Training Tails - Jimmy, Week 3

Jimmy was introduced to the "Look" command, dissociative state, and rewarded when he reacted to it. We started by saying "Jimmy, look!" and worked on eye contact, rewarding with pieces of kibble, lengthening duration. We then added the complete still stare and said without moving out mouth, "Touch", and rewarded Jimmy with kibble.

After a few days, we stopped saying "Touch" while staring and Jimmy started to offer touch with his nose, paw, and a bark during the stare. We marked whichever he chose with a "Yes" and rewarded. We feel a paw, touch with nose, or a bark would be sufficient to interrupt dissociative state. At the end of the week we were able to talk to someone and all of the sudden stop and stare until Jimmy caught on and barked.