Control Unleashed Discussion Group

Wow! I'm so happy for everyone!! I'm reading about all of your progress made and it's just terrific!

k9kreationz, I didn't know dogs liked targeting more! Could explain why Romeo would come to me when I ask him to target my hand instead of responding when I call him to "come"! I've taken down some notes from your posts on your class already!

Gingers Mom, I can't remember where it was that I read it but this book said that we should try to keep our attention on our dog even when we're waiting in line or listening to the trainer explain stuff. Before I read this, I would ignore Romeo completely and he'd get angsty and bark. After reading this advice, I would just do random commands while waiting or listening to the trainer - sits, downs, waves, etc. It does seem unfair to expect our dogs to listen to us whenever we want them to, then totally ignore them for awhile.

Katherine, it sounds like Snap is doing great!! Being able to work with distractions around and being able to do damage control easily when he loses focus! I'm sure Snap won't need CU all his life! Once he's conditioned to the CU techniques and the response to triggers is drilled into him (becomes a habit), you can probably breathe a little easier!

I was away for about a week and a half and had to pass the reins on to my dad who walked Romeo while I was away. I had to teach my dad how to pass other dogs while on walks!! About a week before leaving tho', I tried this thing that I read in the book. It was a short line, and easily missed, but it REALLY WORKS! It's hard for me to keep Romeo under threshold when we're on walks because the roads are narrow and some of these people that pass me let their dogs stretch the flexi lead until they are spitting distance from us. Romeo usually barks at dogs when he sees them from far and even when I rapid fire treats into his mouth (I hold a stick of baked liver treats in each hand and let him rip small bites off alternate hands). I took CU's advice about using something like peanut butter to gum up his mouth and that totally helped! I'd squirt a continuous stream of the gooey stuff into his mouth as the other dogs walk by. He couldn't bark with peanut butter stuck on the roof of his mouth! It was quite funny actually. I'm sure I giggled at some point at our breakthrough. I've used cream cheese also with the same effect. I'm looking for a reusable tube like that for toothpaste tho' coz I'm using a little homemade pastry bag (for cake decorating) now. I'm sure I get weird looks from people.

I'm hearing great things about go to mat. We will work more on that.
 
Ohmigod. I didn't post this. My trainer suggested we all buy this:

http://www.petexpertise.com/dog-tra...ags/dog-training-food-tube.html?sef_rewrite=1

It's the "toothpaste tube" you were thinking about buying. Hope this helps. She also said you can find it in camping section of department stores, or outdoorsy/camping type stores. I didn't check that part out, but figured, you probably can find it online if not anywhere else.

BTW, how'd your dad do?

This is what she wrote in her pre-class write-up of what to bring regarding what she calls "smear" or what CU calls it. I have no clue who's term this is.

• Smear
This is a squeezable food tube filled with gooey smeary stuff that you can get into your dog’s mouth quickly and easily. Your homework will describe what you are to do with this. http://www.petexpertise.com/item--Dog-Training-Food-Tube--food_tube.html carries these tubes. You can also find them in the camping section of department stores. Check this website first as it will show you a picture of what to look for locally. Cheez Wiz is also great!

Suggestions for food to put in the tubes: liverwurst, yogurt, goats’ milk cheese, canned dog food, cheese whiz, cream cheese, peanut butter, anything that your dog LOVES that is able to be squeezed out. Supermarkets also now carry peanut butter in a tube ready to use.
 
Yes!! That's the kind of tube that I'm looking for! I "upgraded" last night to a plastic giant syringe looking thing which is used for cake decorating. Works great tho' there is no cap (pouch smeared with cream cheese!) but looks REALLY ridiculous. I look like I'm administering a giant jab to his mouth.

Romeo will be sitting there, licking up the cream cheese (salmon flavoured!), his eyeballs tracking the dogs. :rolleyes2:

Smear? I don't remember the term from the CU book. Interesting tho! Great suggestions of treats to put in the tube! I was going to do something disgusting like whizz liver and meat or something (Romeo's on raw food).

My dad did ok! It was too much trouble to teach him to feed Romeo to keep him quiet so I did the next best thing - I told him to get Romeo's attention (calling his name, smacking lips, whistling, slapping thighs!) and quickly jog past the other dogs. That worked for me before I started CU. He reported that Romeo did bark a couple of times, but didn't go mad, so I think he (my dad!) did quite well! :lol:
 
It was Cheez Whiz (together with clicking) that help me to teach Spyker to retrieve (he has no single retrieving gene in him :razz:), so I highly recommend it. It's quite fatty, but you really need just a bit as a reward. Spyker goes nuts over this stuff, but he's a fast food junkie :rolleyes2: and thinks french fries with ketchup are the yummiest thing EVER...
 
I've been using cheesewhiz on our walks and it's great! I've even managed to find a smaller squirty bottle so I don't get weird looks so much now.

I've gotten to the point that Romeo can hear me when he's just started to react and sometimes when he's reacted to another dog. He can hear me say SIT and would actually sit (all the time staring at the other dog of course) :rolleyes2:. He's doing pretty good on walks and I'm doing good too - when I don't have treats we hide behind a car. :lol: I'd regulate how fast we walk so that the parked car is always blocking Romeo's view of the dog.

But I think one of the reasons I'm not making headway fast may be because he is exposed to situations regularly where he ends up reacting. Like at the pool! Every Saturday! I try to go when it just opens so we have the place to ourselves but things don't always happen the way I want it to. Other dogs come and the pool is fenced in (It's a raised decked aboveground pool) and Romeo will react and bark and bark. Once he went slightly berserk and ran around and reacted ALL OVER and couldn't be controlled so we left early. Feeding him constantly helps quieten him down and he seems to ignore them after awhile. It doesn't help that some of the dogs that go to the pool are large jumpy pushy retrievers. I'm really thinking it's slowing down our progress. And yet, I can't not take him to the pool!!! Sigh. Dilemma.

How's everyone else getting along with CU?
 
I've read the book..(over a year ago)...and we've done alot of the things in it..Our instructors where we did some training for agility and behavour..taught alot like this book...They even joked, "dang...we shoulda wrote a book"..cuz they did alot of things close to what CU did...We all read the book together and then did the exercises...
The one that we worked most on was "look at that" Clancy is reactive to other dogs...this helped alot! He still reacts on occasion...if he's overly tired, if a dog seems to come out of no where...but for the most part he's good now..
We did the recall games...at first it was hard to get Clancy to go off on his own for a bit..LOL He's a velcro dog...and if he knows I have treats..he ain't leaving the gravy train!! Abby on the other hand..she went off and tried mooching off the other people in class...
I think its great!! and makes so much sense!!

woofs

Julie
Clancy & Abby
 
Lets Get The Discussion Started!

This is a very old thread, but I wondered if anyone besides me is currently reading Control Unleashed. If so I'd like to get an active discussion going again!

I've just started reading Night 1.

From reading the chapter on all of the concepts, I'm really excited about working with Toby and teaching him how to relax in situations that he would normally find stressful. From all the reading and training I've done with Toby I feel like I have a really good foundation to start on.

So lets get this discussion started! :pop
 
This is a very old thread, but I wondered if anyone besides me is currently reading Control Unleashed. If so I'd like to get an active discussion going again!

I've just started reading Night 1.

From reading the chapter on all of the concepts, I'm really excited about working with Toby and teaching him how to relax in situations that he would normally find stressful. From all the reading and training I've done with Toby I feel like I have a really good foundation to start on.

So lets get this discussion started! :pop

I haven't read the book, but maybe I should since you mentioned it helping relax your toby when he's in a stressful situation. Can I ask you something? I have three dogs and one of them is, well, "special." She doesn't handle stress well. For instance, you step on her and her feelings are hurt for a couple hours. That's the least of the problems, though. She's very reactive in the sense of barking dogs, babies crying/moving fast, sometimes bikes but sometimes not. At home she will tend to run in her crate when upset, but when we take her out, she tends to just get so stressed and I feel like every sense she has is heightened to an extreme -- actually, I feel like at home her senses are much stronger than my others and out in public it's like an EXTREME on edgeness. Is this how your dog is?
 
I haven't read the book, but maybe I should since you mentioned it helping relax your toby when he's in a stressful situation. Can I ask you something? I have three dogs and one of them is, well, "special." She doesn't handle stress well. For instance, you step on her and her feelings are hurt for a couple hours. That's the least of the problems, though. She's very reactive in the sense of barking dogs, babies crying/moving fast, sometimes bikes but sometimes not. At home she will tend to run in her crate when upset, but when we take her out, she tends to just get so stressed and I feel like every sense she has is heightened to an extreme -- actually, I feel like at home her senses are much stronger than my others and out in public it's like an EXTREME on edgeness. Is this how your dog is?

Toby has different triggers but yes, that sounds a lot like him.

I'd recommend having a look at this blog first, it was a real eye opener for me. She explains a lot about reactivity and why reactive dogs react the way they do. She also talks about the Control Unleashed Program.

The first blog post is at the bottom of the page.

http://reactivechampion.blogspot.ca...d-max=2010-01-01T00:00:00-06:00&max-results=8
 
Toby has different triggers but yes, that sounds a lot like him.

I'd recommend having a look at this blog first, it was a real eye opener for me. She explains a lot about reactivity and why reactive dogs react the way they do. She also talks about the Control Unleashed Program.

The first blog post is at the bottom of the page.

http://reactivechampion.blogspot.ca...d-max=2010-01-01T00:00:00-06:00&max-results=8

Thanks! I'm off all summer from work and plan to really work hard with her for a few months. She has potential, she just needs to learn how to not be so on edge... I'm going to see if the library here has this book.

Thanks!
 
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