Viva loves the landing at the top of our stairs. I'm guessing she likes it so much because she knows that the door at the bottom of the stairs equals us coming home and it's the way we go when we are going out for a walk or a car ride. These thing have created a positive emotional response for her.
Viva also has a beautiful sit. I noticed this when I evaluated her in the shelter . Within 24 hours of meeting Viva I knew I was going to be reinforcing the heck out of her sit since it was a skill she already knew how to do. As we get to know each other it's helpful to ask her to do a good behavior that she already knows how to do. This builds our relationship quicker and it helps her to put the game together of "the human gives me something awesome when I do something they like". In addition in builds her confidence since I'm continuously asking her to do something she already knows how to do and then again reinforcing her for that behavior.
Viva now sits frequently and then looks to us. This is awesome as it gives us two excellent behaviors - sit and the look. I will be maximizing that looking at us soon enough. She will do this on a variety of occasions. It happens when she is excited about something (having us pay attention to her, going for a walk, going for a car ride). All of those things I just listed are reinforcers - remember while food is a reinforcer it's not the only one. So, Viva is putting the game together - if she gives me a behavior that I like she gets reinforced in a variety of ways.
Given she likes the landing I thought this was a nice way to see her beautiful sit and her gorgeous self!
"I see that bag of treats up there"
"Watching the bug behind the curtain"
Pretty, pretty girl
Oh and here's something completely random - she's missing a toe nail on her front paw.
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