Building the Reinforcement Zone

Yesterday afternoon we worked a bit on building a reinforcement zone by my leg as a precursor to loose leash walking. I was able to get her to sit and sort of remain in place so that I could maneuver around to standing by her side and treating from there. The idea is to build so much value for her being in this position that she chooses to be there on her own. It worked well for my dog. We'll see how it goes whit Gidget. She doesn't sit still for long:-) Also, she can be really rough with her teeth. If I hang on to the treat and don't let her actually have it until she is more gentle, it sometimes works. During her dinner, I actually had to stop feeding her and leave the room for a bit and when I cam back, she did better. I'm sure she will learn eventually how to be more gentle in taking treats but until she does I'm going to have bruises and a few cuts. She has a lot of energy.

So today's plan is to work on the reinforcement zone some more and perhaps some relaxation protocol. For sure some more IYC. I think that work paid off for our dinner last night. She still begged while we were eating but the bit about getting in our faces wasn't there. Hope it wasn't just a fluke.

Later this morning

We just did some reinforcing of position next to my leg this morning with Gidget's breakfast kibble. She really isn't comfortable with me "looming" right over her but she let me get pretty close to her. I cued the sit and then positioned myself so that she was sitting at roughly what would be a heel position. Mostly she took her kibble well but I could see her leaning away from me a bit more and more each time. It'll just take a bit for her to get comfortable with me being so close. I didn't get really close, just a foot or so. If she hadn't accepted that, I'd have backed off. I didn't take any video. I'd tried last night with dinner but she was moving around so much, we didn't get any useable video so I decided to wait until we have it down better so I ca predict where to pur the tripod. The good news is that she doesn't sem to ming the camera when it is on the tripod, just when a person is holding it. Wish I could get some better still shots of her.

She's still fairly "sharky" with her teeth. She just doesn't seem to know how to take a piece of food or treat from my hand. Especially is she is the least bit stressed. Outside when I treat her for coming when called or for potty-ing, she does better.