celeste Posted September 22, 2009 Report Share Posted September 22, 2009 Daisy's been lucky enough to be chosen to be "used" at one of Nina Bodarenko's seminars on fears and phobias, just wondered if anybody had been to this type of seminar by Nina and what Daisy and I should expect ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReikiAnge Posted September 22, 2009 Report Share Posted September 22, 2009 No experience but look forward to hearing more about it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
celeste Posted September 23, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 23, 2009 We're going on the first weekend in Oct, so not far,just hope I can remember everything she says so I can post about it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
celeste Posted October 3, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2009 Well, thats the first day over, and I have to say she was fab,made such a difference seeing all these theories tried out on dogs and being able to ask questions, she's such a lovely person I wasn't at all nervous of speaking up and asking stuff. She agreed that Daisy was afraid of other dogs, and gave me two techniques to use with her which we tested out on a very lovely Papillion with great success. First one was using a long tailed soft squeaky toy which was attached to a string, theory is that you get the dog really wound up whiping and jiggling this toy about but never allowing them to get it and only doing it for 10 secs or so at a time,making encouraging noises as you do so, stop the game and hold out for a sit, as soon as the dogs butt hits the floor, you say another word in an excited tone " woohoo" was mine and start the game again. You get the dog so obsessed with this toy, which he is never given that it will ignore normally exciting/worrying things, so, you can eventually just use the word. We tried it with Daisy, fine, she liked the game, then brought in the Pap, as soon as she clocked him I started doing the game....and it bloody worked !, normally she would have been snarling at the end off her leash, but she never even got that far, tomorrow I think we'll be using a more reactive dog . The other thing she showed me was to use on-lead, she suggested using a Gentle Leader on her, which I have done in the past but gave up as it just made her worse, when I see another dog coming I've to walk in front of her, blocking her with my knee and turning her to walk the other way, I think this would work but don't know how usable it would be in our situation, as most dogs she gets in trouble with are because she's on-lead and they are out of control, so I really need to be facing the on coming dog to be able to fend it off, but I can ask her about that tomorrow, if I remember, can't wait ! Most of the other dogs were Collies, apart from a very handsome Trailhound, first time I've seen one in the flesh, gorgeous dogs, she used a combination of the toy and treats, all with great succsess, with dogs who would normally be growling at people, or in the case of one wee soul, glued to the floor with fear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyMalc Posted October 3, 2009 Report Share Posted October 3, 2009 Thanks for write up, I was wondering how you got on! Sounds very interesting, I'm looking forward to the second installment tomorrow night Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
celeste Posted October 3, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2009 Och, that was just the warm up, loads more to tell. With the couple of Collies who were frightened of people, she had them off lead, wandering round the chairs, it took them a wee while to pluck up the courage, but everyone was very patient, when they did start to investigate we were to throw down a treat and say in a nice excited voice "excellent", it was amazing how quickly the dogs started to look at the people sitting round ( we, of course, gave no eye contact or tried to touch them)to see who had the treats, no pressure and at the dogs own pace was the order of the day. With the wee dog who was rooted to the floor, Nina started off walking past her and dropping a treat, gradually making the treats land further and further away so she was having to get up to get them, she then had the owner get up ( dog still off-lead) and walk towards the door turn and come back in, sit down, fiddle with a few things, get up and repeat the process, all the while ignoring the dog, eventually the dog went " och, I'm not getting up, your only going to come back again " and lay down on her side relaxed, she was taken out of the hall at that point, and you could see the change in her walk, much much happier dog. She also likes to teach dogs to touch and sniff things they are wary off, this is where she uses her "homing signals" the theory off this needs a bit of explaining, she got the idea from a helicopter pilot, she was looking at all the instuments on the dash and asked him how he could make sense of them all, how he knew which ones to pay attention too, he told her that the best ones were the ones that used sound, he had one that showed the horizon, it would beep quicker the nearer he got the copter level with the horizon, until it made the noise that he knew ment he was bang on, so this got her thinking about using it somehow in dogs. So, how you teach it is, hold two fingers down to your side, wait for the dog to touch them, one dog wouldn't so she had that owner walk around and get the dog moving, he soon did the touch,when they touch, say "excellent!" and toss a treat (she was very particular that treats should be thrown to make them more interesting)once the dog has the hang of that, you watch for them starting to orient on the fingers and say "eg eg eg eg eg eg excellent!" making the "eg" closer together the closer the dog gets, and stopping if the dog looks away, and throw treat on the "excellent" when it's touched the fingers, you can then use it to let the dog know when he's getting close to getting a treat, she finds this easier than using a clicker when she's working with very disabled clients who can't co-ordinate the clicker, but it works extremely well with all dogs. The sniff she does with cheese in a tube, smear little dots of it on the floor, the wall, where ever and encourage the dog to sniff by sniffing yourself and showing the dog where to sniff, off course the dog gets to lick the cheese when he sniffs it, then start putting the cue "sniff" to the exercise, you can then cue the dog to sniff and investigate all manner of things he may be wary off, sniffing also acts as a calming signal, so is self rewarding to an extent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyMalc Posted October 4, 2009 Report Share Posted October 4, 2009 Very interesting indeed! I've never heard of Nina before you mentioned her here, but if she'd ever make it to my part of the world I'd definitely would want to go and see her I've found throwing treats for Sparks and telling him to 'find' works really well for him too, will have a look at teaching him to 'sniff' as well. Looking forward to more! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
griff Posted October 4, 2009 Report Share Posted October 4, 2009 so pleased things went well for you both my main problem is oflead out of control dogs too if they stay away i can calm laney down in a matter of seconds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
celeste Posted October 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 5, 2009 I was so knackered yesterday after a very exhausting 2nd day at the seminar, I couldn't even think straight We started off just going over yesterdays stuff and making sure there was nothing we needed clarifying. Then we had a training session with all the dogs with a tailor made task for each dog. Nina and her two students had had a think over night to see what exercise would suit each individual dogs problem and create a safe solution the owners could use. Ours was to be a "leave it" combined with a recall, now I was thinking, she can do those, how the hell is that going to help ?....well, I think that wonderful lady has given me the solution to Daisy's dog aggression, so so simple too. Because there was more people than dogs, we had a partner to work with, I grabbed the vet (Graham) who was sitting beside me before anyone else could LOL. I put Daisy on a 5 meter long line and went outside, we started off with Graham tempting her over with a treat, I held the long line and only let her get about a foot away from him, but not allowing her to get it, I then waited for her to make a turn of her head towards me, even if it was just a glance, toss a treat "excellent !" we carried on doing this for a few min's, Daisy cttoned on to this very fast, and the recall teaches itself really, as she was coming back to get the tossed treat, when we got to the point where she wasn't even going towards Graham we progressed to a real live dog ! In came Jack the brilliant Pap, now we introduced the toy on the string (the one she's never to have) as the reward, she was allowed to approach Jack, and the moment she fixed on him I said "leave it" and she turned and came back ! then she got a few seconds of play with the toy, she loved doing it too. Previously there's no way in hell Daisy would have turned away from a dog, she'd have been at the end of the lead snarling. When we were going back to the car there were a few dogs wandering about, so we had more opportunity to use the "leave it" worked every time. So now I just need to continue practising, just hope I can convince my friend to use her dogs When we were training Nina was very clear that the dogs should only be taught in 3-5 minute sessions, no longer, she said any longer and the dog stops learning as well, so Daisy was given a break, with a play session or just an opportunity to sniff about. She also had a great solution to dogs coming up to your on leash dogs....chuck a big handful of treats at the dog !, you have to do it quite forcefully, so you surprise the dog into stopping, it then looks to see what was thrown, and eats the treats while you make a hasty getaway !or you can do it with a tennis ball. Nina recorded the whole seminar, so if it's turned out we'll get sent a copy,if anyones interested I can make a copy and send it to you. Oh...and Nina said Daisy was a very sweet girl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
celeste Posted October 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 5, 2009 I've just seen that Nina has a site on Facebook where you can see video's of her doing impulse control....think I might have to join Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
griff Posted October 5, 2009 Report Share Posted October 5, 2009 Fantastic it really is a great feelijg when they don't react that frst time, really glad you had a good experience Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackmagic Posted October 5, 2009 Report Share Posted October 5, 2009 It sounds like you have a successful weekend. Keep us updated as to how it works in the real world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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