Clean Run Magazine - January 2007 - 28

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requires Whisper to touch or grab the Frisbee, before she kicks leaves as
a reward. Next, Whisper must now tug the Frisbee before she can get the
leaves. The ultimate reward, chasing leaves! use the Premack principle and
Whisper’s leaf craze to teach her to tug? I thought so. The only problem
was that the season; it was spring time in New York City and I did not
often have access to leaves or grass to kick. In May, I discovered that
Whisper loved the Frisbee. Whisper would perform similar behaviors but not
as intense with her Frisbee as she did with the leaves. I decided to use
the Frisbee to reinforce tugging. My goal was that tugging and Frisbee
play would be equal in value to Whisper. I threw the Frisbee several times
for her to chase. Once she was into the game, I’d present the Frisbee
just over her head. I wanted to shape Whisper to tug the Frisbee in order
for me to throw it. I started by requiring that Whisper interact with the
Frisbee and increased the difficulty from there. Whisper’s first
instinct was to tag the Frisbee with her nose. I threw the Frisbee. The
next couple of times we played together, Whisper had to jump up and tag
the Frisbee to get me to throw it. When Whisper’s enthusiasm for the
game grew, I waited for her to jump up and put her teeth on the Frisbee
before I’d throw it. Within a few more sessions, Whisper was tugging on
the Frisbee before I would throw it. The game turned into a mix of
tugging, jumping, barking, and chasing the Frisbee and I was able to
intermingle all these behaviors. We worked the entire summer on this
behavior while on an agility break. Whisper was tugging in order to play
Frisbee but putting this into an agility context proved to be difficult. A
New Club In midsummer, I joined another agility club. Again, I was reminded
of my insignificance because my dog did not naturally tug. Whisper was high
on agility equipment and would not tug around the equipment. My instructor
strongly suggested that I clicker train Whisper to play tug. I obliged.
For a month, Whisper only got her meals in training tug. Whisper was
grabbing the toy and looking for food. Her behavior appeared rote. It was
a trained behavior. She had no drive for the toy—nothing like the drive
I saw when I trained Whisper to play Frisbee or ball. I had difficulty
teaching Whisper to latch onto the toy. My instructor at the time said
that the problem was that I was letting Whisper choose her own
reinforcement. She insisted that I only offer Whisper a toy as
reinforcement, nothing else. Whisper should lose the opportunity to do
agility if she did not play. I strongly disagreed. First, I was paying a
lot of money for classes and private lessons. I did not want to pay an
instructor to watch Whisper sit in a crate for an hour. I also had a moral
Missing a Clean Run can be painful. Make sure it doesn’t happen to
you–check your mailing label.
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Clean Run Magazine - January 2007

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run Magazine - January 2007
