Clean Run - May 2017 - 42

Over the coming months I will be re-visiting the drills in the One Jump Two Jump workbook
with you. I will tell you the object of the drill and why you would need it in the first place
as well as when and why you may need to go back and review it.
Stanchion Work
I love teaching dogs to go around a stanchion; it is as much
fun for me as it is for the dog. Don't go all serious on the
dog-relax, treat it as the trick it is! The object of the work
is to create obstacle focus in the dog and build value in the
jump. Added bonuses are building an understanding of
working at a distance and creating a solid send cue. You can
also use this work to get fabulous timing on front crosses.
You can train the pull cue and backsides, if you like. You can
start on either a winged or wingless stanchion, but you will
need to eventually work on both types of stanchions.
Training Your Dog to Go Around a Stanchion
Use the shaping method to introduce your dog to a stanchion (also called a jump standard) and use lots of easy-tosee, noncrumbly treats because you will be tossing them.
This training should go very, very fast; I expect to have the
dog going around the stanchion easily in one session. So if
you're having difficulties, please refer to the troubleshooting
tips below.
Start 2 to 3 feet from the jump stanchion with your dog close
to you, but not on a sit-stay. Mark (clicker or voice) the dog
for looking away from you (looking in any direction is okay
at first) and then toss the cookie so that it lands where the
dog would have to end up on the far side of the stanchion
to get it. Don't worry if you feel like you marked nothing, it
gets the ball rolling and wakes the dog up ("WOW! What was
that for?"). This step is luring, but don't worry about it; think
of it as clever placement of reward. Rotate your body away
from the stanchion as your dog is eating the tossed cookie so
you are facing away from him. Then call the dog, reward him
on your outside leg, rotate back toward the stanchion, and
repeat. When you do this you are teaching line-setting with
your feet, both toward the stanchion and away from it,
a valuable by-product of the work and easy to do.
Get a rhythm started with the dog going from stanchion to
leg and back again.
As you get a rhythm going with the dog (stanchion to leg
to stanchion to leg to stanchion), add distance as you work.
You may get 4-6 feet away from the stanchion in one session-that is how fast this can go. If you are cannot get more
than 2 feet away and have success in four or more training
sessions, get some help. Write me if you need to.
When you can be 10-12 feet away from the stanchion, start
adding your send cue to the drill. Make sure that you use the
same side hand and foot to shoot the dog to the stanchion.
Up until now you would be in what I call "neutral body," a
relaxed stance with feet comfortably apart, not a rigid stance
with feet glued together and not a "send cue" stance.
42

Add a front cross. Experiment to learn the point where your
dog is committed to going around the stanchion and you
can start to execute a front cross. You will now be paying the
dog on your other leg. See if you can be finished with your
front cross before the dog gets to the stanchion. Can you
do the front cross when your dog is 12 inches away from
the stanchion? When he is 2 feet from the stanchion? Work
up to 3-4 feet, even more for large fast dogs! Perfecting this
timing will create a dog that does not pull off jumps if your
handling timing isn't so perfect in the future. We are saying,
"When in doubt, take the jump!" If your front cross turn cue
pulls the dog off the stanchion do not throw a party because
he "took" your turn cue instead of the stanchion, simply get
him around the stanchion as quickly as possible. This "party
when you get a refusal" is a common practice in training that
I believe trains the dog to be prone to refusals.
When your single stanchion work is done, add another
stanchion 12 feet away and do some figure 8s with the two
stanchions, perfecting your timing. Move them farther apart
to increase the challenge. You can take stanchion work far,
adding more stanchions to create pinwheels, circles, and
180s-the sky is the limit.
Troubleshooting
* It is important not to inadvertently teach your dog to
sniff for food on the ground as you work this exercise.
If you get sniffing when you toss your reward, you
will need to move to a better training surface (for
example, is the grass too long?) or use treats that are
easier for the dog to see. In some cases, you will need
to teach the dog to "grab and go." Simply toss a lower
value cookie, call the dog like you mean it the instant
he reaches for the cookie, and then reward him with
steak for coming back to you quickly. The dog learns
to grab the tossed cookie fast so he can get back to
you (or the work). Dogs catch on really quickly-two
cookies for the price of one-so do not be stingy!
* Don't worry if some of your tosses make the dog go
wrong, but try hard to minimize multiple bad tosses.
If you have three to four tosses in a row go wrong,
you're in trouble. Stop and figure out how to do better with your tossing.
* In the beginning (first three sessions) do not worry
if the dog ends up going the wrong way around the
stanchion, reward anyway. After that, however, you
will need to focus on which side of your body you
are sending the dog from and which side of the stanchion you want him to take. If you are not getting the
behavior you want, just move over a few feet; that
usually works wonders.
Clean Run | May 17

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run - May 2017