An update on D'light and the scratch board

After our first time of working on the nail scratch board, we've continued our work and D'light and I are having fun.  One of the many things I love about D'light is that I often have to think outside the box and really break things down so that we will have success. 

I quickly noticed that it was going to be a challenge to transition from the fit paw to the actual scratch board.  So, I stopped by Lowes and purchased a number of different sanding blocks.  My thinking was that the sanding block was a good transition object!

You can see one of the blocks in this video and what I love about this video that D'light is engaged in our training session.  Even after a couple of years with us, he still worries about the environment and he struggles with confidence when training new skills.

I had another sand block that I thought would work better & D'light is ready to train - love it!  He does have some time of looking around and that's how he relives pressure of the environment and new training skills.   At any point D'light can chose that he's had enough and I would honor that.  Requiring a dog to get to your goal does no one any good.  Remember that training is fun!  If the dog is shutting down they can't think and they can't learn so know the dog in front of you.

And look who is fully engaged and scratching that sand block!

D'light is doing super!  I introduce the scratch the board and we get a scratch.  Good boy D'light!

I decide to stretch D'light by changing the environment - I put the board at an angle.   This was a lot for D'light and as usual he did great.

And we all need to know when to stop while we are all having fun. You can from D'light's behavior he's about done.  While he didn't scratch the sandpaper, he did scratch the board so, we end on a "Good boy D'light" and he was rewarded with the rest of the reinforcing turkey! 

This was a great time for both of us and D'light was exhausted after all this work!   So, we will keep working with the sanding block to build confidence and then continue to add in the scratch board. I'm sure that in the coming months D'light is going to be filing his own front nails while we are having fun together!