Clean Run - January 2016 - 13

training. If your dog responds fast to
cues it is more likely that sticky behaviors will not get a hold on your life.
Here is an example from an incident that happened just this
morning at my home. My dogs are
taught to sit at the door before being released to go outside. There
is no verbal cue; when I touch the
door handle they are trained to sit.
I approached the door with all four
of my dogs. Scoop, a 6-year-old,
was motionless and just stared at
the door when I touched the door
handle. Mojo, the 7-month-old, just
stared at Scoop. I waited only a
few seconds for a response. When
it did not come, I quickly walked
away from the door taking the dogs
with me. I then turned and re-approached the door. All four dogs sat
right away. They were immediately
praised and released one by one to
go through the door for our walk.
What did my dogs learn in this situation?
* There is no reward of going
for a walk unless you sit at the
door quickly.
* I don't ask twice-I just leave
the scene and break off that
training moment.
* I immediately reward when
I get a fast response.
* When you sit quickly good
things happen; when you don't
sit we move away from the "reinforcement zone" and start over.
There is no inadvertent reinforcement for my dogs staring at stuff
and not taking cues. I did not just
stand at the door waiting to see if
everyone would sit; I don't want to
reward slow sits with the jackpot of
going out for the morning walk.
Compare this to training table behaviors. I ask my dog to get on the table
and take a down position. The dog
hops on the table but then stares at
me, glazes over, or takes the wrong
position. I think, "No one is home,
Hellllllloooo!" I don't ask for a position again or watch my dog for many
January 16

Clean Run

seconds while he decides whether
he wants to respond. I immediately
take my dog off the table. As soon
as my dog jumps on the table and
takes the position I cue, he will be rewarded with toys or treats or getting
off the table to do something that
usually involves fast and fun motion.
Doggy Antifreeze
One way to make sure bad table behavior doesn't ever get started is to
do some fun tricks on the table instead of always asking for a sit or
down. Tricks and movement are what
I call "doggy antifreeze." On the table
I might ask my dog to sit pretty, high
five, twist left or right, or even to bark.
I tug on the table with my dogs and
play lots of fun games:
* Over a jump and onto the
table, down, immediate release
from the down to tug on the
table, off the table to a send
around a post
* Onto the table, do two or
three different tricks, release
to tugging off the table
* Onto the table, down while
I count out loud for my dog,
release from the down to tug
while still on the table.
My Border Collie Riot was sticky on
the table many years ago. I had to
ask her to spin on the table before
I could get her to sit. She had an
automatic down on the table, but
once she was down she was frozen
in place and nothing could budge
her. Tricks on the table eventually
cured the problem, but I had to use
them in competition for a while as
well as in training.

Why are our dogs more likely to respond quickly and happily to a cue
for a trick but not a sit or down? Because tricks aren't "serious business" like tables; we make tricks
fun and exciting and we reward a
lot. You should think of bringing
that kind of silly and fun training
and motion games to all your agility skills.
Sticky Jumping Dogs
One of the most frustrating places
for an agility dog to demonstrate
sticky/herding behavior is when a
handler slows down or stops forward motion and the dog refuses
the obstacle directly in front of
him. The dog is waiting for the handler to move and when he does not
see enough motion from the handler, the dog stops in his tracks.
I have witnessed and helped extinguish some pretty dramatic sticky
dog behavior on jumps. The cure
for this problem is reinforcement
thrown to the dog many hundreds of
times after the dog takes the jump.
Throw a toy or a cookie to the dog
after landing the jump in each situation where you expect the dog to
be sticky.
Other skills you can work on to help
this behavior are send-away games
to crates, post/cone work where
the dog is sent from a distance to
wrap a cone or the wing of a jump,
and commitment drills to get the
dog to do an obstacle from many
positions and with you moving as
well as standing still. Many reinforcements will be needed to help
the dog get over the lack of commitment to the jump.
This herding stickiness can turn
into circling of the handler or not
recognizing turning cues like front
crosses. If the dog is circling the
handler rather than taking an obstacle I have the handler use "come
to heel" cues during front crosses
so the side position the handler
is cueing is extremely specific. As
soon as the handler begins to front
cross, they should call the dog to
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run - January 2016