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Effective Dog Training Using Motion-Activated Cameras And Foam Darts

Busted

A few weeks ago, I received a call at work from my wife.

She had just gotten home for her lunch break, and mysteriously found “Fast and Furious” playing on our TV via the DVD player. The TV and DVD remotes were also found scattered across the carpet.

Having completed our NOS-fueled, month-long “The Fast and the Furious” marathon the night before, the obvious theory was that our resident pooch Pandora (right)  had gotten ahold of the remotes somehow and inadvertently (or deliberately) restarted the Vin Diesel classic still in the DVD player.

We initially passed it off as a fluke occurrence, but the following day the same thing happened again!

Troubled, I did what any card-carrying nerd would do. I set up a motion-activated webcam.

Caught!

One day and one “Yakety Sax” download later, I had our culprit red-pawed.

Now this is a very common problem for responsible pet owners: how do you maintain and control an animal when you aren’t at home?

Pandora can be a well-behaved dog. When mom and dad are present, she’s an angel. But like a teenage daughter, once the parents are out of town, nothing is off limits. She chews up shoes, gets into the trash, climbs on furniture. And now she’s watching R-rated movies without parental supervision!

I’ve been told by a number of dog trainers and vets that it’s pointless to punish a dog after-the-fact. There is a very small retention window in which to address negative behavior; yelling at a dog three hours after she’s chewed up your socks won’t help.

We have to condition her behavior when we’re not at home somehow.

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There’s GOT to be a better way!

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The Solution

The idea here is to clearly, but gently, remind Pandora that the same rules of the house apply whether we’re home or not — that she can still be punished for misbehaving. And maybe it’s the aerospace engineer in me, or maybe the 7-year-old kid, but when presented with a problem like this I typically look toward my toys.

What you need:

• Webcam (<$30.00)
• Yawcam software (Free)
• AutoHotKey software (Free)
• USB Missile Launcher ($35.95)

USB Awesomeness

How to do it:

The goal is to have a motion-activated camera trigger the missile launcher to fire at the couch whenever Pandora jumps on it.

I’m using an Ez Icontact Pro IIwebcam that I impulsively bought during a WootOff! last year (along with a BlueTooth dongle and a BlueTooth headset I never use). I’ve long since misplaced my install disc for the webcam, but Windows XP graciously found a default driver for me.

The USB Missile Launcher from Dream Cheeky is the tool of choice for every office prankster. It contains three small Nerf-like darts that are propelled “up to 10 feet” — although mine seem to go 20+ feet. The included software is simple to use. Simple tap the arrow keys to pitch and yaw the launcher, and hit the space bar to launch one of the missiles. Hours of fun!

Under the suggestion of the indispensable LifeHacker, I decided to check out Yawcam for my webcam software.

YawCam is very cool and almost too easy to use. My unknown-company webcam was identified and up-and-running within seconds without any issues. YawCam has a number of different modes to explore, but I’ll strictly be using its motion-sensing ability. Actions, such as taking still pictures or playing a sound, can be triggered via a motion-sensing event. In this case, I want my missile launcher to pelt the dog with a foam rocket. Unfortunately, this doesn’t come standard. I’ll have to improvise.

Instead, I’m using AutoHotKey to control the included USB Missile Laucher software. AutoHotKey is a powerful hotkey utility; for example, if you wanted the keystroke CTRL+M to bring up Internet Explorer, and go to Gmail, AutoHotKey can help you do just that. In this case, I want AutoHotKey to bring focus to the already open MissileLauncher program, and emulate a [SPACE] keystroke, which will launch a missile. This can be achieved easily using the following script.

IfWinExist Missilelauncher
{
    WinActivate
}
else
{
    Run "C:\Program Files\USb Missile Launcher\MissileLauncher.exe"
    WinWait Missilelauncher
    WinActivate
}
Send {Space}

Conveniently, AutoHotKey can also export a ready-made (.exe) of its script, which we will use in conjuncture with YawCam.

YawCam is configured to run my newly created “ShootTheDog.exe” program whenever a motion event is triggered. For added effect, I also have it play a threatening and startling sound effect that should add to the humor effectiveness of the experiment. Hopefully, I might condition this sound for future training.

Execution

With my webcam set and pointed directly at the couch, YawCam is booted up as I leave for work.
The following video summarizes a week’s worth of training.

After a few days, she seemed to get the picture. Success!

Next step: keeping her from jumping on the counter and eating our mail.

[Disclaimer: Pandora was not harmed. The darts have essentially no mass and foam tips, so had she ever been stuck by one (and she never was) the damage would be somewhere between a cotton-swab failing on her and a strong breeze. My wife also holds an animal science degree and works for a vet, so she kept me in check though the whole setup.]

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Any unique dog-training tips? Comment em!