Clean Run - June 2017 - 62

Teaching Release Cues Using
Backchaining
The standard way to teach duration behaviors is to emphasize "building value"
for holding still by repeatedly feeding
in position, while de-emphasizing the
release. Often people are instructed to
not give the dog any reinforcer after the
release at all, for fear it will cause anticipation and weaken the stay. Although I
do sometimes feed in position for extralong duration behaviors, such as relax on
a mat, not reinforcing the release overlooks what I consider to be every positive
reinforcement trainer's ultimate secret
weapon: the power of cues as secondary reinforcers. If you reinforce correct
responses to the release cue after correct performance of a duration behavior-just as you would any other cue in
your dog's repertoire-that cue now has
the potential to become the linchpin for
the entire wait - release - move-to-reinforcement sequence. This process becomes even more powerful if you teach
it using backchaining.
Backchaining (often used by musicians,
orators, athletes, and actors) involves
learning sections of music, a speech,
or a series of movements, back to front
instead of front to back. For example, if
you were a musician attempting to learn
a complex piece, you would first learn
the ending, practicing often until that
section was fluent. Next, you'd learn the
middle, and then practice the middle
plus the ending. Finally, you'd tackle the
beginning, then practice the beginning
plus middle plus ending. The beauty
of backchaining is that you are always
working towards the section you feel
most confident about, because you have
practiced it the most often.

Many obedience trainers use backchaining for complex chains, such as the
retrieve. But what many people don't
realize is the same technique can also
be used for duration behaviors, such as
sit-stay. First, you want to break the final
goal down into components:
1. Sit
2. Duration
3. Get up on release cue
4. Move to reinforcement
Teaching it back to front, you would start
by building a fluent response to the release cue/move-to-reinforcement (parts
3+4). Then, once the dog has that down
pat, you'd gradually add increasingly
longer increments of duration before the
release (2+3+4), and finally, some type
of positioning cue such as sit or down,
plus duration, and then the release
(1+2+3+4).
To get a sense of the cumulative power of
this process, take a look at how often the
dog will practice the release cue if you
teach it first:
Session 1: Release cue - move - eat (10)
Session 2: Sit - release cue - move - eat (20)
Session 3: Sit - stay (duration) - release
cue - move - eat (30)
Session 4: Sit - stay (distraction) - release cue - move - eat (40)
Session 5: Sit - stay (distance) - release
cue - move - eat (50)
By the end of five ten-treat sessions, your
dog will have practiced the release 50
times! What makes this way of teaching
especially potent is that the release cue
acts as a marker signal, letting the dog

know exactly when he has met criteria on
the duration component. As long as you
time that cue correctly (just as you would
a click), your dog's ability to wait should
grow exponentially stronger over time;
he will learn via repetition that only holding perfectly still makes you say the cue.
(See "Troubleshooting Errors" sidebar.)

Teaching Release Cues with
Zen Bowl: A Half-Full Approach
One of the best things about release cues
is they are wonderfully simple. The first
lesson I start with is a modified version
of Zen bowl, followed by more formalized backchained stays. Once the dog is
doing well with both of these with a variety of distractions, I start generalizing
the concept, asking for the same waitfor-release-to-reinforcement pattern in
increasingly more complex situations
(such as at doorways, off a mat, from the
crate, etc.).
Tip: For more advanced, higher-energy
versions, such as "Break" for agility start
lines or 1-2-3-Go! for release from the
pause table, the same backchaining process works great. Just use more exciting
reinforcers or movement-oriented reinforcers after the release cue (such as
tossed toys, games where the dog chases
you down, etc.).
Zen bowl is traditionally taught much
like a leave it cue, with the trainer holding the bowl with the goodies just within
reach, then blocking the dog's first attempts to get to it. The goal is for the dog
to discover via trial and error (mostly error at first) that to get the thing he wants,
he has to give up the thing he wants.
This approach can certainly work, especially if the trainer has good timing, and
splits the criteria down so the dog gets

Troubleshooting Errors
Once you add in the sit-stay, or any other duration-related behavior, make sure you only say the release cue when your dog looks firmly
anchored in position and is holding perfectly still. Just like clicking a clicker at the right time, with release cues you'll get more of whatever the
dog was doing right when you say the release.
If your dog is antsy, or scoots out of position even slightly, don't say anything! The best response if the dog breaks early is to do nothing at all
for approximately one second, then quietly invite the dog to walk around before trying the entire sequence again.
If your dog makes more than two errors in a single session, reduce difficulty right away. Short, successful repetitions are going to be much
more effective in the long run than repeatedly pushing your dog to hold position past his breaking point.
62

Clean Run | June 17

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