Snake Avoidance: Week 1: Day 4

Week 1:  Intro to Reinforcement

Day 1: 

Day 2:  Walk Away

Day 3:  What's In The Bowl

Day 4: Adding the Snake; Hula Hoop Leave It

Day 5: Can I Steal It?

Day 6: By My Side

Introducing the Snake (cat)

Jennie and Lexi

I am very very happy how our 5 mini sessions ended today . My video shows our initial reaction to J.D. (the fake cat) FAIL :) , I put her away and move it farther away . When I take her out I end up giving her two leave it cues -not ideal eh? She responds on the second. We end the morning on a much more relaxed note , we started at about fifty feet away and ended thirty feet away (approx)

This afternoon i did two more sessions and have posted the end portion. To start off I placed the cat at 60 feet away as I thought in her own back yard she might be more "up" She handled it very nicely and over two more short sessions (five minutes max) we ended like you will see.

It really is all about reading your dogs body language and creating a great leave it cue . My cat by the way started facing sideways and in the end was facing forward . She also (obviously is not moving and had no scent) I did the scent yesterday on its own and it was fine -it was interesting to watch her gather the scent .

So do i keep on this path (working closer) -at what point do I add scent and/or sound?

This is good, very good. Working 40 feet in one day is awesome.

Work the scent and sounds separate for a few sessions, then add the fake cat back in. It appears that she is more "sight" oriented which was what I suspected when you first asked me about cats :) But as I said in today's introduction to this weeks games, the scent always comes first. If possible, test this. How's the wind factor there today? If you have any wind at all, put the cat downwind, and then bring Lexi out, see if anything changes.

During this last summer a Cooper Hawk laid eggs in my eucalyptus tree and hatched four beautiful babies. Upon the first flying lesson, one fell behind the tree and broke a wing. I didn't know this and let all four out the door. Asher flushed the baby out from behind and then the other three chimed in. They all listened to a leave it and I rescued the bird, but, so long as the smell was still there, they would head for that tree first thing upon being let out every time. Took about a month for the smell to completely vanish.

Question: Does J.D. move at all? Battery operated? If so, good. I would like eventually that we add the cat moving. If not, strap the cat to the RC car !!!! So when we get to Still Dog Moving Dog, Flip the Fish and Squirrel!, you'll have a moving cat.