One project Chewie and I have been working on this summer is a long-duration stay. Chewie stands on a sturdy plastic platform while I stand about 12 feet away from her.
Several weeks ago (in Diary #79), I shared a video of Chewie standing on her platform for about 40 seconds. And now, we’ve now worked up to a two-minute stay!
In the video below, Chewie stands on her platform for a little over two minutes while I stand at the other end of the barn. The video is a bit boring, but you’re welcome to watch it if you’d like to see our progress.
This behavior will be useful for some of the fun training that we do related to agility and tricks. In addition, it will be very useful for veterinary care and daily care tasks.
Building from 30 seconds to two minutes has been an interesting process, and it has taught me some new things about building duration.
In some ways, I think I’ve learned even more than Chewie!
So far, I’ve walked to the same spot each time, and I’ve been mostly still. My next task is to begin introducing some variations in my behavior. I’ll begin waiting in different places and doing different activities while I wait.
These changes will be small at first, so that Chewie is not tempted to leave her platform. Then, we’ll gradually introduce larger variations.
I’ll keep sharing as we continue working on this behavior.
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