A free roaming dog has been coming by my AirBnB – just hanging around, sleeping on the porch, enjoying the view and the company. Well: if you’re an animal and you show up within the perimeters of a space I am renting, I can’t help but try and engage with you!

Since life has been socially distant, I wanted an audience! So I asked the FDSA alumni group for ideas: what would people like to see me demonstrate with my unsuspecting volunteer?

The FDSA students asked me to show how I would work up to touching the dog, and I made up a hypothetical scenario to go with this goal: putting a collar on her so she can be taken to the vet. In this hypothetical scenario, the vet visit isn’t urgent (if it were, I’d put a slip leash on her and just take her). However, I want to accomplish the hypothetical goal within a day or so, spending no more than 10-15 short sessions on slowly getting her used to my touch and the collar.

The following videos show the progression of this project.

Intro video:

You get to meet our free-roaming friend, and Game has a lot to say about our new project!

Session #1 of working up to touching a cautious dog. (Hypothetical scenario: I need to put a collar on her, but it’s not an emergency – so I can take my time working up to it. I estimate reaching my goal within several session (within a few hours/a day if I lived with this dog, and had access to her anytime I wanted to work on this).

Session #2

Session #3

Session #4 of working up to touching a cautious dog. I really like the last rep in this video, where I’m putting my hand under her chin, and she shows no avoidance.