Dog Walking Up & Down Ladders

[Staranais]

Anyone taught this & got tips to teach this (beyond the old place the dog's feet on the rungs & praise/mark)?

Dog concerned has reasonably good hind leg awareness already (can do elephant trick, can back up, can target hind feet to items on the ground).

Thanks!

[luvsdogs]

I taught a little dog I had as a child this in all of 5 seconds. A home made ladder was against the back fence & next thing he was just about to disappear over the fence. For this reason I would never teach another dog this trick. At my dog club we have ladders on the ground for the dogs to walk through.

There are lots of other tricks that can be taught.

[Staranais]

I taught a little dog I had as a child this in all of 5 seconds. A home made ladder was against the back fence & next thing he was just about to disappear over the fence. For this reason I would never teach another dog this trick. At my dog club we have ladders on the ground for the dogs to walk through.

There are lots of other tricks that can be taught.

Not for a SAR dog there aren't alternatives, but thanks for the hints. Hope you got your old dog back OK.

[flyingduster]

If it already has good hind end awareness then I'd go straight into it! (For any dog that DOESN'T already have hind end awareness then I'd recommend doing more hind end awareness first.)

I'd place the ladder just off the ground (put one end up on something, but keep it LOW, like maybe a foot high at the high end) and lure up the ladder initially. If it's lacking confidence then perhaps a mark & reward for each successful step, if they're already confident and happy to give it a go then a simple lure up and big reward when they get to the end and can leap off would probably be more than enough to be keen to do it again.

With it being so low, s/he won't hurt itself if it slips through the rungs but with it being off the ground it should be unnerving if they do slip so they auto-correct themselves too and you can mark & reward when they do. And with already knowing well about targeting and where their back feet are they should really be pretty quick at carefully taking each step and getting it squarely on the rung before moving up.

[Leema]

I like flying duster's suggestion of keeping it low to the ground so that any fall isn't too daunting or off putting to the dog. You can slowly adjust the incline as you go.

Instead of luring the dog up the ladder, I would shape the dog to go up the ladder. When using lures I think you can sometimes divert the dog's focus and they are more likely to encounter difficulty. (i.e. if the dog's concentrating on getting food they might not be concentrating on where their feet are).

A rough shaping map would be, C&T:

Looking at ladder

Approaching ladder

Touching ladder with foot

Touching bottom rung of ladder with foot

Touching bottom rung of ladder with two feet

Touching next rung of ladder with two feet

... etc until touching 'comfortable height' rung of ladder with two feet

Then, once at this level, hind legs touching bottom rung

etc.

Luring might work and I'd probably give it a shot to begin with, but I would just be concerned that the dog doesn't learn a good and safe manner to scale the ladder when it is concentrating on a food lure.

[Staranais]

Thanks guys for all the ideas. I do like the idea of having it horizontal & just a little off the ground to start, and if luring/asking her to follow my hand up doesn't work quickly, I'll definitely have a go at shaping it.

Apparently learning to go down is far harder for them than learning to go up.

I have to invest in a ladder first, at home we just have a narrow plank to practice balancing on, so have plenty of time to think it through. :p

[Nekhbet]

yes down is a heck of a lot harder so start with it low. Also teach the dog to slowly walk down stairs too malinois just rush into things without thinking ... or think they can fly

I would simply sure up with a toy or point with your hand and encourage the dog to follow up and praise as its going up the ladder. Free shaping would be the long way round, you have a working Mal they're determined enough to get it in a short time. I taught my dog to jump on high objects like that, got her toy, put it up on the table and patted it encouraging her to jump up there. She wanted the toy, she had to work out how to get it and when she did, boom! up, down, up, down, up, down :p There was some help with me holding the lead as well and you should too, short ladder stand next to it and help her through it. Much better for a working dog relationship if you're more hands on and help her through things ... ETA A massive amount of enthusiasm will always get a Mal working

Edited December 28, 2010 by Nekhbet

[Jigsaw]

I'd also be considering getting her used to the ladder being set up and taken down. Some ladders are a bit clunky with noise as they're set up. Being for S&R you probably might encounter both wooden and metal ladders so you might need both types or at least a mock up of both. Some metal ladders have round steps instead of flat steps too but I'd be thinking they'd use flat steps for dogs.

[Jigsaw]

Double post - sorry.

Edited December 28, 2010 by Jigsaw

[Staranais]

Yes, she'll do anything for her toy - hence why we'll probably start off rewarding only with food or simply praise if we can, since I'm hoping to get a slow & steady & safe performance on her agility equipment rather than crazy scrambling & leaping that any toy can produce.

Thanks for the ideas, everyone. Will work on getting a ladder first after we get back from the bush next week, and then play round with what we can do with it.