Martin Reid
Hey Darcey
Thanks, good to see an update!
Well done, I think this was a good session and some good rewarding from you too!
One thing I would consider doing is when you don’t have the mat on the dog walk, or even when you do as it doesn’t make any difference I would consider putting an elastic band or something very similar (thin and barely noticeable) so that you can be super clear what your criteria will be without having to overthink it so you can deliver the feedback to her straight away rather than ponder whether it’s a reward or not. I find it much easier and clearer as sometimes with the borderline ones you’re unsure whether to reward and it can just give you a little bit more structure.
Interestingly, I think she was actually better without the mat however as it’s your first time using the mat on the dog walk, I would persevere and let’s see what happens! It might be quite good to do a few ping-pongs (as I call them) just to add a little bit of value for the mat. Annoyingly, I can’t find a video on this, but basically the Dog is just going between getting the reward from the manners minder, going and touching the mat turning around on it (making contact with rear feet as well) and then going back to the manners minder. So you’re not actually getting them to do any of the dog walk plank, you’re basically just asking her to touch the mat get the reward touch the mat get the reward so on and so on. (almost like the very foundation exercise of mat work shaping, but with it on the end of the dog walk to just raise a bit of awareness about where it is) it can be a good warmup exercise!
Hopefully that makes sense!
Martin