Treadmill, lesson 1

Phoenix mastered walking on the treadmill in about 5 minutes last night. I was totally amazed.

Maybe this should not come as such a surprise. Phoenix loves to try new things. He is nosy, curious, pushy and impulsive, so jumping onto a moving treadmill was apparently no big deal. This is the dog who scrambled atop big round bales of hay stacked three high in the barn last summer before I put a stop to it (then went inside and took more heart medication). Honestly, I know why they use mals for police work: they are intelligent and crazy . . . or maybe just crazy.

After getting ideas from several friends whose dogs use treadmills, I decided to start with a click-and-treat approach. Phoenix understands this type of learning and is more than willing to experiment with new behaviors. He’d already sat and stood on the treadmill when it wasn’t running and gotten cookies for that and he’d laid in the doorway and watched both me and the Farmer walking on it. The noise didn’t bother him at all (unlike Jamie, who made it clear he wanted NOTHING to do with the whole idea.)

I decided, also, to start with the belt moving vs. having him stand on a stationary belt, then turning the motor on. That would be somewhat like having the rug pulled out from under you. And I wanted him to understand that he controlled the situation and if he wanted to get off for any reason, he could, so no leashes or cross-ties or anything like that.

Initially, Phoenix stood at the side and put only his front paws on the moving belt, with the predictable result that he flew off the back end. The treadmill was running at its lowest speed, 1 mph. This didn’t faze him.

It wasn’t long before he jumped on with all four feet, stood still and flew off the back end. “Flew” is perhaps too strong of a word. “Thumped” might be more appropriate.

He thought this was such a fun game I was starting to worry we would not get past that point. He thought it was like a reverse teeter-totter. You get on and instead of flipping it forward, it flips you backward. COOL!

But I could tell he was getting serious about problem solving. The cookies only came when his paws were on the moving belt. There were no cookies for thumping off the end, no matter how much fun it might be otherwise.

So he got himself back on (this was totally voluntary, by the way, I wasn’t telling him to do anything, just pointing at the belt) and managed to take a few wobbly strides. Click! Cookie! And he leaped off. Then leaped back on.

And so it went. After 5 minutes, he was willingly walking until verbally released. In fact, he HAD to be released since he wouldn’t get off by himself. We learned by trial and error that when I fed him, he stopped walking. Thump. That’s my dog, can’t walk and eat a cookie at the same time.

This morning we had another quick session which found him gaining confidence in jumping on and finding his stride. His top speed so far is 1.8 mph. I will slowly increase the speed until he’s trotting smoothly but don’t want to rush things until he’s confident and comfortable at lower speed.

Teaching behaviors by shaping is still a new experience for me. I’ve done a little with dogs in the past but am exploring it much more with Phoenix. Occasionally you get lost when you explore but you learn a lot of new things along the way.

Today I am thankful for my crazy dog who is willing to try new things.