Need some Help with Gimmick

He's an odd little duck. Soft does not even begin to describe his temperament. Seriously, think Chinchilla level of soft, and you've got it.

He's a smart little fellow. I watched him today trying to slide the bolts on a cage at work to get food. He clearly has some puzzle solving skills, and decent focus.

When I work with him, though, he just shuts down. If he can't figure out what I want in a try or two, he just sits there and looks at me. I try to keep sessions short and lively, and make sure I throw in plenty of things he knows so that he can continue to earn treats and stay interested.

I don't get a sense of frustration from him, just a total giving up. He does not offer behaviors to me at all, just stares.

On the other hand, when things click for him, they click hard. He goes from the blank look to "OMG Mom! This is what you wanted? This is it? This is the greatest thing ever. Wheeeeeeeee!"

The latest trick we've been working on is jumping onto my back. We started on a level where he pretty much had to step on. Ok, he got that. Then I moved a step or two away. Several days of work got him to do a quick leap. Jumping up a few inches with me bent over like Quasimodo took several weeks. Then, in the space of 10 minutes, it clicked and he was flying at me while I stood straight up and hitting the mark every time.

I have never used harsh methods with him. I do not know what the previous owner did, but it doesn't seem like it was anything, positive or negative.

He lacks confidence with just about everything, with I know is in large part from poor socializing before I got him.

How can I boost his little confidence? He's so afraid of making a mistake that he just won't do anything.

Have you tried free shaping? Not using your clicker with anything in mind, just clicking what he offers and seeing what happens? In other words, not really let there be mistakes or any "wrong" decisions really.

Oh god, that just sounds completely like Meg. I also don't think she was ever treated harshly in her previous home/s - just a super soft dog by nature who never had exposure to training and such early on.

It did take a couple of years, but she did manage to turn into an almost 'normal' dog to train.

When I first had her, we had a few really amazing trainers on the board who helped me a ton with her. One of the things that really stuck with me, and really helped Meg, was the suggestion of one to "reward confidence". I took that into every aspect of our life. Whether training, out walking, at the barn, any sign of increased comfort got a reward (praise and food, play rarely rewards her). If she was slinking around looking worried and I saw her tail start to loosen, big smiles and "Hey there mama! What a good girl!" and throwing cookies. If she was worried about approaching something and she leaned towards it to sniff, same thing - praise and happy and throwing cookies (backwards, away from the thing, so she could drive forward again). If she just came out for a walk feeling good and trotting along being content, there was lots of happy chatter and the handing over of treats. And same thing in training. If she looked worried that she was getting things wrong, any bit of ear coming forward, tail coming up, quicker movement - it all got cookies.

While I think the free shaping is a great idea to try, I can tell you it never worked well for Meg in the beginning. She doesn't want to guess. She's the kid in the back of the room with all the answers who really, really doesn't want to get called on. She would freeze up, and then get more worried because her lack of doing anything meant no rewards, which meant she must be wrong. I lure with her a ton more than with Gusto, because if she's following my lead for a behavior, she's braver because she's not making the choice herself. She can free-shape better now that her confidence is up, but she still prefers not to.

I will try to remember anything else I did that seemed to help. I'm not sure if my old threads are still on here, but there might be stuff there that will jog my memory.

Yeah, freeshaping him has been a wash. He hears the first click and then he just sits there trying to figure out what he did. If he can't he freezes again because nothing else could possibly be right and oh my god he might as well just die.

Boston Barker- I think we do have the same dog. I'll look at some old threads of yours for ideas.

Its just sad to watch him sit there frozen while Quid is one room over practically herniating himself offering behaviors to earn a treat.

This is actually really sad but the mental image I have of both dogs right now is hysterical.


If the click seems to make him anxious I would probably ditch using it, at least for a while. Right now it's probably tied too much to the overall stress of training and trying to figure out what's right and avoid making a mistake, so instead of the click being a happy sound it's actually inducing stress. Auggie was trained with just verbal markers and I think he turned out just fine LOL. So I would switch to only verbals and maybe at a later point you can bring the clicker back. You might also try a different noisemaker if you want something that will have that consistent, fast delivery, but verbals are super good.

Pepper lures better than being shaped too, I think partially because that is how her co-owner (who owned her until she was two) trains. I've done some shaping but her little brain doesn't work the way Payton's does or even Auggie's. I always hold out hope it's a skill she can learn, but maybe not, haha.

I love the "reward confidence" idea and actually, speaking of Pepper and Quid peeing his pants to offer you behaviors - how does he do with another dog around, or having watched another dog first? Pepper is not confident at all but after she watched Payton, then Auggie, then Georgie all get up on the balance ball and peanut, she was pretty quick to lure up onto it. She always feels better with Auggie around - and she definitely gets jealous when the other dogs are being trained and wants to come play. Can you maybe work Quid in between a few reps with Gimmick, and see if that doesn't pique Gimmick's interest some?