Mums to the rescue please! Squeezy re-usable baby food pouches....

[Beanwood]

Poor @Mr Beanwood had a difficult walk with Otter this morning. I am a bit rundown with a horrible virus, so I asked him if he could manage a 10min "on lead" slow walk with her. Usually not a problem, but this morning one of the workers at the warehouse next to us was on his way down the driveway (my fault I knew this but wasn't thinking straight....) and well Otter reacted by a lot of barking. I think they must of hit the only blind spot we have (arghhhh!!!) So fast forward to a very dispondent hubby. The thing is I probably work with Otter 95% of the time, and this is becoming more apparent in how Otter and OH work together, more on that later as it's quite an interesting topic in itself.

I need to work on a "turnabout" cue, that also doubles up as an emergency "get out of jail" card. This will need a degree of conditioning to get right, but will start off with luring, and mostly "luring" will be emergency management to be used when we need to move fast in a different direction. Until we can get to a point that I am happy to start working with strangers we are on a quite a strict avoidance strategy right now and thankfully this is working.

Luring works best if you have something very enticing a few centimetres from a dog's nose. Holding a treat works well if shaping part of an exercise. Luring in an emergency well I think I need to bring out the big guns, and nothing really hits the spot likes sardines!!! . I want to condition a cue to high value sardines, so that I can just whip out the tube bonk it on her nose, and turn quickly whilst Otter is absorbed in licking sardine juice. I do have the "treat tubes", specifically designed for dogs, but you run the risk of air coming out, plus the despensing is a bit erratic. Today when I was using the treat tubes, along with various consistencies I with my gang of four we had some quite interesting responses! . I think I might start off with those primula squeezy cheeses first?

I have spotted these on amazon that look fairly good, but wondered what the new mums on the forum thought?

Re-usable food pouches

 

[snowbunny]

I personally don’t think the value of the treats matters much at all. What is important is that you have the learning history through loads of repetitions in different situations so that when you make that movement of shortening your lead, your dog starts to turn without even thinking about it. Treat tubes are cumbersome for this sort of thing because you’d need it to hand with the lid off already. It’s far easier to grab a handful of bits and stream them from the “treat magnet” hand... and work towards delayed reinforcement.

Think about the state of mind that is driving her response. When you’re startled, fearful, anxious etc, food isn’t interesting however good it is. But giving a behaviour which fulfils the same function is highly reinforcing.

 

[Charlie]

Sorry you're feeling so rough Kate. Get better soon. Huge fan of primular squeezy cheese here for Charlie. I have the treat tubes but find the cheese or you can get pate in a tube much better, also less fiddly. xx

 

[Beanwood]

hink about the state of mind that is driving her response. When you’re startled, fearful, anxious etc, food isn’t interesting however good it is. But giving a behaviour which fulfils the same function is highly reinforcing.

Eventually we will have an alternative behaviour on cue, right now it was too difficult for poor OH to distract her. Her responses are driven by excitability, fear and as a learned response.

 

[snowbunny]

Eventually we will have an alternative behaviour on cue, right now it was too difficult for poor OH to distract her. Her responses are driven by excitability, fear and as a learned response.

Yep, so the key isn't better food, or luring. The key is the trained response. And this really doesn't take long to build in its initial stages; it's not something that has to be perfectly on cue before you can use it. The first time I used it was when a bunch of off-lead problematic spaniels ran towards us, and I turned Shadow away from them and ran away. We had done about ten minutes of training on the A-to-B at that point but it worked perfectly

The thing with it is that, unlike most cues we give, this one is incredibly obvious to the dog. By shortening the lead with the left hand, you are giving a physical cue (the slight pressure on the collar) which is far easier to understand when emotions are running high than verbal or visual cues. That all comes into the package, too, but the physical input is by far the biggest thing in the moment.

I keep promising to take some video of it, but I will do just that in a bit and post it up.

 

[Peartree]

I always have a pouch of natures menu in my pocket to use in those situations. I will quickly rip off a corner and then the dog gets really engrossed in trying to get the food out of the pack. You can squeeze it up with your fingers and I have found this works well, especially if you put yourself in front of the dog thus effectively blocking sight of the problem. They work out at about £1 each but at 300grams are perfect for a pocket, are great as a backup and don’t need any prep.

I have not managed to stream treats in the way Snowbunny describes, in fact in stressful situations one of mine will take treats and spit them on the floor.

 

[snowbunny]

I have not managed to stream treats in the way Snowbunny describes, in fact in stressful situations one of mine will take treats and spit them on the floor.

But that's my point - it's not about how good your treats are; in that situation, many dogs just won't take them however good they are. That's why it's about creating a trained response to the mechanics that you will use in the moment so that you and your dog can fluidly perform them without relying on food.

 

[snowbunny]

But, to add to the pouches conversation, I have some of these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008USFXGU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

By the way, your link doesn't work, @Beanwood. These are easy to fill, but you have to keep the mixture quite loose. Something to watch for with a sensitive dog is that you can get a blockage and then it spurts out, which can be quite scary.
I've used the 150g pouches of James Wellbeloved wet food from Zooplus, and recently got a freebie of some 300g pouches of Lukullus. The dogs all love these, and you can just squeeze out as much as you want to give. Like the Nature's Menu, it's a lot less hassle than baby food pouches
I prefer the 150g size, but only because it takes up less space in my bag.

 

[Cupcase]

Can't recommend any pouches, I have used them and found it messy and it was something else to prepare. However I do use the squeezey cheese. I walk nowhere without it. I have found Cupars behaviour has improved dramatically since I always have the squeezey cheese on me.
When Cupar became reactive, I tried all the high value foods but it didn't make a difference when he was too close. I now call the squeezey cheese, Cupars soother. It also saves my fingers, I can give one squeeze, remove, repeat, remove, repeat, until the dog (in Cupars case) is past. If he's too close he won't take anything.
I carry one tube on local walks but always have a back up when visiting high dog areas.