Manners Minder (formerly Treat & Train) Remote Reward Training System: Comments from Clinical Trial Participants Jinny’s way better. She’s calmer. She listens to us more readily. She just kind of understands now when we ask her to do something she can count on getting praise or a food reward so she pays attention more and so she tries hard. She’s a working dog at heart and just giving her the opportunity to do something instead of just being a couch potato was good.  — Katie and Josh Elliot: Westlake Village, CA (Austrialian Cattledog mix) It’s been huge difference. It’s wonderful. Mo’s a 9 year old lab. We didn’t think an old dog could learn to change his behavior but he’s come a long way in a short amount of time. — Erin and John Giza: Davis, CA I never really understood the magnitude of Sonny’s problem until I put up a baby gate and people started saying, “Oh my gosh this is so great. It’s so nice coming over now.” Then I realized, wow, my dogs are really annoying people. I think my friends just got used to that I have annoying dogs and that’s part of going to Jennifer’s house and now it’s not so that’s nice. Now, after training, Sonny is so much better to the point where people who have been coming over can’t believe the difference. She lays down on the mat, I’ve actually taken away the baby gate. I can go in and out of the house. My guests can go in and out of the house. She does really well just laying there. She’s excited to seem them but she still lays still until I tell her she can get up but by that time she’s calm enough. People don’t mind coming over with her now and that’s made a big difference. They can’t believe how calm she is. I notice people want to pet her more which is nice for her. The biggest thing is how calm she is and they can’t believe the huge transformation I am so happy that I participated in this study and my friends and family are very happy that I participated. And I think my dogs are happier too. They don’t’ have to be locked up as much when people come over they can stay out be with guests. They’re pretty good about just laying down now so it makes a better environment for them and certainly for me and for the guests. — Jennifer Hendricks: Rocklin, CA Basically she waits down the hallway because I have a small entry way. But she’ll wait until we get down the hallway, me and the guest, and she’s well behaved. She’s not running to the door when there’s somebody there. I actually had a friend come over and comment that it was really nice to be able to come over and not hear me on the other side of the door saying, “down, down, down….” And she said it was actually nice to be in the house and not have Julep jumping. Julep enjoyed it. She enjoyed it quite a bit. She’d get excited when I pulled out the machine. She’d get really excited when I told her to place. She’d love to hang out by the machine all day if I let her. — Alice McLean: Davis, CA (Shepherd mix) Kona was just really obnoxious before the study. He would just run at people and people would just be intimidated because he’s a rottweiler. It wasn’t so much bothersome to us as it was to the people coming over. Now he’s just kind of staying in one area and now we can say, “Oh yeah. Let me just get that package and sign for it.” I was just actually just shocked that he actually could do it. That was kind of neat seeing our other dog run straight to the door while Kona, who we trained stay right there. I didn’t think it was gonna work. I just thought he would be too interested in whoever was at the door to just lay on the mat just to wait. Our friends were kind of shocked Kody kept rushing the door and Kona actually laid down and didn’t move. They were actually staring at him to see if he’s get up because they’re so used to his running at them. — Kat Parsons and Rob Reponte: Davis, CA (Rottweiler) Ferdinand is much better. I used to have to hold him at the door and he’s pull a lot and for a 130 pound dog it’s not easy to hold him. And he would gnaw on people who came to the door. He’d chew on their arms and for some reason with guys he would grab their crotch which they didn’t like. It was tedious to hold him at the door. I think he just wanted attention and he didn’t know any other way to get it so he’d bite them and they’d yell at him and that was the attention he was looking for. It created a lot of tension with roommates who didn’t appreciate his rambunctious behavior Ferdinand also did participate in some Kung Fu fighting with roommates which made him play more roughly than normally. This training program helped with that problem. Now he knows when he can do play rough and when he can’t. He has an on-off switch so he knows when to stop playing rough. — Raina Petrov: Davis, CA (Great Dane) Keri was just to unruly. She went too ballistic. Incessant, you couldn’t even talk to the person at the door. She just barked over you. Now she barks and then she goes and does her thing and lets you talk to the person at the door. Visitors think she’s just a well-trained dog. — Pam and B.J. Runquist: Davis, CA ( Labrador mix) Bugsy’s behavior is much better. He calms down much more quickly when a new person comes to the house. He still barks a little but not nearly as much as he did previously. I think that even though he’s not a perfect dog at this point, the changes have been really dramatic. He went to barking constantly at the door to just giving a few woofs and paying attention to who’s at the door. He’s not getting up and running to them and his hackles aren’t raised and I think now people are more comfortable. — Lisa Shender: Davis, CA I can’t even compare the differences. He’s so much better, really better, not just at the door. He just listens to me a lot better than before. I think the structured time that we had together was really good for both of us. It was just good to have some structured training sessions with him. I think what I remembered was the power of food and what a great tool it is for training and again just giving us some structured time was just really good for his mental health as well as mine. — Dana Whitlock: Davis, CA Bailey’s a completely different. He’s a lot quieter, doesn’t jump, He doesn’t bounce around and hit you where it counts. He goes to his bed and his doing great. Even the neighbor next door even a couple of weeks ago when we were in the middle of training remarked how much better he was. I’ve learned a lot about training in general, the benefits of positive feedback or reward. It was great getting him to respond to food. Because he wasn’t motivated by food before we started to it’s really nice to have that when we need it. Also just the process of training him again—we had stopped doing general obedience and so just having that as part of our repertoire of things to do with him has just made him a better dog. It made training worthwhile. At the front end of training it seems like a lot of work. And you have to invest a lot of effort into it and I just reminded me that at the backend of training you end up so much happier with your dog and your dog’s happier with you and you’re happier with your dog. And it’s worth the investment of time and effort to get him to act responsibly. And we’re both really busy so we didn’t spend a huge amount of time doing it. We did a little here or there 2-3 times a day before we left for school/work in am and once or twice a night for 10-15 minutes and that’s it. It was like 3-4 weeks. — Heather and Duke Zander: Sacramento, CA