaurant table or napping on the floor of a doctor’s office or hospital was not going to be a challenge.

Both Heath and Fen had bad experiences with faux SD’s charging them while working (a real Service Dog must have such a soft temperament that they will not defend themselves or owners if attacked) Heath became fearful and Fen became reactive. LGD’s are fearless. They tend to ignore strange dogs when not in their territory, and are not challenged by them.

LGD’s bond very closely to their livestock. I would become Boone’s livestock. Bonding to me would not be a problem.

People don’t understand that asking to pet a Service Dog is bad etiquette. Distracting a dog that does medical alert, for instance, could be dangerous for the owner as the dog may miss an alert that could prevent serious injury or death to its handler, while distracted by an admirer.

There are dogs trained to help people who suffer from PTSD.

It’s a no brainer why you wouldn’t want to approach one of those teams.

LGD’s tend to be aloof to strangers.

Therefore, I had 3 big challenges to making this work.

1. Making sure Boone is not dog aggressive, but remains dog neutral.

2. Making sure Boone enjoys human interactions and never sees a human as a threat to me.

3. Training him to do things that are just simply not in an LGD’s wheelhouse.

We immediately began taking Boone with us every time we went to town. I always have dog treats with me when training or working. I wanted Boone to interact with anyone who was curious and willing to pet him and/or give him treats. This was wildly successful. Boone, at almost 10 mo is my social butterfly.

He is happy to greet anyone who asks him to, gently accepts treats, then immediately turns his attention back to me. This was so much better than I would have hoped.

Boone plays with Heath and even though the ranch dogs are not kind to him, he likes to visit them. Dogs in public, so far, have not caused any problems and Boone’s size seems to be a deterrent to them. (He is 30” at the shoulder and already weighs #135)

He has been absolutely solid at picking up things I drop and handing them to me, much to my surprise. Holding his leather collar has saved me from a number of nasty falls. He can easily open and close the doors to the house, he happily jumps into the backseat of the truck when we go somewhere and waits politely while I attach his leash, to get out. He is able to find and bring me my meds and the tv changer when asked. He continues learning the names of various items. In addition to all of this, he still patrols the yard, day and night, to make sure the rabbits, ducks and poultry are safe as well as any orphan calves that wind up in his care, but spends the majority of his time with me.

Boone is both a legitimate and effective Service Dog and while there will be a lifetime of added tasks for him to learn, he has  yet to master fitting under a table while I eat, to be all I currently need him to know.