Jedi - 19 Months - Flyball Box Desensitisation

On Jedi's first night at Flyball training he was doing full runs (4 jumps, box turn, 4 jumps) without the ball or the box going off. Thinking we should take it that one step further, we set the box to go off... Bad idea.

Jedi was not expecting it of course and got catapulted by the box with the ball firing off into his chest! What a way to kill a dog's confidence!! (I've never trained a dog for flyball before, so I wasn't even thinking about what sort of impact it would have on him!)

After that Jedi was not keen on going anywhere near the box (I don't blame him!). Right after the incident, I made sure that I did a little bit of desensitisation and in the end he would very slowly put his paws onto the box but he was still really worried about it.

So I decided to do some desensitisation with him which included -
- Sitting around while other dogs play flyball
- Sitting next to a box that was constantly going off while being constantly reinforced
- Having the box go off during meal times in the same room
- Being encouraged to sniff the box


Jedi was happily going over to the box, so I decided to do encourage more interaction which is shown in this video, including -
- Putting his paws on the box while it isn't going off
- Putting his paws on the box while it goes off every now and then
- Putting his paws on the box with the ball being released.

Now this isn't about Jedi doing a box turn or anything that even resembles one! My goal was to just make interacting with the box a lot less stressful for Jedi so that he could build his confidence back up. My only criteria was that he made sustained contact with the box and didn't show any adverse reactions. As you can see he finds the box to be something quite rewarding now and has no issue with running over and making contact - that's exactly what I wanted.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Flyball
• box
• desensitisation
• desensitization
• keeshond
• dog
• fear
• clicker
• training
• positive
• reinforcement

[zsianz1]

This really is awesome, I LOVE how easy you make this look, it's so hard when a dog is fearful but this shows that if you get straight on top of what scares them it's not as hard as you think to bring them round. this really is fantastic! and Jedi is sooo handsome!!

[TerraNik]

Thanks Sian! I'll be putting up a video soon of Jedi doing his box turns! We had a fabulous session at training last night and he's showing no signs of his fear!! It's fantastic!

[rogersmmr]

Lovely work. Fear is one of the most difficult things to overcome. You've done a beautiful job desensitisizing Jedi. Great demo and explanation of the baby steps required to overcome a fear. You've shown that with patience and R+ you can do it. Good tutorial and inspiration. Thank you for your video. 5*

[TerraNik]

Thanks! :) We've still got a little way to go to get his drive back but I am so proud of how far he has come!

[Rondvu100]

Jedi is a smart one. Love the videos. Ahsoka is a handy helper in the video also. All three of your dogs are smart. Thanks for sharing.

[zsianz1]

oh wow, that is fantastic news, congratulations! it is the best feeling in the world when you can get your dog to do something and enjoy it when they were once so scared. can't wait for the vid :-)

[SimonaNikki]

Well done, Nik & Jedi!!

[LopsidedCircle]

i also love soaks, she's beautiful :) they're so cute together :D

[LopsidedCircle]

that's amazing, how you got him to see that the box is okay! he's a beautiful boy <3