Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Take It! Please?

It's been a rough week for me and unfortunately Bella suffered more than me. I was unable to take her out for a proper run or walk which raised the tension in the house a lot. Finally today we went out and let her run loose. She found herself a destroyed tennis ball and ran around like crazy playing with it. The result is that now she's calmly sleeping next to me in the sofa. I feel so relieved.


I have been training Bella to take objects into her mouth and hold them with the clicker but for some reason all lights turned off if I started asking for more than to touch the object with her nose. Several training sessions into the process and no visible progress I started doubting this method and asked for some advise. A person suggested I try to leave out the treats and use a favorite toy instead to raise interest. BINGO! 
Combining play and training seems to be working. Bella will now take the object and hold it without any problem and the reward is more play. I don't think she really realises we're training at all! I'm only on day two and am yet to see how consistent and reliable this will be but she is taking the toy which is all I was asking to begin with. I look forward to seeing if we can convert this to other items later on. However, for now, I'm just going to be patient and strengthen the connection.

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