After numerous instances of what I have begun to call the frozen dog episodes in which S|Uki freezes and will not move, I decided to consult with Ami. I described to him the numerous incidents in which Suki refuses to budge - all of them in Ben Ami where she evidently encounters a lot of things that she is not familiar with from her previous trainins and life with her foster family in Tel Aviv. Some of these I have not been able to identify : others such as the yard full of dogs and a wagon with buckets of anona fruits sitting on our road, are very obvious and Suki does not want to approach them.
Not surprisingly, Ami suggested that I work with the clicker and coax Suki to move forward, using positive reinforcement of the hand signal - a circular movement with a fist extended with a piece of food inside. So we set out in the direction of the green field again. This time I was determined to get Suki to go in and have a run.
At the corner Suki balked and would not turn right towards the field. It took about a half dozen clicks to get her to progress towards the entrance to the field. There she stopped and balked again. It took another half dozen clidks and rewards, short walks forward and praise and rewards, to get her far enough into the field to put on her collar, unclip her leash and harness and let her go. Suki ran happily in the field, once in a while spinning about to assess her surroundings, and she got her run. Hopefully that will be positive reinforcement enough to get her to go back there again.
So once again the clicker proves its worth. Ami also told me that three months after the end of the course they pay another home visit to see how things are going. We'll see what we have to show them by then.
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