Location: local farm and feed store (outside)
Reinforcement: food tube (canned cat food/cream cheese) and small bits of cheese and turkey dogs
Length: 10-15 minutes
Fear level: solid 3 and some 2 moments (yay! No 4s or 5s!)
Peach is finally out of season and we're back in action working on desensitization and counterconditioning to new environments. She was awesome today!
We went to TSC and worked in their little outdoor lawn tractor section. It's cordoned off with bright red farm gates, which she was afraid of at first. We walked up to it, about 2 feet away, and I kept clicking and treating her for either looking at it or walking toward it; I was trying to shape her to investigate it. She got jackpotted when she actually touched the bars of the gating with her nose or stuck her head through to the other side. After she'd been c/t'd several times (at least 15-20) for touching the gating, she then decided to offer me some attention! Woo hoo!! She even BARKED at me to demand a treat!! She knew this was a training session and she was working me--it was amazing. I also cued her into a couple downs, which she did eagerly.
I also clicked her for looking at people; she was not afraid of any of them because they were all pretty far away (at least 20-25 feet). Now I know that working at the post office was too hard because we were too close to the people.
After this, we walked around the gating and she got a little nervous about all those scary looking lawn tractors. She was slinking in, tail between her legs, and she refused a treat once. Most of the time when I clicked I had to reach up and around her and pop it in her mouth. But, she was very inquisitive and was moving ahead of me all the time; she never shut down, or panicked, or tried to leave. She got lots of clicks and treats for nosing the tractors and looking at them. Closer to the building, there was a giant advertisement on canvas tied to the wall; it began flapping and I could see her fixating on it, so we just turned around and walked away. Flapping things, like flags, really bother her and I didn't want to ruin her wonderful progress by pushing for too much.
Overall, I was super pleased with her behavior today. We're going to keep at it and try to make it to at least two more places this weekend.
