The Magic Box

In 2014, I ran a series of “Bark Week” posts (total, shameless play on Shark Week, of course…) that detailed how we were mitigating the insane amount of barking that was going on around the house.

In one of the posts, I wrote about the front door insanity that ensued every. single. time. someone walked up our front steps. Luckily, we hit up on the Train n’ Praise from PetSafe as THE solution. Seriously, it worked wonders. You can read all about what I did to curb door barking crazies here. We used it for the holidays–even flipping Halloween–and it was magic.

Shortly after the new year 2015, Newt knocked it off the mantle and shattered it into a few dozen pieces.

I wrote on some to do list somewhere, “Order new Train n’ Praise.”

Then we got Lukey’s diagnosis (so many things, I’m realizing, are now divided into two categories: before and after) and that list of random to dos became inconsequential and lost in the fray.

In March of this year, I attended Global Pet Expo, and I visited the PetSafe booth. My friend Meredith asked if we still used it, and I told her what happened. End of story. Or so I thought…

Sweet Meredith knocked my socks off when, a few weeks after I returned home, a brand new Train n’ Praise appeared on our doorstep! SO nice!

Then April hit, and I put in just over 70 hours per week of work all month long. No joke. Wish it were a joke. Not complaining because I love what I do and am grateful for extra work, but the Train n’ Praise sat sadly in its box on the counter. Along with piles of mail and fur and dishes that I would get to someday. (Like blog posts here! Sigh…)

Last weekend, it finally happened. As I opened the box, I said these words to John, “Do you think they’ll remember what this is?”

Well.

 

“Guys! Guys! The Magic Box is back!!! Look!!!! LOOOOOK!!!!”

{Note to self: When the missing to do someday list resurfaces, add “learn how to take a decent photo” to the top! Or, maybe just “buy a camera.” HA!}

Anyways, yes. They remembered it. That first night, Cooper stayed stationed underneath, just waiting. {“I forget… what makes this thing spit treats?”} Emmett parked himself across the room, but we quickly discovered that the key element to The Magic Box isn’t exactly effective for an increasingly-less-hearing dog…

It operates off a tone. It’s a super-specific trill of maybe four or five quick notes. It can’t be mistaken for any other sound, which is the whole point.

Unique sound + treat dispensing.

Positive reinforcement at its finest, and I don’t even have to be there in the room. I just have to have the clicker in my pocket.

We use it like this:

The clicker sits on the kitchen counter (the center hub of the house). Cooper spots a dog/person/bike/squirrel/funny-looking-car out the window and starts to have a minor meltdown. BEFORE it can become a major meltdown, one of us clicks the button on the remote–>the unique sound trills–>Cooper SPRINTS to the Magic Box to collect the treats as they’re dispensed.

Poor Emmett, meanwhile, continues his nap.

The idea and hope is to get him to associate dog/person/bike/squirrel/funny-looking-car going by to getting the noise/treat combo.

So far, so good… and utterly amazing to me that after more than a full year without hearing that noise, he knew exactly what it was the second he heard it!

Powerful stuff!

Now, to keep Newt from breaking this one…