Lara was so scared when we first began working with her, we could not get within 15 feet of her. We began very slowly reinforcing her for looking at us, moving toward us and then eventually touching our hand. After many weeks we gave this behavior a cue. Now when she is inside and not scared if we tell her touch she will nudge our hand. This may seem like a simple behavior and one most dogs learn in about five seconds. With Lara it has taken weeks, actually months and we are delighted. This simple cue helps us to guide her around, move her inside and out and play confidence games with her. Watch Lara playing the 'Touch Game"

Af­ter four months of work­ing with a very scared res­cue dog to­day we were fi­nal­ly able to give her the phys­i­cal cue for sit and she did. You will no­tice from my face I am try­ing to be re­strained, any loud noise or phys­i­cal move­ment will scare her. The last video is Lara touching, sitting and downing. If the volume was not turned down the silence of restraint but big grins would have deafened you