Child Proofing
(Approaching A Scared Dog)
Tamar Geller: Alright, so let me break the treat, this is, it's called Child Proofing, but this actually not just to teach it to accept children, but it's teaching it to accept anybody, grabbing on her ears, reaching to her, I am always going to do something that is unexpected, that is going to be followed by a treat. I am going to grab her hand, I am not hurting her, but I am going to do something surprising.
I want to go to her tail, and I am going to give her a treat, alright. You see, I am tugging on her tail, I am not hurting her, but I am tugging on it, because I wanted to know, no matter what happens. I am going to grab her here, don't be afraid of anybody reaching to you, because anytime somebody going to reach to you, it's going to be a pleasant experience. Oh, little one, she is doing so much better.
Speaker: Yeah! She is doing great.
Tamar Geller: You know from before she could not -- be even looked at, and now she is -- when you first meet people and they want to touch her, tell them to turn the back to her, not to have eye contact, put their hands so she can sniff them. Don't make, don't allow them to corner her.
Speaker: Does it matter if it's palm or down.
Tamar Geller: It doesn't matter, the main thing is no eye contact and get back, so she feels, oh, they are not head-on, they are not going to attack me, our body language is not going to attack her, when we are turning back, very important. It's important to introduce her to as many people, all sizes, all races, all ages.
So she would not be afraid, even if she had bad experience with certain type of people, let's say with men.
Speaker: Now often should I will be doing this, and if so, how often should I will be doing this?
Tamar Geller: Perfect question, you have to do this, and I want everybody to do this. You have to start with that first, because if a stranger is going to do it to her, she will not take it. So you are conditioning her to accept, rough touching or surprising touches.
Speaker: A couple of minutes at a time?
Tamar Geller: That's exactly right. How many times a day? Million times a day, because this is priceless.
Teaching Banjo not to be afraid of people approaching her, is priceless. One of them reasons for dog bite is fear, we call it nervous aggression. A dog feel that the best defense is offense, and they attack before they are going to be attacked. The problem is that they perceive anything as a threat.
So what we are doing here, we are teaching Benjo not to look at everything as a potential threat, but rather to teach it to look forward to being touched, being handled. Even if it's not in the most gentle way, because particularly kids may not know ,and you cannot look at society expecting them to know how to deal with a dog, it's easier to teach a dog, how to deal with the society, and you can see it works really fast. So have fun with it.
Speaker: Absolutely, good job!
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