Luring vs. Shaping and Capturing

I started teaching Vivre heel by teaching her to walk on my left side and then shape it to an actual heel. We got very enthusiastic and bouncing heeling. Or almost heeling any way. However I watched a video the other day where you teach heel by using a paw target and starting with a pivot. It looks like a great method and has the added bonus of also starting fronts, finishes and helping the Vivre learn to use her body.

I started by luring Vivre on to the paw target. In this case a book. After the first day I decided that she didn't seem to be noticing what her feet were doing, she was just watching my hands. Whether I had food in them or not. So I left the book down and after clicking for a couple of glances at the book, just started to click when she would touch it with her paw. It was always accidentally at first, but eventually she started to understand. It seems like it was much quicker that way, even though I spent more time to get less reps than with luring. Of course it is hard to say since she had already had over 250 reps with me luring her on to the book.

The session was convincing enough though that with the exception of sit and down I am going to try to avoid luring behaviors. We already have a lovely, quick, sharp fold back down on a mostly reliable hand cue. A nice square, tucked sit has been a little harder to get, regularly, but I have put more time in to the down.

This session also demonstrated the usefulness of the clicker. I was clicking anytime any part of Vivre's foot hit the top of the book. Because of where I placed the book when she would try to lay at my feet she would lay a paw on the book. At one point she decided that she was supposed to lay down on the book to get the C/T. She tried to purposefully down on the book twice, both times interrupted by the click. After that she had it. I shudder to think how long that would have taken with just treats.

Any way she is pivoting very well to the left and pretty well to the right. We did the three sessions to the left before I realized I was only going in one direction. Occasionally she moves off the book and follows my hand as I reach for a treat. Not wrong since the click ends the behavior, but I always lead her back on to the book to get her treat. I need to do some more doggy zen work, but it isn't generalizing well.

Oh, for anybody who is interested there is a new clicker training list specifically for bitework. Called Click Bite.