@snowbunny , thanks for reply on the 11 week old puppy thread, thought perhaps my queries warranted a thread of their own. Hand touch is going well, as you say a clear signal is needed and she understands this, I'm following Nando Brown, and am just starting to introduce distractions. I've restarted the "all eyes on me" game, and fear that I'm dropping food for her, when in other instances I don't want her to get it, so I say "Cassie, have". It is a good game for getting attention, I swear she looks into my eyes often to see what might be going on. With Magic Hand, I've only done it a few times, as she's not a tiny puppy and is quite big, she's soon cottoned on to catching the kibble, and sure does concentrate on my hands. BUT I think theres an element of confusion with throwing treats on to the bed for boundary games, it's as if she's not sure if watching my hand is what she should be doing. By signing up to AD academy, would I get more expansion on the games as to how to take them forward and use them to maximum effect? It seems my l'il one is about to come back in season so we will need plenty of things to do!
Within Training Academy, there are three Boundary Games videos. When you first sign up, you don't get the whole list of videos, that happens after a couple of months, but I think you get at least the first one, if memory serves. Then, there is a separate Boundary Games course has 18 videos in it, which was given to TA members for free. The good thing is you can ask questions, post videos etc on the Academy FB page, which is only for active members, and you get a lot of support there from the community, including Tom & Lauren themselves and some of the other AD trainers. If you have a specific question you can ask for it to be answered in one of their fortnightly live video chats. I don't know if you can get the Boundary Games course separately; if I were you, I'd send an email to ask@absolute-dogs.com. Matt, who answers the emails, is very helpful indeed, so I'm sure he'll do what he can to help advise about the different options available. As for the confusion about whether she should be looking at your hands during BG, I'm sure that's going to be contextual. Whilst you are in the early days of training and rewarding quite rapidly, of course she'll be looking to where the next treat is coming from. But, in time, you'll stop using those treats, or will be doing far more distracting things when she's on the bed, or more boring things. Doing the washing up while she stays on her boundary, for example, or cooking dinner. Maybe doing an exercise DVD or a spot of juggling. Or, as you said before, going to the pub. As she learns to stay on her boundary, there will be more variety in the context in which you're using it - and more variety in what you actually use as a boundary, too. Once this happens, there just won't be the fixation on your hand anymore because she will understand that the only constant in the game is that there is a boundary she has to stay within, so don't stress about it if she is a bit fixated at the moment.
Yes, I bought this for £27 (or there abouts) - because the ebook alone had me asking too many questions.
