Snake Avoidance: Week 2: Day 5

Week 2: Scent Games

Day 1:  The Shell Game

Day 2:  Muffin Tin

Day 3:  Show Me

Day 4:  Which Hand, Lights Out, What a Klutz

Day 5:  Back Up, It's Dangerous

Day 6:  Look Away, Walk Away

Back Up, Klutz and Which Hand

Here is three games -I used the scent to show the back up -is this what you were looking for ? I will try with the fake cat tomorrow , we are now within 10 f-15 feet away. Curious , I know we want the dog to move away but could they not just turn away ? I still have not used sound as was trying to figure out how to play cats sounds in the hoop

So we had a bit of trouble with what a klutz -she was picking up the scent -not what we want :) Joshua suggested on FB we get in and reinforce quicker . A great idea but what i did was say leave it like we were doing and then the show me game . This ok?

Finally we played which hand -this went fine - I will add in the extra person in next couple days

Back up was good, you waited until she indicated that she smelled/saw the target before asking for the backup. Is the cat smell in the container?

Which hand was good also, she did get confused at one point, but overall it was good.

When Josh answered Lynn, he thought she was talking about the scent still being close. Obviously in What A Klutz, that isn't going to always be possible. Using Leave It was fine with the show me. Back up will work, so will next weeks games. Remember we are starting on the "what do I do when I smell this smell, see this shape or hear these sounds" part of the games. We're still cementing the scent in the dog's mind as something to be aware of.


introducing sound

MY CAT TALKS AFTER ALL. Today I introduced the sound aspect and a bit of movement . I would have preferred no movement but could not isolate . No scent

I was happy happy happy about this . Everyday this cat shows up on our walks somewhere :) so the distance has lessened. Edited from the clip was after the last set up she actually walks away , right out of the area .

I see todays lesson is the LAT game -this was the first thing many moons ago i taught lexi to help with her reactivity- great game .

Lots of displacement behavior. I like that, means she releasing a ton of tension that has built up about cats. She's offering to walk away on her own even after a hard stare. This is very good, especially for only two weeks in !!!

Keep letting her move around like you did in this video and let her sniff and do displacement behaviors. She is getting rid of years of alert, tension, excitement about cats.

With LAT, make sure that the "yes" always brings her back to you. Make it fast, don't let her stare when doing this part of the Look Away Walk Away. Right now she's staring, so let's crank it up a notch, always feed right at your belly button, bring her back to you. When you get to the walk away, move fast, immediately upon seeing the "look".

"This is very good, especially for only two weeks in !!!"

hard work pays off but in all fairness similar things have been done with dogs a s triggers but I have never tried with fast moving unpredictable claw like creatures called cats .


Mary Ann and Deacon

As Jennie said, that was very nicely done. Don't worry about skipping one, Deacon is doing great, and like I said, there are only four new games this week giving all of you time to play catch up if necessary. There were six games, but I realized that I was giving you all too much. I'm use to working with raw public, those who have either done one puppy class years ago or never did anything with their dog.

So here we also see the importance of the reinforcement zone work. Deacon kept swinging his rear end around toward the snake, not something we want happening with a real one.