I’ve been offline for a few days. The current foster dog living with us, Nibbles, escaped from his x-pen, got on my husband’s desk and peed on the modem. Not a fan of technology our Nibbles apparently.
Nibbles was pulled from a breeder along with 20 or so other dogs, all chihuahuas or small dog mixes. He’d been placed in a foster home, escaped through a window, somehow or other traveled 30 miles north and was trapped by an animal control officer. I offered, to my husband’s & modem’s dismay, to take him on and help him learn some people skills.
Nibs is not comfortable with people and the other dogs in the house do not seem to be a draw to him. I’d like him to be less of a prisoner but until I know that he wants to be around me, I’m afraid to lose him. He’s caged in my office and several times throughout the day I feed him bit of chicken and liver. Sometimes I say his name and toss him food, other times we practice taking treats with my other hand lingering under his chin.
I’m sharing this video of Nibs learning to target my finger. I like targeting because it’s not only useful to move a dog around, or get them to come to me, I think it’s an easy exercise that helps a dog discover that my behavior means something and if he responds appropriately he’ll get a treat, in this case, a lick of cheese.[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5-GPQk9L1g]
