When Pigs Fly_ Training Success With Impossible Dogs - Jane Killion [57]
7. Be careful to be random about how many steps of walking in position you reward, and work up to long stretches of walking very slowly. Don’t always ask for more steps—sometimes reinforce two steps, sometimes four, sometimes six, and then two again. You want to keep your dog guessing! Use the guidelines under the Duration heading in the section on teaching the stay. Because it is hard to keep all of this in mind and come up with an appropriate reinforcement schedule on the spot, you will find suggested schedules for reinforcement in the Resources section. You can use them as a daily plan for building loose leash walking.
Add a cue. Once your dog is walking for a few steps in just the position you like, you can add a cue. I use the phrase “let’s go” to signal my dogs that I want them to walk next to me in this way. When you are adding a cue, be careful exactly when you add it. For example, you want to make sure that you first add your cue when your dog is moving in position. Be careful that you don’t add the cue when your dog is slowing down, looking away or stopping to get a treat. Once the association between the cue and the correct behavior is made, you can start earlier and earlier until it actually prompts your dog to start walking with you.
Frequent but short sessions. Although you may only actually take your dog on a walk once a day or every few days or weeks, you can practice attention walking anytime throughout the day, in your yard or in your living room. Be especially mindful about the length of your sessions because this position is physically demanding for all dogs, and especially so for many Pigs Fly dogs. If you have a graceful Doberman or a slinky Border Collie, they can probably maintain this position for a long time without harm. If your dog is basically a cinderblock with a head attached, like mine are, fifteen minutes in this position could be injurious to their neck. Both for the physical well-being of the dog and the mental willingness to do the behavior, you are much better off to do just a few steps of attention walking each day or, better yet, several times a day.
Energize your dog’s behavior with hot reinforcers. As we discussed in Chapter Seven, you need all kinds of reinforcers to keep your dog keen on attention walking. Also, you can take the forces that seem to be working against you and use them to your advantage this way. If there is something that you have noticed to be particularly distracting to your dog, use that as a hot reinforcer. For instance, if there is a spot that he keeps wanting to sniff, dig at, or generally investigate, let him do so in exchange for some attention walking.
Take it on the road very gradually. Graduate through the steps. Begin in your kitchen, and work your way up to your living room, back yard, front yard, your street, a new street, a hiking trail.
Yield on your requirements when you change something. You have built up this behavior systematically. First step anywhere in the magic circle, then add eye contact, then add closeness, then add staying in that position for a good stretch. If you ask for this carefully built behavior in a new context, don’t expect or ask for all of those criteria at once. If you are, for instance, walking on a different route than you usually do, you may have to go back a step, or two steps. Perhaps you will reinforce if your dog is in the magic circle and looking at you, but not close. Maybe that is too much. Perhaps you will reinforce if your dog is in the magic circle at all. You might even have to go back to just free shaping some attention, but don’t worry about it. When you have built up a behavior this way it is very durable and you will be able to piece the steps back together very quickly. Just go back to whatever your dog can do and work your way back up.
Go Be a Dog
Casual Walking
OK, so now your dog knows how to do snappy attention walking. He has learned to pay attention to you and stay close in the face of all the interesting stuff in the world. You can get through a crowd with a bag of groceries in one hand and