Yesterday I tried rewarding Maizey for her head bob offer in hopes of getting her to lay her chin down. I don’t think that worked well, it seemed to just keep her further in work mode for me. Today I backed off of that and I did get a couple of offers, but I think it’s better to encourage her to just be bored, not offer me to work.
Today’s RP lesson was about contextual cues. Contextual cues are very interesting, because sometimes dogs learn them and their people don’t even know they’ve taught them.
When I put on a skirt Maizey gets in her crate cause she know she rarely goes with me if I wear a skirt. Who new a skirt could be a cue?
When I set up the camera on the tripod she started wagging her tail. The whole time I set up the camera, got her kibble and moved the furniture she just laid on the couch softly wagging her tail with her happy, “I’m going to play games soon” grin on her face. Then when I out her mat she just hopped down and got on her mat. Apparently the camera is now a cue that fun is to come.
As cute as that is I still see no signs of her actually relaxing. In today’s video she does lay her chin on the mat twice, but she’s offering me a trick, not relaxing.
Now my problem is that I’m running out of space. I live in a small house and at twenty steps I’m already going wall to wall. Looking at RP it seems you would have to have an enormous space to do it all literally as it’s written. I can move outside, but will face a similar problem as my yard is also very small. So how did all of you handle this?
She’s doing well, I hope we can get her to actually chill out eventually, but until then she’s getting a very solid “park it” on her mat!
