More Progress!

For a couple months now I have been working with Barely to get her to walk across sewer grates and similar things in streets and on sidewalks. She always avoided them and even luring her with treats was unsuccessful. I kept working on it and got her to the point (through shaping for it) that she would put her front to paws on it but then she would hop the rest of the way over it. Well the other day all of my hard work paid off. As we walked around campus, I started steering her towards the grates on the sidewalks. She initially surprised me when she walked calmly over one that she has been avoiding since she was a pup and then surprised me even more when she began seeking out other grates for the click and treat reward. If she saw a grate in the direction we were walking she would purposefully walk over it instead of going around it as usual. I was so excited by this new development that I even took her to one we had first started training on. I hadn't been back to that one since, but she had always been particularly wary of it and would put one paw on the edge at best. This time when we approached it she walked right onto it without any cue from me and with complete confidence!