SHE DID IT!!

She did it! She did it! She did it!!

Tonight Taenzer simply stepped back with one back foot into the pizza box (substitute for the cookie sheet, to get Timber to lift a bit higher) instead of circling around, stomping it with her front feet and waiting for the click, then when it didn't come moving forward to stand with her back feet in.

She did it several times in a row. I'm not actually convinced she knew what she was doing, but she did do it.

More importantly, tonight she stayed calm and didn't get all worked up and too excited to think, which leads me to ask, what did I do that helped her? Hopefully I did something...

I think one thing is that I tried to keep the reinforcement level very high, and when we got stalled out with the feet, I shifted to something else. I had her lie down and clicked her for a head turn to her right. That helped me, as it showed me that she can connect a click with a specific movement and repeat the movement (I was starting to wonder...). That means it's me not isolating the foot movement enough for her to connect it. And it helped her, because it immobilized her, so she couldn't get herself all worked up, and she got a high reinforcement rate for the head turns.

Then I rearranged things, including me and how I delivered the treats, so that she'd be more likely to hit the box when she moved after taking a treat, so I could click and treat again. And even though I'm trying to shape this, I admit I lured a little by holding my hand down low and moving it toward her front feet to encourage her to step back instead of leave and circle. This will probably cause a problem down the road--I bet she'll pair the foot lift with lowering her head--but I'll just have to fix that later.

I also moved the box closer. With Timber, I moved it farther away, but she did better with it closer in. Once she's stepping back consistently, I'll try moving it farther away again, so she has to reach for it.

I wonder if it also helped that she got out of the house today. It was too wet for them to be able to play, but I ran errands, went to the bank, bought groceries, and they came with. I left the car windows down enough for them to stick their noses out while I was in stores. So they at least got a change of scenery and some fresh air.

Four times. She did it four times in a row. Yay!!

OTN: the Pyroclastic sock from Winter 2009 Knitty, using a wool/bamboo yarn I got from the Dyepot. It has a shaped arch, which I've never done before, so it's pretty interesting knitting. The yarn is knitting up really pretty, too.