- Location
- Melbourne, Australia
So after much reflection, I have decided that our previous progress may not have been progress at all. Ella lets me touch and play with her paws when she's snuggling on the couch or in bed but if there is any indication at all that it might be more than just a "mid-cuddle paw touch" shes up and out of there and is cautious around me for while.
Last night I dragged out a blue, spongy mat that will now become our "nails mat". I heavily rewarded Ella dropping on the mat. She very quickly realised the game and was racing back to drop on the mat at any given opportunity. That's all we did last night.
Tonight I put the mat down and she immediately jumped (yes, actually jumped
) on and dropped. Ok, we remember the fun from last night!
Then I placed my hand between her paws (not touching them) and made sure that she still looked comfortable. Reward, break and play. We did this a couple of times but as she was looking at me a bit like
I decided that I'd gauge her reaction if I attempted to touch her paw. This is where it became a little interesting as she didn't react (still looked relaxed) if I touched her front right paw but she actually moved her left paw away when she realised that I might touch that one. So to begin, I just touched the right paw, rewarded and broke for a play. (BTW, when I say touch, I mean that I moved my hand very slowly from the "middle of the paws" position, gently and slowly touched the paw, then calmly removed again). Each time at the end of the play, I did nothing but waited to see what she would do. As soon as the play finished, she ran to the mat and dropped so I took that to mean that she was ok to continue with the paw touching. After a couple of touches of the right paw, I attempted the left again. Woo hoo, no movement and no reaction! Then it was PARTY TIME!!!! 
I know that I need to make sure that I don't try to move forward too quickly so I think we'll stick with this for the foreseeable future, possibly slightly increasing the pressure of the touch as our next step.
Last night I dragged out a blue, spongy mat that will now become our "nails mat". I heavily rewarded Ella dropping on the mat. She very quickly realised the game and was racing back to drop on the mat at any given opportunity. That's all we did last night.
Tonight I put the mat down and she immediately jumped (yes, actually jumped
) on and dropped. Ok, we remember the fun from last night!Then I placed my hand between her paws (not touching them) and made sure that she still looked comfortable. Reward, break and play. We did this a couple of times but as she was looking at me a bit like
I decided that I'd gauge her reaction if I attempted to touch her paw. This is where it became a little interesting as she didn't react (still looked relaxed) if I touched her front right paw but she actually moved her left paw away when she realised that I might touch that one. So to begin, I just touched the right paw, rewarded and broke for a play. (BTW, when I say touch, I mean that I moved my hand very slowly from the "middle of the paws" position, gently and slowly touched the paw, then calmly removed again). Each time at the end of the play, I did nothing but waited to see what she would do. As soon as the play finished, she ran to the mat and dropped so I took that to mean that she was ok to continue with the paw touching. After a couple of touches of the right paw, I attempted the left again. Woo hoo, no movement and no reaction! Then it was PARTY TIME!!!! I know that I need to make sure that I don't try to move forward too quickly so I think we'll stick with this for the foreseeable future, possibly slightly increasing the pressure of the touch as our next step.
). Anyway, the paw touch was going so well that I moved to picking up each front paw before rewarding and playing. I'm thinking that some of my previous work is coming into play here as she's not quite as uncomfortable with some of these steps as she has been on past attempt.
