I'm trying to teach my dogs to lick on cue. When shaping this, I've tried in three-minute sessions to get the rate of 15 licks per minute before adding the cue. I could only get Tango, my yellow Lab, to about 12 licks per minute. I've tried about 20 different sessions over the course of the week and still we remained stuck at 12.
I went ahead with the shaping plan anyway, ignoring the fact that we didn't have 15 behaviors per minute, thinking I'd catch up at the next step... I added the cue, but our progress stalled. He didn't really "get it," and it was clear that he was guessing and I was getting frustrated (with myself, not poor confused Tango).
Learn a lesson from me the easy way -- don't take shortcuts, it only undermines your progress and slows you down. This weekend I'm starting all over from the beginning. Back to just capturing the licks -- and this time I'll stick with it until I get the requisite 15 per minute!!
