thenoodlesadventures

[thenoodlesadventures]

The Noodle™️ has multiple lay down cues and one of them is "flatten" 😂

whats the most ridiculous cue word you have heard for a pretty standard behavior? i'll go first, someone telling the dog to heel by saying "place" as the cue

[thenoodlesadventures]

Hey guys! Is anyone in the market for a young pitty? She's a very sweet lady who is beautifully mannered in the house, walks pretty well on leash, generally confident and over all a totally lovable mush ❤️

Breed: 100% American Pitbull Terrier

Color: Red Nose

Birthdate: July 12, 2024

Age: 8 months

Weight: 48lbs

Vaccines: Rabies (2/13/2025)

Microchip: No

Spayed: No 

Potty Trained: Yes

Max Crate Duration: 5-6 hours

Commands: Paw, Sit, Stay, Down, Over, Break, Drop It

Ideal Home: older kids, no small animals, another dog companion

Meet Daisy, an affectionate 8-month-old American Pitbull Terrier seeking her forever home. This sweet pup thrives on long walks, couch cuddles, and spirited tug-of-war games. Initially cautious with strangers, Daisy quickly warms up, revealing her loving nature. Raised with abundant care, she’s been well-socialized with dogs and people, trained thoroughly, and nourished with a top-notch raw diet and regular exercise. Daisy flourishes with a consistent routine, enjoying both attention and her own space—often napping in her crate when we step out. She’s a fan of park playtime, beach digging, and any outdoor adventure. Daisy’s new family will inherit a stunning, cherished companion who wins over everyone she meets.

She's played very well with every dog I've introduced her to (which is about 8 dogs and includes some very tiny dogs) and she ADORES kids, but due to her size and energy level I feel that she'd do best with bigger and older companions who are better able to physically keep up with her. Currently she's staying with me and hangs out loose with The Noodle™️ and HoneyGirl and she gets along with them wonderfully. Let me know if anyone is interested!

[thenoodlesadventures]

Hey guys! Is anyone in the market for a young pitty? She's a very sweet lady who is beautifully mannered in the house, walks pretty well on leash, generally confident and over all a totally lovable mush ❤️

Breed: 100% American Pitbull Terrier

Color: Red Nose

Birthdate: July 12, 2024

Age: 8 months

Weight: 48lbs

Vaccines: Rabies (2/13/2025)

Microchip: No

Spayed: No 

Potty Trained: Yes

Max Crate Duration: 5-6 hours

Commands: Paw, Sit, Stay, Down, Over, Break, Drop It

Ideal Home: older kids, no small animals, another dog companion

Meet Daisy, an affectionate 8-month-old American Pitbull Terrier seeking her forever home. This sweet pup thrives on long walks, couch cuddles, and spirited tug-of-war games. Initially cautious with strangers, Daisy quickly warms up, revealing her loving nature. Raised with abundant care, she’s been well-socialized with dogs and people, trained thoroughly, and nourished with a top-notch raw diet and regular exercise. Daisy flourishes with a consistent routine, enjoying both attention and her own space—often napping in her crate when we step out. She’s a fan of park playtime, beach digging, and any outdoor adventure. Daisy’s new family will inherit a stunning, cherished companion who wins over everyone she meets.

She's played very well with every dog I've introduced her to (which is about 8 dogs and includes some very tiny dogs) and she ADORES kids, but due to her size and energy level I feel that she'd do best with bigger and older companions who are better able to physically keep up with her. Currently she's staying with me and hangs out loose with The Noodle™️ and HoneyGirl and she gets along with them wonderfully. Let me know if anyone is interested!

[thenoodlesadventures]

https://www.maligear.com/

Alright guys. I've been making biothane products for years. Mostly for friends who needed a specialty something that they couldn't find or were just very unhappy with the quality of the hardware. Anything you've seen on this blog that's Biothane was made by me!

I'll be posting fabric collars as I make them and the occasional leather collar. Harnesses will eventually be purchasable but I need to figure out sizing and styles which will require some testing lol

[thenoodlesadventures]

https://www.maligear.com/

Alright guys. I've been making biothane products for years. Mostly for friends who needed a specialty something that they couldn't find or were just very unhappy with the quality of the hardware. Anything you've seen on this blog that's Biothane was made by me!

I'll be posting fabric collars as I make them and the occasional leather collar. Harnesses will eventually be purchasable but I need to figure out sizing and styles which will require some testing lol

[thenoodlesadventures]

https://www.maligear.com/

Alright guys. I've been making biothane products for years. Mostly for friends who needed a specialty something that they couldn't find or were just very unhappy with the quality of the hardware. Anything you've seen on this blog that's Biothane was made by me!

I'll be posting fabric collars as I make them and the occasional leather collar. Harnesses will eventually be purchasable but I need to figure out sizing and styles which will require some testing lol

[thenoodlesadventures]

https://www.maligear.com/

Alright guys. I've been making biothane products for years. Mostly for friends who needed a specialty something that they couldn't find or were just very unhappy with the quality of the hardware. Anything you've seen on this blog that's Biothane was made by me!

I'll be posting fabric collars as I make them and the occasional leather collar. Harnesses will eventually be purchasable but I need to figure out sizing and styles which will require some testing lol

[thenoodlesadventures]

Skinned a spot on the back of his wrist today when he dove for a toy so you guys get another video lol I've been putting gentaved spray (we're down to the bottom of the bottle so before I open the next one I'm pouring out a few drops into the lid until I finish it fully since the spray straw doesn't go all the way down) on the first spot between his toes for an interdigital cyst and then covering it with the sock so he doesn't lick it for the past week so that's why he offered me his left forefoot when I held the sock up the first time.

This one used to be a whole thing. I used to not be allowed to handle his paws. We went through a phase where I was slowly chipping away at this with him laying on his side. I'd pour a cup of kibble on the floor by his face, cue him to lay on his side, then push pieces into his easy reach as I gently built up to manipulating his feet. The draw back to that I think was him not being able to fully see what I was doing as I was doing it and that I didn't always warn him about which foot I was going to touch and in what way.

We transitioned from that to him standing with the treats/food on the floor in front of him and me manipulating his feet like you might a horse which I think was more comfortable for him because he engaged in it for longer and with less twitching when I'd grab a foot. I was a bit better about warning him about what I was going to do and when but still not perfect.

The next iteration is what's shown above. Him standing, treats on the floor with the one he's currently working for in front of him, and me asking for specific feet. He cares significantly less about having his back feet handled. I can just tell him I'm grabbing one of them and he's cool with it. Still needs the same set up, but he doesn't need to lift his foot for me or for me to specify a particular one for him to be comfortable. I think his front feet are simply more sensitive and so it matters more to him.

All of these versions use a variant on Chirag Patel's bucket game.

Notice when I ask to pet him that he shifts his hind end closer to me by a step. I couldn't see this from how I was sitting but I felt like he was asking for more because he didn't move away which is what he usually does if I ask and he doesn't want it. It was only on playback that I noticed that his hind end creeps closer by a step each time in ask.

Also notice: he doesn't shift his paw back when I slide the sock over it. He keeps it in one place. The only shifting that happens is because of me tugging the sock over his leg. He finds this scenario perfectly acceptable and is fully participating. Look at how relaxed his face is. How loose his body is. How result he offers up his forelimbs to assist. Look at his calm his demeanor is.

This is my goal for our cooperative behaviors: calm and comfortable. Buying in. Willing and ready to help me complete the task.

[thenoodlesadventures]

Also: you guys are welcome to chat with me about any of the training stuff you see on here. I'm posting all of this publicly because I think 1) it's important for other people to see a variety of what this stuff can look like since every dog is different and 2) it's good to see how much trust you can get from an animal that very much didn't used to trust me.

When I got him, I was working with a high pressure trainer who used a lot of pain compliance. This is very much not how I train now but think: stringing dogs up by their collars and waiting until they submit to the strangulation before lowering them back down, nailing them on ecollar on high and only stopping once they've listened to their "lay down" cue and then only stopping after they've decided to just lay there and take it, hitting the dog with serious intent because it dared to express it's discomfort with being assaulted and then continuing until they give up. That's the type of person I was training with. They literally sharpened their prong collars for stubborn dogs. If you've seen pictures of dogs with two rows of evenly spaced punctures and thought "well that's ridiculous animal rights/peta propoganda! I've seen prong collars! My dog wears one! The tips are dull/rounded! They couldn't do that to a dog!" well that's because you haven't encountered a true high-pressure trainer. This is a common practice among high-pressure/pain compliance trainers who are looking to obtain their goal behavior at any cost.

I protected thenoodle from a lot of that, but certainly not enough of it. He shouldn't have ever had to deal with ANY of it. No dog should.

Like he shouldn't trust me at all. He leaves the room if I sound intense (like adamantly debating comics/movies with my partner. Not mad, just into it.). The fastest way for him to hate another dog is for me to get angry with it where he can see.

However, he'll literally GIVE me injured body parts UNPROMPTED because I consistently give him good experiences for doing so. If he corrects me, he's so freaking gentle. Not because he's afraid I'm going to hurt him if he isn't but because he trusts that I'm not going to hurt him for it at all.

I literally tripped and fell on him the other day (tangled leashes because I wasn't watching the puppy I was walking closely enough and thenoodle leaned against me riiiiight as it wrapped my legs with the leash and to avoid stepping on the puppy, I shifted my weight forward into thenoodle) and the worst I got from that is a bruise on my forearm from a very gentle (and well-deserved! I practically stepped on him and it definitely hurt!) nip that he didn't even continue to pursue and that I wasn't worried he was going to pursue. Didn't even cross my mind. He got pets and snuggles and butt scratches after and was sufficiently mollified.

I think it's important to tell and share stories like this because it feels so hopeless when you look at your dog and realize that they wouldn't choose you. When you still have to provide for this animal that you love that doesn't want you to touch it.

He used to hate being petted. Now he loves it. I spent an entire year naming different kinds of touch so that he never had to wonder what I was doing. We spent months building up personal play because he used to get too aroused while wrestling with me and would try to eat me. With no serious intent but he's a massive dog and I used to cause him a lot of pain and stress and being in close contact with me was clearly emotionally difficult for him because he was blatantly concerned.

We're here now. We're good. There are things we can improve and we're working on them but everything is just as much about his comfort as it is mine.

So if any of that resonates with you: keep trying. You'll get there. All is not lost. There are some things he'll never get back and neither will I, but where we are is good. It's okay. He's happy. He's comfortable.

[thenoodlesadventures]

Revamped our ear cleaning procedure! He still leaves when I get the bottle out but he comes back as soon as he gets out of the room without any hesitation.

So I've added telling him I'm going to clean his ear and then asking "Are you ready?" followed by waiting to see what he does. If he moves away then I wait or pet him. If he holds steady then I proceed. I'm not looking for perfect stillness because I expect some shifting since I'm putting something cold and wet in his ear which would make almost any creature cringe a little, but rather a commitment to staying in contact. I don't want to have to hold him steady like I've had to in the past (this had been a long journey that's necessitated lots of rest cleanings that he really didn't want because he has allergies lol). I want him to be able to stand on his own for the vast majority of this process.

I also tell him what type of touching I'm going to do and when so he doesn't have to guess or be surprised by it. Notice how relaxed he is. His muscles are soft and loose. His body shifts with the gentle pressure I'm applying. For as unpleasant as having something cold and wet in his ear is, he's comfortable. I think a lot of that can be attributed to him knowing his the process unfolds.

Even the one time I clearly press against something sensitive and get some teeth, he's relaxed! He's a very communicative dog (something I encourage) and is just so very gentle with me but also very willing to assert boundaries which I personally love. Teeth don't mean this is over. Teeth mean "hey that hurt!". Gotta watch the whole dog. Even during this event his posture is relaxed and easy. He's telling me "no". He's not threatening me. He's not worried about what I'm going to do because he expects that I'm going to stop doing the uncomfortable/painful thing. This is a familiar situation where he tells me "no" and I quit what I was doing and offer him petting. I often offer him my hand in case he feels the need to give me a nibble and talk to him softly. Dogs often engage in similar appeasement behaviors (whining and face licking) when corrected by other dogs so I've modeled my reaction after that and it's worked really well for me and my personal dogs. In this case since there were treats available, he wanted a treat instead and made that preference clear as you can see with him pulling his head away shortly after I touch him and then repeating the action when I offer petting again lol and I am verbally offering before I touch him even if you can't heart it on the video because of the boarding dog and how the phone is sitting. Typically, if I ask and he doesn't want to be petted he'll move his head away slightly which I'm guessing he didn't do here because he wanted treats OR because he DID want to be petted but only as an avenue to treats 😆

[thenoodlesadventures]

They're trotting in sync 😭😭😭😭 stop it 😭😭 it's too cute 🥺

[thenoodlesadventures]

Not filmed: me getting out the bottle and cotton rounds because he always leaves. Very politely goes to my room and closes the door. Sometimes he comes back fully on his own when he hears me getting out the treats. Sometimes he waits for me to ask, "Ready to clean your ears?". He doesn't like the experience of wetness in his ears. I think most of the leaving-to-come-back behavior is a hold over from when I used to pour the liquid directly in his ears before I figured out that he's much happier with an equally soaked cotton round going in his ear instead.

This used to be a growl-worthy experience, but the switch to cotton rounds instead of dumping (or cotton balls which he also didn't appreciate) and addition of pauses to shake his head to clear out his ears has really turned this around for him. He has allergies so ear cleaning is a must and also means I'm handling an extra sensitive body part because his ears are often itchy.

Sidenote: there's so much arm movement because I'm able to be so much gentler with his ears if I shift my whole arm to rotate my finger at the correct angle instead of just trying to use my hand/wrist/finger.

I support his chin because he's less likely to move if I have a hand on him. This is something I'd like to change. I'd like to work into giving him the space to pull away when he's not ready and relax into my hand when he is. He'll never like this process. I want him to be okay with it though. So that's kind of the next step that I'm trying to shift into. He gets treats throughout this behavior specifically because he hates it so much 😆

If I do this when he's getting bathed, he cares significantly less and is far more interested in his ball so we don't use treats in that context. I think already being wet makes the wetness in his ears less dramatic since it's really more of an ear rub at that point (which he enjoys) because the wetness is net neutral given that that was his starting state of being. Which is interesting!

[thenoodlesadventures]

Omggggg guys I just finished this collar and holy shit it looks so good. Customer picked out some amazing colors. Just 10/10. Stunned at how pretty it is.

[thenoodlesadventures]

Couple of things:

I'm not prying his mouth open.

This is his favorite way to receive pulls and he will literally come running from across the house is he hears his pill bottle.

So I used to be able to just put any pill into my hand with a couple of treats and he'd just gobble the whole lot down. Then he started occasionally needing to take apoquel... And apparently that pill is Very Nasty. Poor kid got it on his tongue ONE TIME and he was no longer an easy pill dog 😂 I really can't blame him. I nearly gag when I have to take Mucinex so I'm guessing that's what it's like for him. I haven't personally tasted the apoquel pill but I trust his judgement.

So.

I suddenly had an itchy dog who REALLY didn't want to eat ANYTHING that smelled like apoquel. He literally ate an entire bowl of raw food around that pill. It was hidden in the middle of a meat mash. Like he found it and spat it out...out of 1 and 1/4 POUNDS (an entire 20oz) of blended raw. 😅 So we pivoted.

I spent the entire next day free-shaping an "open your mouth please" cue and then we added the pill-down-the-throat that evening. He gags every time. It's literally one of his favorite behaviors. Comes right up with ZERO prompting. Recognizes the scent of HIS medication and will sit for it unprompted (when he was younger he came up and sat for acetaminophen/paracetamol a couple of times before he realized I wouldn't give him those 😆)

His cue is "tooth". I hook my fingers behind his canine and slot more fingers in as he opens his mouth wider. Once he's opened wide enough, I tuck the pill into his throat, fully behind his tongue and then he gets whatever cookie I have. Seriously, he'll happily do this one for some VERY low value stuff.

[thenoodlesadventures]

Hello again!

So I brush The Noodle™️'s teeth most nights (trying to get back into the habit of doing it every day!) and this is the process that we ended up with!

I get the ball and tease him with it while I put toothpaste on the brush. This portion of the ritual send to make it much more of a game for him since it means that I always play with him for a moment before we actually start since I can't tease him and then NOT play with him 😂

I always ask him to sit using my informal cue which I'm willing to receive a "no" response to (an ignored formal sit cue will result in me luring or asking in a different way (gesture, different word, etc.) until I obtain a sit).

We started our teeth brushing adventure with a dog tooth brush which I found to be uncomfortable for him and difficult for me to manipulate despite him having such a large mouth. We shifted from that to a child's toothbrush which worked significantly better and was gentle on his gums so he tolerated it much better. By far his favorite switch has been to the electric toothbrush. There's no accidental jabbing or me using inconsistent pressure. It's made a big difference and because I made that switch I can now polish his teeth too since it's the same kind of tool.

I only polish about twice a year since that's a new addition and I don't want to damage his enamel. I also don't polish all of his teeth. The only teeth that get polished are the ones that get build up on them (which are very few since I'm usually very good about brushing AND he's half raw fed AND he likes to chew on stuff). I definitely intend to teach this behavior to HoneyGirl and am currently working on her item hold which is the foundation for the whole thing!

I actually started this behavior with treats as payment before switching to the toy once it was better developed. Honestly it's one of my favorite things that I've taught him since so many people fail to get rid of the dog's desire to eat the toothpaste. I think it'll be more challenging with HoneyGirl that it was for him but I fully intend to get food retrieves with her too which I think made a big difference in this particular behavior 😁

[thenoodlesadventures]

Here's one of our sloppier renditions of ”smear ointment where you've been rubbing your eyes". The Noodle™️ got my thumb when we were playing tug earlier (which is why I was so fiddly with the ointment cap) plus we usually do this right before bed (which it isn't) in our bedroom (which we weren't in) so props to him for engaging anyway! Typically he lays down as soon as I get my knees set up for him, but considering the "odd" circumstances I'll take him readily laying down when I offer. We usually do other training in this space so I think that accounts for his waiting and for the pulling back when I did the first practice sweep.

Usually the way this looks is:

Practice repetition

Actual behavior

Practice repetition

The reason I bracket the actual behavior like this is as follows:

Prepares the dog for the behavior and gives them a chance to settle into it without the pressure of the actual behavior. If they hesitate then I do another practice rep like in this video. He clearly wasn't expecting us to do this behavior HERE so he pulled back, but once he figured out what he were doing he settled into it.

The real husbandry goes here so that it's only a small portion of what the dog is experiencing when it's something unpleasant like this (there are other husbandry behaviors/processes that The Noodle™️ enjoys where we don't even use a separate reward because he genuinely likes them).

Couple of things going on with this one. The first is that the dog isn't anticipating leaving after the husbandry procedure because they know there's one more repetition left. This helps cut down on fidgitiness. The second is that it gives the dog another easy win.

I do this in a predictable pattern so that the dog knows what to expect each time. If the whole thing is predictable then they known exactly what they're buying into. It means something that they know exactly what will happen and when and are choosing to engage anyway.

Behavior doesn't happen in a vacuum. There are feelings and emotions connected to everything that our dogs do and that's a huge part of their motivation to perform or not perform the behavior. We have terms and theories to explain some of these processes but not all of them. It starts getting messy when we start thinking about whole repetitions impacting the ones before and after them which can't easily be explained in S-R contiguity theory which is the way the field of animal behavior talks about operant behavior.

I think bracketing the husbandry procedure with practice repetitions allowed the dog to first emotionally prepare for the sensation of the husbandry procedure and second to bring their emotional response back into a more normal range after the procedure has been completed.

We started this with a chin rest in my hand while I did one eye and then the other. That morphed into a chin rest on my knees while a sat up because he didn't seem to enjoy having to start all over again after the first eye was done. My knees changed to this awkward half reclined position because my knees (when they're pulled up closer to my chest like I used to do) are too short for him to comfortably put his head on when he's standing and too tall if he's laying down.

The rub down after is a recent addition (think last 4 nights) because he loves getting his head and neck scratched in the evening. He really enjoys this part. He literally rests the whole weight of his head on me and closes his eyes. He will only move from this position when I go to give him his last snack after because he likes it that much 🥺❤️

[thenoodlesadventures]

Ps: our tree is still up but we've redecorated it so neither of us have to drag it into the attic 😂

Crimbo pics!! Forgot to post these lol but also our tree is still up so it's still the season in our house 😆