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As a side note, I have been working a lot with my own dog while I have been home and I have noticed how awesome a cue "touch" is. I just have to hold out my hand (which you have everywhere with you) and ask her for a touch and it is such a great distraction from other dogs or the chickens in the backyard. Even for dogs at home, it is such a cool cue to help distract and make sure the dogs focused on you rather than some other thing, my professor even suggested this to us in class. She trained her dog by putting peanut butter on her finger (I hold a treat in my hand to get the smell on it, so that my dog smells my hand), but really any way you can lure the dog to touch your hand with their nose works. Soon, you just start pairing it with the cue "touch" while fading the lure to your hand as quickly as possible, eventually they'll have it down!
Yesterday, after a long break from Neeco (not on purpose, I was in Nevada last week), I took him out on a dinner and movie date with my friend Kelly. I am constantly shocked by how most of the public has little to no reaction to a dog in public. However, there are sometimes when the public gets really into the fact that there's a dog. I get it, I love dogs myself and want to know more about them and find myself wanting to ask people questions and I don't really mind when people are curious about the tasks he does, much like a nurse or someone would be interested in a new wheelchair or medical device that someone has. But as a trainer, my eyes have really been opened to the frustration of clients when people view these dogs as just dogs, not life-helping devices. Sometimes, I forget that this is only a small part of the training process.
We went out for sandwiches before the movie and, of course, like any good public access trip, we went to Target for a little bit. We ended up going to the wrong theater because I didnt know that a theater changed from current showings to second-time showings. It was okay though, because we made it to the right theater to see Deadpool 2. Neeco did really well with all of the action scenes and noises! He did a little pre-bark noises, so I sat on the floor and distracted him for maybe 10 minutes and then he fell asleep for the rest of the movie. He did really well for not seeing me for 2 weeks! It's really strange going from my smaller dog to him because I'm so used to her size and he's so big compared to her! |
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June 2020
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