Cause shoes are stupid.
AKA: Forgot I'm not wearing shoes and love that my dogs land so lightly on their feet that it didn't matter.
How do you guys begin the transition from perch on an object to perch on you?
I work on the idea of "ON" being solid. They get told a lot to "UpUp" which means get onto something that I gesture to. They also know over means jump over something. So honestly I have very little difficulty after doing all that in getting them to use me as a perch.
Sekah's idea is very similar to how I teach stuff like this too.
For footstall stuff I had them on a stool so they were also already in the mind frame of "Getting on things" But even then I shaped it mostly. They touched my feet with one paw *Click*, two paws *click*, three paws *click* and since they were already elevated they weren't thinking about jumping over anything. I think using small steps and approximations along with absolutely no reward for jumping over you would be your best bet.
Im not sure what I'll train her. I have an idea but it could be dangerous so... not sure. I couldn't do a footstall. Maybe I'll find a bucket.
How long are you spending on training? I don't want to overdo it.
If you're just starting out with that type of stuff I would start small and not be looking at something like a footstall until she has better balance and core strength.
I typically do it for a couple repetitions a few times a day. So when I was just starting off I would have them do it two or three times for various lengths two or three times a day. Though that's after they get it. When I'm still shaping it the sessions are about five minutes long.