Scooby's fear of the lawn mower (starting the lawn mower to be more precise) has officially been cured. He used to get agitated and display very aggressive behaviour when OH started the lawn mower - it's that "pulling the string" bit - our mower is a bit cantankerous so needs a fair bit of coaxing and yanking on the string to get it going (he was fine once it was running - so it wasn't the noise). Following training tips from the forum, I spent a few minutes with him several weeks ago. We went through various stages of starting the mower, from just pulling the string slowly, then fast with a sputter but no start, to a full blown start - rewarding calm attitude with dried fish skins (yumm apparently) , and ignoring agitation/barking - just going back a step. He hasn't been exposed to it for a while, so I tried him again just now (armed with fish skins) - he was perfectly calm. I can't believe what little effort it took. Such a good dog. (I wish recall was this quick & easy )
