I don't have anything special to post today as I've been extremely busy and tired lately. However, I found this video of Eva and the hoover which was made about two weeks ago.
Here is the video of Eva's improvement with the hoover after 1 WEEK!
We've been faithfully doing this practice everyday since my previous video and I'm so pleased that Eva can actually literally leave the hoover in peace now. She either watches the hoover moving around her while she's sitting on her mat or she walks around the house without paying much attention to the hoover.
Many sheltie owners will know and have experienced your sheltie going crazy when they don't like any particular noise or movement.
Well, here we are trying to tell Eva that the hoover is actually a very boring thing, and nothing to be interested in or worried about. I used a lot of treats here!!!
First Day : -
Here is our step by step training:
1) Walk around the hoover (when it is off) with a leash and treats telling Eva that there is nothing to worry about.
2) Move the hoover (when it is still off) around and get her to down stay and leave it.
3) Now switch the hoover on. She got really excited at first, but calmed down when I got her to follow me around for treats while she ignored the hoover.
4) With the hoover on, move it! That is still the hardest part and still requires a lot of training, work and patience. When I move the hoover, she will go to it, and try to bite it, but when I call her, she comes for her treat. At the end of first day session, you could see that she got a bit bored with the game at the end and ignored the hoover a bit.
For the first day practice, I think I shouldn't have kept on calling her especially when she didn't walk towards the hoover. I think I was too worried so I kept on calling her thinking that I could distract her from approaching the hoover.
Second Day :-
I can see a slight changes in Eva's reactions towards the hoover. She still jumped when the hoover was switched on but calmed down soon.
Third Day : -
We're getting there, aren't we!!!
Fourth Day : -
I'm quite happy with today's work. Eva didn't jump or bark at the hoover when it was switched on, although she was still a bit playful, I think she's doing a good job : )
So far I still can't make Eva sit still and watch or do nothing when I'm using the hoover. I'd tried to use 'leave it' and 'stay' command but they didn't last!
