Shaping Update

Cobi's Person: Our session last Saturday didn't go particularly well. Jacobi was distracted and didn't want much of anything to do with either one of us.

Then suddenly on Sunday a light went on. She's tugging on the cloth sac for 5 seconds and picking it up off the ground. I added a "box game" (put a box down on the floor to see how she would interact with it and then marking a desired behaviour), and she's now placing her paw on the box 3-4 times out of 5. I then brought out a kleenex box, and with very little effort I have her removing kleenexes with her teeth.

So all good, right?

Well, we're stuck again. The problem is getting her to hold something in her mouth. She'll tug on the sac, but will pull it right out of my hands and then drop it. The kleenex she drops immediately as soon as it's been removed from the box. Front the floor, she'll pick up the sac and toss it in my direction, but she won't actually hold onto it.

Just like chasing the ball. Ball is stopped, job is done. Kleenex has been removed, job is done. Sac has been removed from person's hand, job is done.

So what now? Back to half-second holds and rewards for that? I think that's my next plan... Try to mark it before she starts tugging, or tosses it away.

I'm intrigued by the possibility of having her pull a kleenex from a box and bring it over to me. The cue would, obviously, be a sneeze. That seems like a possible goal... So we'll keep that one in the list too...