Shaping Success

We did another shaping session yesterday with clicking and treating for looking at the chair seat and moving a foot. It didn't get farther than that.

So today I thought about how I could set her up even more for success. I decided to rearrange so she could only access one side of the chair. That way she would be focused on that side and not running from one place to another. I used a stool on the one side, thinking that if she got onto it to get at the chair I could also shape the behavior that direction.

But Molly stayed at the accessible side of the chair. After lots of treats for looking and moving a foot, she pawed at a few treats. I clicked and treated a few treats for that.

Then she did it--paws on the chair up to support herself. I jackpotted. Then I clicked and treated several times for being on the chair.

Then I said "down," a command she knows for getting off the sofa, and treated her for getting off the chair.

Right afterwards, she was back on the chair again! I did another jackpot and lots of clicking and treating for being on the chair. I said down again. She hopped down and I treated.

We repeated several times until she'd been up on the chair about seven times and was going up right away after a down. She got lots of treats and praise.

When she was volunteering the behavior, I did start saying the cue, "paws up," when she was on the chair. I don't expect her to hop onto a chair on command, but I do want her to start associating the words with the act.

Once again Molly has made us very proud with her progress. She actually got a special dinner tonight. We were out running errands and got some liver for her. So she got cut up pieces of liver mixed with a little kibble. She was very happy.