Sadie has gotten the hang of the two-feet approach to her dot. Tonight she still went four-on immediately, but quickly stepped off with her front feet for the click. After that, she would step all paws up and immediately walk forward into a hind-on, front-off position. Lots of clicks and treats! I want to teach her names for the four- and hind-on behaviors, but she can't distinguish them yet.
Maxwell recently learned the AFT cue for putting his hind paws on the dot. Now I'm working on FORE, behavior only. He keeps trying to give me AFT, running into position and staring ahead. When no click comes after several seconds, he walks off, turns around, and tries it facing the other direction. Once I swear he went back and forth a half-dozen times before I had a click-able moment.
He was so quick to offer AFT that I intervened a bit. As he approached the dot, I stepped in front of him, blocking him from stepping off with his front paws. After three or four of those, he started to figure out that I wanted something with his front end. While still offering many AFT behaviors, he began to also show some one- or two-paw pauses on the dot, both of which I will click at this point.
Tonight, my biggest mistake was to start Maxwell's training with an AFT cue. I think that set the tone for the rest of the session, since I reinforced a behavior that was similar to, but not the same as, what I wanted to teach. Next time I'll start fresh.
Now I'm off to research running contacts for Sadie!
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