Today we met Chirag at Gloucester Road tube station and began our tedious walk to the park!
This is where I am so excited and start pulling but today, my excitement was distracted by treats. So I was torn between getting to the park and those squirrels or getting treats from both Mummy and Chirag. He is Mr. Treats!
Every time I see him I get a good dosage. I even run after him … ignoring squirrels!
May I have some more please?
May’s comment: Today was a good one – Darcy is beyond excited every time we head towards the park and all the walking and stopping hasn’t been successful – but today I learnt a new technique. And at the park, we used the long lead and lots of treats for recall with distraction. Yup! The squirrels can’t beat those treats – positive rewards. Now we need to practice this before our next session!
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Really interested to hear that Miss Darcy is as pully as Molly when getting near the park. I do the whole stop start thing, having stopped using treats for walking, but I will now try again with high value treats: can I ask what sort of treat Chirag uses?
Yes, the pulling bit is difficult. Never managed to stop it – and I did the same, no treats, walking and stopping but it took me double the time just to get to the park. Now with this, we get to the park probably just as long but she’s not pulling and I hope within weeks she will be re-programmed.
It doesn’t matter what treats – as long as they are “all natural” and light – and tasty for them.
Chirag uses Barker & Barker liver treats – which seems a lot easier to handle than Natures Menu – gets all mushed up after handling them too much.
I got some Perrito duck chunks yesterday and also some venison sausages – they need to be small bits – that’s enough.
Have to say, after a session, her poo consistency changed – not her usual pebbles from raw food.
I sometimes make Molly some liver treats. I use chicken livers as they are so cheap, boil them for a minute or two then drain them. This firms them up and makes them easier to chop. I then slice them/chop them into small pieces and dry them in a low oven for about 40 mins. They become nice a hard so that she enjoys crunching them. They keep in the fridge for maybe a week and I take some out every now and again to reach room temp. Fine and clean in the hand then and Molly loves them. Small tip: don’t use your best pan for the boiling bit as the liver doesn’t seem to want to clean off terribly well…