Clean Run - March 2018 - 11

come, the handling will come, but only if
your dog chooses to engage. The payoff
from spending the time to build focus
comes in a dog that wants to-and that
chooses to-play with you. A focused
and engaged dog chooses the handler
and the game instead of finding relief
from pressure in outside distractions.
When you feel or see your dog losing focus, play some simple games to engage
him and reward heavily. Choose easy
tricks that the dog fully grasps, and use rewards the dog most enjoys. When working on engagement in a pressure-filled environment, do not beg, plead, or force the
dog to work with you. This eliminates his
choice. If you can't get your dog to engage
with you, move away to a quieter and less
distracting area, and try again.

Avoid conflict of desiRes
Distraction can be confused with confliction. Conflict comes when your dog
must make the choice between doing
what he wants versus doing what you
have asked. While distractions are often
caused by uncertainty, curiosity, and inflicted pressure, conflict is more about
desire. This is where the Premack Principle can be put in practice. The Premack
Principle, put simply, is when a desired
activity is used as motivation to do something that the dog would rather not do.
For example, a dog likes eating chicken
hearts more than he likes weave poles. It
would be in your benefit to use chicken
hearts as a reward for the dog performing
the weaves. If the dog is asked to perform
the weave poles and must move past the
container of chicken hearts on his way to
the weaves, this creates a conflict because
of his desire to eat the chicken hearts.
Here the pressure can be addressed by rewarding the completed weave poles with
what the dog desires-the chicken hearts.
Start by moving the chicken hearts farther from the weaves and closing the
container. When the dog completes the
weaves, run to the container and reward
him. Once the dog is successful, move the
container closer to the weaves or remove
the lid. Eventually, through reward, the
dog should choose the weave poles even if
the container is open and next to the en-

try. We have taken the pressure of conflict
from the container of food and have made
it a reward for the lesser desired behavior.
Knowing he will receive the chicken hearts
allows the dog to want to do the weaves.
The physical pressure of the reward so
close to the obstacle can create conflict of
desire, but can at the same time it can create a dog who readily and happily weaves.

In either case, neither situation can be
fixed by physically manipulating the
dog. The dog will most likely learn that
the obstacle is not fun and associate it
with pressure. He then will either start to
see the obstacle as a spring board, selfrelease, not go into position, or in some
cases even refuse or avoid the obstacle.

don't Use physicAl pRessURe
Not all pressure in training comes from
real or perceived demands we place on
the dogs. Physical pressure from the
handler can cause intimidation and take
choice away from dogs just as much as
outside distractions. By physically placing the dog into position on the start
line, for example, the handler doesn't
allow the dog to take a position that is
most comfortable to him. The handler
also misses the opportunity to see what
the dog's body language is saying. Does
the dog want to play? Or is he sitting
next to you because of physical pressure
applied to his rear? By physically manipulating the dog, the handler has taken
away his choice and applied both physical pressure and a demand. "You will sit!"
is all the dog hears. Before the dog even
starts the course, he is stripped of choice.

In table training, if the dog comes off the
table before being released, physically picking him up and placing him back into position takes away his choice and does not
allow him to figure out what the handler is
asking. If the dog does not go into a down
position, physically looming over the dog
or physically manipulating him into a
down removes choice and can make him
wary of the handler. In most cases when a
dog comes off a contact position it's usually
not an issue of position, but more an issue
of a weakly trained release word cue.

The use of physical manipulation does
not remove pressure from training-
it causes more. If a contact has been
missed, or the dog won't go down on the
table, or a bar has fallen, no amount of
physical manipulation or intimidation
is going to change the fact that it has already happened. Take out the physical
pressure in training and allow the dog to
work freely to truly see what the dog understands and move forward in training
with a clear example of his knowledge.
Using our observation skills to create a
clear picture of what our dogs understand will help us let go of expectations.
Training without expectations relieves
pressure. Free from expectations or pressure the dog is allowed to make his own c
sor Albus Dumbledore, beloved headmaster of Hogwart's Wizarding School, was
sorted into the house of the brave, but he
was also smart, loyal, and ambitious. Just
like Professor Dumbledore, our dogs are
more than what they are labeled. He once
said, "It is our choices that show what we
truly are, far more than our abilities." If we
can learn to let go of the pressures of the
expectations we place on our dogs and allow them to make their own choices on
their own timetable, we might find that
they will choose to play with us-not
because we have asked them to-but because they want to. D

Tammy has been training dogs for more than 30 years, getting her start in 4-H obedience in middle school. Tammy found her love for agility in 1999 and started teaching
agility in 2002. She opened her own training program in 2006 when she founded Oregon School for Clever Dogs. Tammy is best known for helping her students create
happy working relationships with their dogs. You can reach Tammy at www.cleverdogsagility.com.
March 18 | Clean Run

http://www.cleverdogsagility.com

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