(VICT) Re: levity

  • From: "AnnaLisa Anderson" <annalisa@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <vi-clicker-trainers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 14:20:50 -0500

Hi Kitty,

Yeah, that's quite the image, a dog clicking and treating their handler...
Hmm...

I'm so sorry this happened to your Sunstar, but she might surprise you with
her willingness to try again.  I guess it depends on what kind of
temperament she has, whether she's real adventurous or likes to take on
challenges.  As I said, I trained my previous dog on escalators myself, and
I probably did it all wrong, in fact, I know I did. But because of her
willing spirit, it worked out.

I was at a national blind convention at the time, and it was a whole lot
easier to take escalators for the first few floors of the hotel than waiting
around for crowded elevators all the time, or trying to find stairs.  So I
wondered if I could teach Megan how to ride the escalator.  Well, mistake
number 1 was trying it on a down escalator first.  I got on, she didn't.
Fortunately I had friends with me who could wait with Megan till I got back
up again.  So I thought, that's the end of that, we won't try this again.
Well, sometime later that day, Megan totally surprised me by walking right
to an escalator next time she saw one.  It was as if she was saying, come on
Mom, try me!  I can do this, just give me another chance!  This time it was
an up escalator, so I thought well, maybe I should let her try.  After a
little hesitation, she did jump on and rode all the way to the top, and
jumped off.  Megan was so proud of herself, and I was very proud of her too.
I praised her tremendously, and she was literally jumping for joy.  We had
another up escalator to take right after that one, so we hopped on that one
too, and Megan did just as well the second time.  That was the beginning.
Down escalators were still a bit tricky for awhile, but she eventually
mastered those too, and she did well with them for many years after that.

Of course I knew nothing of clicker training back then, so I give Megan a
lot of credit for taking on the escalator challenge herself and succeeding.
I don't know if that encourages you or not, but I just wanted to tell you my
experience with this. If I had it to do again, I would approach it much more
cautiously and slowly, but the need was there at the time, and fortunately
for me, I had a dog who was willing to overcome her fear of the unknown and
give it the old college try.

AnnaLisa and Sundance


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