Snake Avoidance: Week 4 - Games

week 4 flip the fish

here is my flip the fish- I decided to do a glorified eek its a mouse as you suggested in the forum. This is about 1 minute into the game . I had been rewarding LAT and any movement away . It is just the car. The reason i edited from about one minute in is i want you to see the sniffing she starts to do. I do not think it is displacement stress but i want your take on it . She actually starts to do it right after she does LAT and i do not reward . I also want to know if when she was choosing to stay away I should have been rewarding more. I am not entirely sure this is what you were looking for .
I was thinking perhaps using the cat sound on the car next or the scent -what do you think ?
Thanks

You are correct, it's not displacement. I think what she is doing is sniffing where the cat was trying to get some information about it.

Scent and sound both next, then the cat tied to the car.

You did perfect.

coping and pasting from forum

Jennie, this is going to be one of those cases where you do nothing. If you need to, put the fake cat in an Xpen or wire crate - seen but can't touch.

I'm going to give you a little history on a game I created for someone in my Canine Game Theory group on Facebook.

Her husband liked to take the dogs running with him every day in the fields. They got a new dog and she was a mess on the run. Constantly turning around to check in which slowed the run to almost a walk so he wouldn't trip over her.

I created this game to smooth out her run. Pay attention to step 3 - Drunkard's Run. In this step the dog is allowed to check out all the distractions and still gets a party at the end. Eventually, the dog ignores the distractions. (video at the end).

What’s Up Ahead

Game 1: Race to the end
1. Get some treats and a container
2. Put a few treats in the container
3. Show your dog that there are treats in the container
4. Put your dog in a sit/down stay or have a helper hold him in place
5. Turn, stop, put the container on the ground
6. Your helper should be motivating your dog.
7. As soon as your dog looks ahead, and you feel he’s ready to dash away. Say “go” and let go.
8. Your dog blasts away and races to the container and eats the treats.
9. Eventually add “go” as your cue just before releasing your dog.
10. Remember, we’re looking for speed.

Game 2: Go on cue
1. For this game you’ll need a couple of toys that your dog loves.
2. Stand with your dog at your side or slightly ahead of you, lightly holding on to him.
3. Your helper stands behind you, ready to throw the toy over your shoulder. (alternately you can throw the toy if you have no helper).
4. Your helper pats your shoulder as she throws the toy.
5. Cue “go” just before your dog sees the toy and release the collar.
6. Best-case scenario, your dog starts moving ahead.
7. The toy appears in front of your dog.
8. Your dog dashes to get his reward.
9. Repeat this until you dog is racing to where the toy will be before you even throw it.

Game 3: Drunkard’s Run
1. For this game you’ll need both food and toys. No small treats, the pieces must be big enough to be seen or smelled from at least 10 feet away.
2. Create a path that would approximate the path you run every day, curves and bumps and humps and dips and turns and twigs and leaves, etc.
3. Along this path, at the edge, alternately put toys on either side of the path about 10 feet apart. You can scent these toys with various scents if you want to make them more interesting.
4. Put your dog in a sit/down stay at one end of your path and walk to the other end.
5. Call your dog with “go”
6. Don’t worry about your dog checking out the toys, just wait til he gets to you and have a party.
7. Eventually, he will ignore the toys to get to the party. Once this happens start working for more speed.
8. Once you have some speed, don’t walk to the other end anymore. Tell him go from right next to him so he has to run to the end (where there will be a jackpot) and run back to you for the party.

Game 4: Into the woods
Now it’s time to add the runner behind the dog. Use the same gauntlet that you set up in game 3. Repeat all the steps of game 3 with the “runner” behind the dog both up and back.
Start taking toys out of the path until they are no longer needed and your dog happily runs to the end without having to sniff the toys and doesn’t look back at the runner.

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