Does anyone else have the Manners Minder training gadget?

[feesh]

Just wondering what food you use in it? My dog is normally on a raw diet and I couldn't think of anything compatible to use in it which wouldn't clog up the mechanism. Now she's temporarily on kibble, we're using that in it, but it's not high enough reward value for her and she loses interest very quickly.

If you don't know what the Manners Minder is by the way, it's a gadget designed by Sophia Yin - it's basically a robotic/remote control treat dispenser, and you follow the training programme DVD which comes with it to teach the dog to settle on her mat in certain situations (mainly when visitors come to the door, but you can also use it in other situations such as teaching dogs not to resource guard etc). It's fab! I got mine from US Amazon:
[http://www.amazon.com/Premier-Manners-Minder-Behavior-Training/dp/B0010B8CHG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344512647&sr=8-1&keywords=manners+minder MannersMinder]

AAAARGH LINKS!
MannersMinder

Feesh, I don't have experience of using it, but almost posted this question a few days ago! The thing is that it was developed with Sophia Yin and I read a blog post of hers recently about how it was developed. It sounded like a lot of research went into it - and into making the instructions so that people would use it right. I was sold on it simply on that basis. Besides it is so great to have a gadget that uses positive reinforcement instead of all the nasty shock-collars and citronella sprays!

Hopefully someone will have tried it, I'd love to hear a report of it.

I think it needs treats though not kibble. Kibble isn't interesting enough.

Yep totally agree, it's so hard to think of suitably hard, small treats to use in it. I make little minced meat cubes to use as treats, as well as liver treats, but I think both would be too sticky to use in the machine. Hmmmm.

We have used it a bit, she just loses interest in the food quite quickly, but before her interest goes she LOVES it! Sits there staring at it, tail wagging :)

It sounds really good. Maybe you could make some kind of dog biscuit to go in it, would that work?

Feesh try baking chopped up bits of hot dog, makes it hard and biscuit like. sick of carting slimy hot dogs in pocket

Sounds like a plan, that hot dog idea, thanks.

Only thing is, Dr Yin makes a big deal out of using the dog's normal food in the Manners Minder, so you can feed all of her meals using it to progress more quickly through the training. If I use treats it will obviously be a lot slower process (one short session a day I guess). That's the only downside of the Manners Minder that I can see really.

Is it possible to mix a few treats in with the kibble, so that she doesn't know for sure if she will get regular kibble or hit the jackpot with some treats? That might work, unless it would clog up the machine.

I tried that yesterday Redwing, but she got the hump every time a piece of kibble came out instead of liver! She started bashing the machine with her foot with frustration!

Spoilt, much?!

Oh that's funny!

Actually, we sell a lot of these and my boss (a dog trainer) tried out a bunch of different foods and made up this chart of foods that have been tested in the MannersMinder.

I asked her specifically about a raw diet (which she uses for her dog as well) and she has heard of people using small bits of dehydrated liver, but I don't think you could do other raw food items with the mannersminder. Perhaps dehydrated peas?

Hope this helps!