Vacuum Training

From Tene owner of U-litter Hunter x Juno pup call name “Ellis. I was very impressed with the training Tene has done to problem solve. Tene gave me permission to share her email.

Ellis’ ears have both been up for 2 weeks or so now! Everyone’s compliments about him went from “He’s so cute!” to “Oh my gosh what a beautiful, handsome dog!”. Someone called him majestic looking yesterday 😛
I’ve finally found a way around two of my biggest training problems with him… He would become totally out of control the second he saw or heard my vacuum cleaner. I predicted it so I tried to desensitise him to it from the start but somehow it never worked. He would go ballistic and just bark from start to finish even with a tiny handheld vacuum. It was a nightmare to just quickly clean my flat (I have carpeted floors). Now that he’s older and is really good at staying even with distractions, I decided I would commit to vacuuming and giving him tons of treats EVERY DAY until he got over it. The first couple days he’d bark when he saw it and I had to move it towards him in increments and click/treat every 3 seconds but now I tell him to go to the door, get down and stay and I can bring out the vacuum and even vacuum right by his face with not a single bark (today is day 7!). I do it in the morning with his breakfast so now its 95% regular food with just a few treats 😛 When I tell him ‘free’ he gets up. Sometimes I say random words in the same tone to see if he’s actually listening and he always flinches but doesn’t get up until he hears the release word, he’s smart!
The other problem we finally solved was letting go his precious ball when he would bring it to me! I tried every treat to trade him for it but then I realised if he loves the ball so much maybe he’ll give it up for an identical ball! So I bought a second one and the first day I had to just stand there for a minute until it occured to him to drop his and then I’d immediatly throw the second one. Each time he would drop it faster and now I’ve even added the drop it command and I can actually enjoy playing fetch with him so much more!