Mr. Homeland Security and the Chimney Cleaners

So, yesterday the chimney cleaner guys came for three hours early. Tom went completely berserk in the window, way over threshold. I knew it wasn't safe to touch his back or collar. I tossed a treat on the couch and he didn't want to come away from the bay window. (Hard to picture, but the window has a wide ledge and is behind the couch looking out onto the driveway.) I trossed a number of treats at his feet. He ate one, bark bark bark, ate another one, bark bark bark, ate two, bark bark bark, then ate all the treats and by that point had broken his focus enough to eat one from my hand and I could slip the leash over his head. That was the exciting part, being able to get him calm again from being way over threshold. I took him into my room, treated eye contact, dealt with the chimney guys, then worked on freestyle moves the rest of the time they were here (in the house I might add.) Tom didn't bark or get reactive after that. Good boy!

I've been working on the trick of getting Tom to back up through my legs. He gets it when he's standing between my legs particularly if he can feel my legs against his body. It's part of his weave backwards. I think I may have solved the problem of him not backing up straight. I realized that he wasn't looking back at me and wasn't able to judge at what angle to back up. I made a little chute with the edge of a bed and a very large bag as sides and an ironing board and stool blocking him from going forward. Then, I asked him to "Watch me" and clicked that a few times, keeping my legs closed so he couldn't back up through them. Now, I'm fading the "look at me" cue. It seems like he's incorporated it into the back up through legs command. I tried a free back up without the chute, starting him in a down and standing behind his back end and he looked at me and backed up straight through my legs. He nailed it! Cookies! Tried again and he wasn't able to do it. I'll continue with the chute and hope it goes well. It's fun!