Go Furbo!
Go Furbo! That’s me getting excited. I want to tell you about some of the wonderful work that our friends at Furbo Dog Cameras are doing. You may remember we tested the Furbo a little while ago and you can read our review HERE. Anyway the exciting thing is that Furbo andBattersea Dogs Home are working together to make it possible for dogs who are otherwise struggling to find their forever homes.
Christmas List
Of course, you can just use Furbo in your own home and I’m guessing some of you have put it on your Christmas lists. They’ve got a special offer on at the moment so you can tell your humans that they can get you your very own for only £129. You may want to make sure they don’t read the rest of this about how they can use it to train you to be calm and quiet! Unless you want to be calm and quiet in which case get them to pull up a chair.
Sally the Greyhound
Sally is a 3-year-old greyhound. She had been a racing dog and, for a number of reasons, it was proving hard to find her a home. She suffered badly with separation anxiety, so although she went out to two different homes, she was returned to the rescue centre both times. Ok to be fair, when she was left alone she would become destructive, whine and howl and chew through doors. Her anxiety was so bad that new owners were unable to leave her for more than just a few minutes. The rescue staff needed to help her get over that so that she could find a permanent home.
Furbo to the Rescue
This is where Furbo came in. Sally was put in a home style room and giving a training plan using Furbo. The rescue staff needed to teach Sally that being left alone can be a positive thing. They could leave chews and tasty things, but once they left the room, there was no way to continually reward Sally for being left. Until Furbo! Now they could reward Sally for choosing to be calm and set off Furbo whenever they saw her relaxing. This is the training plan they put together. In the room Sally had a blanket, a high value chew (goose neck, pizzle) on blanket ready and a Furbo set up with tasty treats. This was what they did:
| Goes near mat, set off Furbo | ? | ? | ? | x | ? |
| 1 Paw on mat, set off Furbo | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| 2 paws on mat, set off Furbo | x | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| 3 paws on mat, set off Furbo | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| 4 paws on mat, set off Furbo | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Head down on mat, set off Furbo | ? | ? | ? | ? | x |
| Down on mat, set off Furbo | ? | ? | |||
| Down on mat, 1 second, set off Furbo | |||||
| Down on mat, 2 seconds, set off Furbo | |||||
| Down on mat, 3 seconds, set off Furbo | |||||
| Down on mat, 4 seconds, set off Furbo | |||||
| Down on mat, 5 seconds, set off Furbo |
? = perfect x = imperfect 5x ?s = ready to move on
Change in Attitude
Before long Sally was starting to relax when left. Her calm attitude quickly made her more attractive to potential new homes and she was starting to curl up and sleep when left alone in the chill out areas.They had something that was working and could pass that over to her new owners.And yes, Sally is now happy in her forever home.
Wylie
Wylie is a 6-year-old Staffy. The rescue staff loved him, but if anyone visited he would pace, bark and not show his best side. Everyone who saw him said they love the way he looked but thought he would be just too noisy to have in the home. Wiley is a smart boy, he mostly barked in kennels because he was bored. The rescue staff decided it was time to get his brain working. They decided to teach him a trick to perform for the public making him look more attractive.
Wylie the romantic
It was just before Valentine’s Day. They decided to get Wiley to hold a bunch of red roses. That way he not only looked romantic, but his mouth was full. No barking! Once the trick was taught, they could remove the handler from kennel, and still reward Wiley picking up the flowers by using the Furbo.
That way, Wiley was rewarded for presenting all potential adopters his flowers, and the rescue staff didn’t even need to be there. He just looked like the perfect dog!
They could also reward him remotely for calm, quiet behaviours rather than barking. Wylie found his forever home and 2 months after his adoption the staff visited him in his new home again. He feels loved and is happy. He has still stopped barking thanks to his training using a Furbo.
You can see why we’re impressed by what can be done with a bit of time and patience and a Furbo camera! You can find more about them HERE
Have a great Saturday
Aristotle
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