Clean Run - January 2018 - 8

your dog's desire for his reinforcer
before you proceed with this distance training. We are only ever as
good as the value our dogs have for
their reinforcers so that is always
one of my biggest priorities because
it makes all training so much easier.
To put this in a real life time frame,
if your dog loves, loves, loves his
thrown toy, then the core of this training may only take you a couple of
weeks. But, the numbers go down
from there. If your dog likes his toy
you may be looking at a couple
of months for the behaviors to be
strong, and from there we just keep
piling on more training time. So take
your time and do fun drills just to build
reinforcer value, and then begin this
jump training. Ultimately you will need
much less training time to achieve far
stronger results. The training time you
put in at the front end will more than
pay off in the back end. For these
behaviors certainly, but it will benefit
everything you do from this time forward. If you need help, consult your
instructor, find some back issues of
Clean Run or check out my focus,
drive, and toy building online class at
http://www.stacywinkler.com.
As a side note, I also want to mention the importance of your retrieve. If
your dog goes after the toy but then
grabs it and doesn't bring it back, I
would work on your retrieve before
beginning this training or at least put
your toy on a long line. It could be
the difference between doing ten repetitions in three minutes or only one
or two because you spend the rest
of the time chasing after your dog
and the toy. Foundation first, then the
drill, is time well spent!

Important Notes for Your
Training Sessions
* Planning out your sessions.
Planning and attention to detail
will help facilitate great training
and speedy learning so make
sure you plan each training session. If you start to veer away
from your plan or are unsure how
to proceed, put your dog away,
review your session, and see
what you want to change, review,
8

or advance. You will get far more
done in your sessions if you don't
try to fix your work on the fly.
* Be prepared to start training.
Before you get your dog out have
your treats and/or toys with you
before you call your dog in to
work. Make sure your work area
is all set up for the training you
want to do.
* Keep your sessions short! Do
not work your dog to fatigue. You
want him to leave work wanting
to work more. He should be saying "Keep me in coach!" not "For
the love of Mike, put me back in
the crate!"
* Have a plan for how you will
react if your dog succeeds and
how you will react if he fails.
Failure is an important part of
learning. Your dog will fail during this process. If he does not
then you are probably not adding enough difficulty and the
behaviors will stagnate and not
progress. This pearl of wisdom
is one I base my training on
and it's extremely applicable to
distance work: "Always work to
extremes." If my dog can stand
in front of a jump and take the
line I set if I am 20 feet away
then I want him to be able to do
the same at 40, 50, and 60 feet.
If he can do that then when I am
at a show and need to be 30 feet
away it will seem like a piece of
cake. To achieve that level of understanding we will have failure.
But if you methodically increase
your challenges, your dog loves
his reinforcer, and you keep training fun regardless of the outcome
then you will achieve your goals.
* Manage your dog from start
to finish in your training sessions. This means getting focus
and drive out of your crate (into
your session) and managing your
dog's focus on you throughout
the drill. For instance, once you
complete a rep and throw your
reinforcer, play with your dog
or treat him;don't lose his focus
while you bring him to the posi-

tion where you'll begin the next
rep. You can do this by: 1) rewarding focus with treats as you
move; 2) tugging as you move;
3) putting your dog on leash (in
a fun and rewarding way if you
have management issues) and
running to position; or 4) putting
the dog in a stay, leading out
to position for the next rep, and
then calling him to you to restart
the drill. With great management
skills your dog will stay fully engaged in training, ignore distractions, forgo self-rewarding on other equipment and rehearsing bad
behaviors such as sniffing the
ground and leaving work. If you
are diligent about this you will be
amazed at how much more work
you will get accomplished and
how much more engaged your
dog will be in the work.

What to Do if Your Dog Fails
During a Drill
In all my articles I talk about finding
the fun and making your training fun.
This is a must. And, contrary to what
some believe, you can keep your
training fun without telling your dog
he is right when he has made a mistake. I want my dog to know when
he has made a mistake; to know the
difference between what happens
when he succeeds and when he
fails. He needs to understand what
makes the reinforcer appear-it is
the key to progressing behaviors.
But it doesn't have to be a big bummer. If he fails I use a non-reward
marker such as "Get back here you"
or "That's not it." Anything will do,
but you must say it in a pleasant
and fun way. I don't want my dog to
lose the fun aspect of the session,
and I want him to remain engaged
with me and the work. He will know
the difference between a fun "Get
back here you" when he fails and an
"Omigosh you are the best dog ever,
you are awesome!" along with a
huge toy reward when he succeeds.
So many folks comment that they
can't repeat drills because their dog
will lose interest and stress. Forgetting to keep your sessions fun is
Clean Run | January 18

http://www.stacywinkler.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run - January 2018