Friday, June 13, 2008

Respecting My Personal Space


June 1

I mentioned before Blossom liked to be to close sometimes. In the photo I am teaching her that I have my own personal space. I am now sesitizing her to my handy stick. She is learning that sometimes my body and stick are also saying,"move those feet away". She is welcomed to come into my space when I ask, but otherwise she needs to stay a few feet away until I ask her to do something else. I spent some time getting her used to the handy stick before I started the personal space exercise. To establish personal space, I stood in a safe position in front of her and wiggled the lead line, escalating pressure until I finally tapped her with the handy stick on the chest. When I tapped her with the handy stick she rocked back and I released pressure and rewarded her. I Let her think about it and did the exercise again. I did the whole process again. This time she stepped one foot back and I released pressure and rewarded her again. Eventually she was taking several steps back and is now to the point where I can just wiggle the lead line and she backs. Yahoo!!!

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