Alright, it's Friday! Time for the next Leo update. This week we started working on sound alerts. 🚨 The goal is pretty simple: 👉 When there’s an important environmental sound, like a bell, alarm, something I should notice, Leo should come to me and poke my hand until I pay attention. So this is basically a two-step process. 1️⃣ Step one was teaching the actual behavior. Coming to me and pushing his nose into my hand repeatedly. For this, I used a small treat in my closed fist. At the beginning, he was just sniffing and trying to figure out how to get it. I only rewarded him when he actually touched or pushed my hand with his nose, multiple times in a row. So instead of one quick touch, he had to poke again… and again… and stay persistent. The idea was to build that behavior of: 👉 don’t give up, keep nudging until I respond After a few sessions, it clicked. 👍🐶 2️⃣ The second step is where it gets interesting. Now he needs to do that… because of a sound. 🚨 And this is not going that great so far. 😄 I’m using a remote bell that I placed near the door, so I can trigger it from anywhere. The idea is that when the bell rings, he comes to me and does the alert behavior. But here’s the problem: He’s smart enough to know when the sound actually means something. If someone is at the door, he already reacts on his own, barking, running to the door, showing me something is happening. That part is natural for him. But when I ring the bell remotely… He hears it, but he also knows there’s no one there. So from his point of view, it’s basically: “Okay… I hear it… but why should I care?” 🐶 Another funny part is that he’s already learned the first step too well. If he sees my hand move even a little bit, he assumes I have a treat and immediately comes to poke my hand. So now he’s reacting to my hand, not to the sound. What I’ve started doing now is hiding from him. 🏃‍➡️ I’ll go somewhere in the house where he can’t see me, ring the bell, and let him figure out that he needs to find me and do the alert.

And advice how to sleep better with Tinnitus? I had some bad nights and this worsens my T. Thanks.

If I could help you improve ONE part of your tinnitus life first, what would you want help with? I'm very curious to know.

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I feel like I had a big win with Guy this week. I hadn't realized until the next day I have finally accepted Tinnitus within myself. Once I did that I felt like I don't need to fight it I need to learn how to live with it. I really hadn't realized that I was fighting and not accepting it. So Guy Cohen, thank you so very much I'm on my way to the next stage now believing and really understand your words that I acknowledge, it's not important and it's not dangerous.😀🙏🍨 God Bless You Guy Cohen!