Just thought Id update this group with how Kobie is doing with his car training. For those that didnt see the video or cant remember; Kob struggled to leave the car, mostly when we got home from a walk but also sometimes if I parked in a different area on a usual walk. He was also obsessed with trying to get in the car and couldnt eat around it, let alone if he was in the boot. Today is our second day of having a short walk and he left the car immediately! :-) :-) I have attached a photo of him from yesterdays short walk... massively happy chappy! After putting the videos of his behaviour on this group, I did take him to the vet. Unfortunately his vet that hes seen a couple of times and so knew quite well, was in the process of leaving the practice. So we ended up doing some reactive training with what shall be his new vet (which went brilliantly). However when we got back, he flatly refused to leave the car and wouldnt even take food so in the end I had to lift him out... which he found really quite stressful! So after chatting to the vet, we decided that I will work on the car issue for now and once hes leaving it, we will arrange another training session with the vet. I decided on trying a dog ramp, after some ideas on the original thread and brainstorming with some friends. Started off by just him walking over the ramp in the garden and managed to quickly progress it to having the ramp in the front of the car. Interestingly even in the front (where hes never travelled in before), he struggled for the first couple of training sessions. I broke down my criteria and increased my rate of reinforcement and within a week he was walking down the plank after spending 30 seconds- 1 minute sitting in the front. In the week after, he started to run down the plank as soon as he got into the car and then started running halfway up the plank before zooming down it again! We then moved it to the boot, which is his safe haven. Expected him to struggle so broke down criteria once again and increased rate of reinforcement when walking down the plank. This stage took longer, which I was expecting. We were probably doing this for about 2 weeks, at the end of which I could reward just at the bottom of the plank before running off playing find it games and training tricks. Since then weve been training nearly every day and Ive been trying to include lots of different things; having a treat pouch, treats in pockets, treats at the top of the car, different times of day including in the dark. The only thing I havent done is trained with someone next to me, which is something I need to do. I took the process of going for a walk really slowly; we spent a couple of days on the ramp being taken away and then the ramp being taken away with the boot then being shut. Then the boot shutting, me getting in the car, then exciting the car and then getting him out. For a few days before going for a walk, we just drove around for different lengths of time. Fingers crossed we can keep on this path :-) Its so lovely being able to take him for a proper walk! I do have a video which Ill put up another day too. Ill be making an appointment for the vet after Christmas to get him checked out.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 20:26:56 +0000