I practiced this with Rocky and Errol (both very very impulsive dogs!) last night.
Its good stuff... though I will be careful with it with Rocky as, years ago I did a 'bad thing'.... and I conditioned him to training discs which if you arent aare are like the reverse of a clicker.
I do mean YEARS ago, he was 2 at the time and we did this because he could nto go offlead in the park without tring to kill swans.... and risked drowning! If i knew then what i know now...
Anyway the discs are paired with the removal of the perceived reward... so that eventually the sound of the disc reminds the dog of that feeling of disappointment and 'non-reward'....
Cut to now... and when i show rocky a handful of food and then close my hand as per the video..... he SHOT backwards across the kitchen and hid in a corner!!!!!!!! He was very very clearly expecting something pretty horrid to happen... and although rewarded for removing himself from the visible treats, it took him a while to relax.
After that we worked on him not sniffing a hand he knew had treats in it, rather than the open hand, as that was the part I think that reminded him so strongly of the aversive disc conditioning process.
He was fine with the leaving the treats on the floor, and we got as far as dropping treats from a height, multiple dropped treats... the other area he showed fearful reactions to were putting treats on his paws, so we skipped that too.
Sooooo.... for a brand new puppy - good stuff. For older dogs, and dogs whose background you are unaware of... tread careful and be ready to adapt the method incase it triggers memories of unpleasant things. It should be pretty self evident if that is the case.
The other thing to be aware of with the later levels - is have you tuaght your dogs to catch things thrown to/at them.... i have and so its pretty unfair to expect them to ignore such things without being given a command to do so. You can either add in a command for this or if you wish to proceed with a silent 'leave' as default. then reteach that catching is only done on command.
Once you are aware of issues like this - its really good stuff, Errol who has no associations of aversives linked to food.... got the hang of it in a matter of minutes and could, like rocky, ignore food bouncing around him on the floor really well. It definitely gave him something to think about!
I am saddened to realise that Rocky hasnt forgotten the aversive training he had some 8 years ago
![Sad :(](./images/smilies/icon_sad.gif)
Yet another reason why aversives are SO dangerous to use, the scars they can leave are deeply embedded! (However as my visit to a friend a few months back shows.. he still chases feathered live stock! so it didnt fix that permanently! only the 'fall out' seems to have been permanent!).