Jessie Climbing Ladder-Building Dog's Confidence

Teaching a dog to walk the rungs of a ladder increases back leg awareness and balance and improves your dog's confidence if you take it slow. Great for agility contact training and just as a neat trick!

Start by shaping the dog to interact with the ladder on the ground, and the dog walking between the rungs. Then ask for one foot, two feet then more to be on the rungs or the side. Then only click for feet on rungs. At that point, you can raise one end, then the other so it is just off the ground (about 4 inches) to get your dog to walk the rungs.

I used a clicker at first, then faded it once Jessie (min pin mix) had the main idea. It took about 6 training sessions to get to this point. This was her first try doing the whole ladder with the verbal marker and reward only at the end so she got a jackpot & lots of love!

I am not planning on increasing the incline as I have achieved my goal of improving back foot awareness, balance and confidence. I am also concerned that if she fell from a higher height, she may hurt herself as these rungs are slippery when wet.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• dog
• positive
• clicker
• training
• climb
• ladder
• build
• confidence
• operant
• conditioning
• trick

[abalonmistic]

muy bueno me gustaria trabajar con perros de asistencia. sos genial

[supernaturalbc2008]

Gracias

Espero que ayude

I hope it is of help :)

[jackkksplat]

I used to think this was a dangerous trick because we dont want dogs trying to climb any ladders they see! but now that I've seen your video I really want to try this with my dog. We've just begun working on back leg awareness, so it fits right in. I love your cute praise! made me smile.

[supernaturalbc2008]

Thanks for your feedback! Jessie really responds to my voice and the jackpot treats help to reinforce what she did was correct.

I started looking for ways to train Jessie both to gain confidence and to be more coordinated since we plan on doing agility at some point. With her extra long legs, she sometimes loses them from under her!

This video captures the first time she had put it all together and done a climb with only one cue and no reinforcements all the way up!

[woofpet]

Great stuff! Just love watching your videos.

[silvrwolf98]

@supernaturalbc2009 it sure does!!

[supernaturalbc2009]

@silvrwolf98 It works great for overcoming fears, doesn't it!

[silvrwolf98]

my dog has always been afraid of the broom.I have been using positive reinforcement to build his confidence on it.He is learning to jump over it for confidence.

[YoYoPoodle]

Excellent! I'll use this method for Harmony when it's time to start tilting the ladder... I'll need to find one with round rungs first - my current one would not be comfortable.

[kikopup]

Cool! That was awesome!