Clean Run - May 2017 - 39

I finally cracked Darcey's shaping when I introduced a little competition. I did a couple of sessions working sit and down
with both Shade and Darcey, rewarding only the first to get into position. She got the idea and from there was far more
interested in clicker games. Here she is clearly engaged

me and I now rarely remove rewards
(p-); quick-fire rewards build behavior
much faster and more effectively.
The next stage of food refusal is for
the food to be on the floor in front of
the pup. There's all sorts of methods
for this, I mix and match-sometimes
rewarding from my hand, other times
picking up the food on the floor and
giving it to him. Again pay attention to
placement of reward, making sure the
pup doesn't come forward for his treat.
The next part is to ask your dog to assume a position (sit, down, or stand) and
then very slowly move a treat towards
the dog in clear view. Stop the forward
movement if the dog moves. The aim
is for your dog to hold the position no
matter what food you wave under his
nose, or throw past him. Stopping the
movement of the food towards the dog
falls back into the realms of p-, but if
you've done the first part well, it should
only take one or two stops before they
have the idea. From there you can move
on to the tricks of balancing biscuits
(cookies) on their noses, etc.
Once your dog has this down pat with
food, work it with toys as well.

Shade
holding a sit
whilst the
food slowly
approaches
from
above his
head.

May 17 | Clean Run

People often ask why I pay so much attention to this training-because it's
the basis of everything that follows. If
you have a dog whose motivation is
assured, by all means skip this. For the
rest of us, however, the understanding
that comes from this training is vital.
Here's the reward, find out what you
have to do to earn it. In this case, show
a second of self-control and remain
where you are, or move backwards. Later toys or treat pots will be left behind
the start line and the dog sent back for
that reward on cue. This is how you get
the dog in the game and it's this understanding that enables the rewardbased training that follows.
To train with rewards you must be in
control of the rewards. All the dogs that
leave the ring looking for food/toys/
whatever, simply haven't been trained
to work for reward. If you have an easily distracted dog, or a breed with a
low work ethic, in my opinion there's
really no point teaching equipment
and turns until you have this training
down pat. I continue to be amazed at
dogs that know all the latest agility
moves but have no control training.
Agility is about speed and control; the
sexy moves bring no benefit if your dog
doesn't know how to work for you.

Releases
Releases are going to be interesting
with these dogs. Dexi is deaf so a verbal
release is useless. I'm not sure I can have
different releases for each dog, so I think
my release is going to be a hand gesture. I'm going to think carefully about
it for the next few weeks and see if it fits
in. For Darcey and Shade I'll obviously
still give a verbal release, but I need to

keep reminding myself that Dexi can't
hear me; he is so good at reading body
language that I often forget.

Settle
During this period, I decided to bite
the bullet and teach Shady to settle. I'd
shaped a down on a mat previously and
I reiterated that behavior in the morning, this time adding a variable time before the reward. I know he loses interest
after about 10 seconds, so I worked in
and around the 6 to 12 second mark.
He was very successful. I think that remain on a mat is easier for him to understand than a generic remain where
you are. So that evening I took his mat
into our front room and put it next to
my chair. I handed him a chew after
he'd offered me a down on his mat and
set about variably rewarding it. Again, I
tried to stay under the 12-second mark,
feeding him small dog tiny kibble. He
stayed there for 30 minutes, after which
I released him and let him out into the
garden. I then sat on the floor and had
a game of tug, gave him a cuddle and
a scratch. I went out to make tea and
when I came back, he was asleep on his
mat. Clever boy!
This will now be repeated every day,
with the time for reward gradually increasing. If you're trying this don't be
predictable as dogs have an excellent
sense of time! Shady is quick to scratch
furniture if he thinks I'm too slow. I was
careful not to reward it, and my count
started again. If he got up, I patted the
bed and asked him to settle. To me a
settle is very different to a down. I rarely
use wait or stay, down means down until
I tell you something different, sit means
sit. Settle means lie down, but you can
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