Drove over an hour to parkour class and saw there was nothing set up for class, which reminded me I'd been told there was no class this week. I decided since I was there to get in a parkour practice of our Backwards Walk On [video]. After all, it was going to be a two hour drive home through rush hour, so wanted to make the time worth our while.
I started with shaping Gimme to back-up to a target (margarine lid) on the floor. I quickly moved the target onto the board. I was trying to shape steps backward, but can't really see her back feet without a mirror. She wants to treat the plank like a pivot platform, a behavior which has been well rewarded. Thus we end up with a fishtail behavior, which I certainly don't want. I use pressure into her space to get backward steps, hoping to get her started. I missed her first independently offered backwards step at 2:25. I get in several good clicks at 3:15 and a little beyond. Unfortunately there aren't enough of them to make it clear to Gimme what I'm looking for and she again starts offering behaviors. So, I have to include clicking all four feet on the plank, which likely muddies the concept for Gimme and leads to frustration. The best shaping is to click one part of the behavior at a time.
I tried several variations on the theme, none of which gave satisfactory results. More than anything this session was about identifying options which didn't work. Gimme is such a good girl for putting up with my nonsense.
I certainly don't blame her for not getting this. I blame myself for not yet coming up with something that makes this clear to her. Given her love of all things going backward, I KNOW she'd be doing it, if she understood what I wanted. It's who she is.
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