Building Confidence: Shaping Underfootings/Weird Surfaces (Patreon)

In this video I'm shaping Whip to put her paws on a novel object. This novel object is also what we would consider an "underfooting" in the service dog world. It's a weird texture for the dog, and some dogs can find it uncomfortable to walk on metal. There are many cases when walking on metal is critical for service dogs. This is especially true on public transit and airports. 

This video is also how I play the "touch the butt" game but with her feet. I present a novel object and shape her to move towards it and then to interact with it. Doing this daily with a variety of objects will build confidence. I will also often do this with something that makes noise like a full waterbottle, or a waterbottle that has pennies in it. The dog then learns that *they* control the making of the noise and that can build confidence. Just don't start with something loud if you're having confidence issues. Start with easy things, then build up to more challenging noisy or metal things. 

At 1:29 and 1:35 I thought she was about to put the second foot on. She didn't. That's okay - I'd rather click early rather than late. I'll just watch for it next time.

At the end I demo feeding on the objects. This is something I will do when shaping a "go to place" or boxwork once the dog is returning to the object repeatedly in a nice loop.