Search This Blog

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Bella's boot camp

Bella's boot camp day 2 -
This is where the remote lay all day - nice!
So Bella finished off day 2 with a pretty good report.  The biggest wow was that she did not steal the remote this am!   It was on the end table in full view and reach and she left it alone!  Typically she will grab it and proudly prance through the kitchen towards the addition area.  I had always traded up which she would surrender the remote but unless we put the remote up high, you could guarantee that she would be running by with it in her mouth.  Just one less pain in the rear thing to deal with and that is nice!

So far so good!    

2 comments:

willinzuri said...

Dear Dr. Foote,

I think this is fantastic! Can you please explain how this kind of conditioning works?

Thank you and have a great day,

Barbara Wolfensberger

Dr. Sally J. Foote DVM said...

Having Bella act politely as I define it - sitting on her bed or laying calmly - before I give her her kibble one by one is teaching her to control her impulse to bark and get all excited. So she is learning to self settle - it does not take commanding. This learning then translates to other situations where she gets really excited and needs to calm down to be normal - such as when she sees another dog or animal.

By rewarding her choice to calm down, she learns how to calm down herself when that is what she needs to do.