I suck at teaching limp. I was ready to hang it up yesterday. After switching methods, as I mentioned a couple posts back, it seemed to be going pretty well with getting Jun to jump UP for the target while holding up her paw. Last night she wasn't doing it at all. She was touching her paw to the ground for a split second before jumping and it made me wonder whether she had done it right at all before. It is really hard to see while standing up and pretty much looking straight down on her back since she likes to stand as close as possible to me. In one last-ditch attempt, I decided to try one more thing. Sitting in front of her, she lifts her paw and I hold it up and lure her one step. I am trying to hold it as lightly as I can and have the top of her paw touching my hand (rather than the bottom of her paw or her arm) so that it's not comfortable for her to lean on my hand. She caught onto that. So we'll see if I can wean her off the assist and then get a couple more steps. I never got farther than 2 steps with Lok, so apparently this is one trick I just really suck at teaching.
I am also about ready to quit on Elo's limp. He does really well with a target. His target is a board leaning against the wall. He's fine as long as it is there, even if it is flush with the wall. But I have no idea how to fade the target. When I try to take it away cold turkey I just get really spastic hopping around! I try to mark for his back foot hopping higher and higher, but he's moving so fast it's crazy hard to get the timing right.I'm gonna have to go watch some videos.
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You'll get there! I've taught different methods with all 3 dogs. Lance I used a leash as a prop for the first front foot. I soon got to to a point where he never leaned on the leash but would only limp when the leash was on him. I don't know why it was hard to fade the leash when he wasn't using it anymore.
ReplyDeleteThen with his other foot it was easier because he already somewhat knew the different version of the behavior. After getting duration I used a bit of luring, with the foot closest to my leg in heel whereas most other people use the outer foot. I also used my hand as support for the first few sessions but faded it really quick.
With Vito I worked on him coming towards me rather then in heel/side. I used my hand as a target and often started with him in a sit and kinda jumping towards me to touch my hand. I can't say he limps all that great now. It's more like spazzing towards me and he can't really do it in heel position very well without touching my hand even though he's not using it for support.
Chuck I used the jumping thing again but didn't use a target or my hand. I am more free shaping it with a little luring. But we never practice so he doesn't have a great limp either.
So Lance is the one with the best limping skills and I totally used a prop.