I got mine from cleanrun.com too! If those not reading, but are interested, do feel free to ask questions! Nothing beats reading the book or watching the DVD of course, but it might help you better determine whether these techniques will help.
I'm now at Night Two (Chapter 4) of the book.
THE ISSUES
Romeo's problem is that he wants to engage with all dogs on his walk. If he spots a dog in the distance, he goes into alert mode and it's like he's SO FOCUSSED on the other dog that he doesn't hear me. It's like trying to get to him through a thick glass wall! When the dog gets closer, he'll bark and get all aroused then will try to get at the dog. Not to destroy the dog but to PLAY WITH IT. sigh. When we walk by people, he will also move towards the passerby and try to sniff the person's legs (I live in a country where there are muslims and they can't touch dogs so this is a problem). I would prefer if he learnt to ignore other dogs and people when we're on walks and stop trying to engage with every moving thing unless we actually intend for him to do so. I don't want to pull him out of the way and drag his bum away from the dog/person. It'll be nice to learn how to get him to relax when he gets aroused and excited.
Then there is the "Mum does not exist" syndrome when we're outside of the house and not on walks (using our regular routes). At a dog run, I don't exist. When we go to other places for walks, I don't exist. He'll be too busy scanning the environment, marking trees, playing with dogs, etc. While I don't expect him to pay attention to me all the time, it would be nice if he checked in with me more often or at least once! I would like to have some control over him outdoors!
WHAT WE ARE DOING
I've started, over the last two weeks, on the Look At That 'game' with Romeo while we're on walks. I'm doing it concurrently with playing it indoors, clicking and treating when he looks at the remote control, or his favourite toy. In the beginning, it was hard to get his attention. Oftentimes he doesn't even hear the click. Now he's improved and I would click when he looks at a motorcycle (this scares him a bit), people at a distance and at barking dogs (behind fences) and he would turn towards me when he hears it. Hopefully over time, he'll just look at me everytime he sees these things! Classical conditioning!
I'm having some problems gauging how far he needs to be away from another dogs to play the LAT game because when I do it now (even tho' the dog is quite a distance away - I can't gauge in feet sorry!) he's already in alert mode and he doesn't hear the click.
I LOVE PREMACK! I've been trying to better Romeo's recall and have been using the Premack principle. I can now stuff liver treats (super high value) into a corner of the sofa and when he's engaged in trying to pull it out with his long sheltie snout, I can call him and he'll give a huff of resignation, give up trying in ONE second and come to me!! I used to have to stand there for minutes making stupid lip smacking noises to get him to come. When he comes, I click and we go back excitedly to the sofa to pull out the liver treat. We will work on it outdoors now so that hopefully with time I can get him to leave really high value things outdoors too and come when called. I've been using premack on walks too. There are certain trees that Romeo MUST sniff and he will pull me towards them when he's about 6 feet away from it. I hate that, so now, I will ask him to sit next to me then we heel for a few feet, and when he does, I'll click then send him to sniff the tree (that's the reward). He gets the tree if he comes and sits and heels nicely. He now does the sitting and heeling with GREAT enthusiasm that I always end up laughing.
I've also been teaching Romeo self control with the Leave Its already but upping the ante as suggested in the book. It would be nice to leave 5 of whole sausages around him and walk away and be sure he doesn't touch them! He's a sneaky one tho' and will stick his looong mouth out to grab food when he's sure I can't get to him in time. Grr. Must back it up a step.
One other thing I've been doing which I picked up from the book is to get the dog to reorientate to you the minute you open the door/gate to the outside world (and also for me, when I open the gate into the dog run). Holding on to the leash, when Romeo crosses the threshold, I'd stand still and not move. The minute he turns to look at me, I click and treat him. Apparently this is so that the dog doesn't see these doorways as gates to a world without mum. I used to put Romeo on a sit stay then open the door/gate and say Release! and off he would go without turning to look back to see if I'm still there. It's reinforcing running away from mum!! Hopefully this tip will condition him to check in with me even tho' he's crossed the doors/gates.
Relaxation Protocol - I've been doing Karen Overall's relaxation protocol (I think this is available online). Not sure if I'm getting it right!!! I feel like I'm just going through the steps. I can't tell if Romeo is becoming more relaxed with increased activity going on around him. One of the things the book teaches is to teach your dog to relax faster and quicker if and when it becomes aroused. I think something like, if Romeo goes into alert mode when he sees another dog, this relaxation protocol teaches him to calm down faster and move on away from the dog. Like an "Off" switch to their arousal. We've only been doing it in my bedroom after his walks, so he hasn't gotten up when I walk around him and clap, or jog back and forth yet. I dread the day I have to "run 10 steps away and pretend to talk to someone on the phone" outdoors.
