Clean Run Magazine - October 2008 - 38

Step 3: Adding Handler Motion Before you start this step, the dog’s desire to touch the pad with a paw and automatically down and wait for a release is already in place. We are going to add forward motion away from the handler while teaching the dog to maintain a straight body going to the pad and exiting from the pad. You need to make some guides for this training. The guides in the photos were made by cutting and splitting irrigation pipe from Home Depot. The guides should be long enough to accommodate both your dog when he’s lying down and the pad. Place the two guides on the ground, with enough distance between them to accommodate the width of your dog. Stand adjacent to the guides, with the dog in front of the opening between guides. Have your treats ready and place the pad so it is just inside the opening of the guides. Allow the dog to touch and down on the pad. Use your reward marker, and feed, feed, feed. Release the dog, pick up the pad, and walk the dog straight forward through the guides to exit. Then come around to the front of the guides again. Pause and repeat. Alternate picking up the pad at the end of a repetition with sometimes leaving the pad on the ground, walking the dog through the guides to exit, coming around to the front of the guides again, and then pausing before allowing the dog to touch the pad. Stand adjacent to the guides, with the dog in front of the opening between guides and the pad placed just inside the guides. Allow the dog to touch and down on the pad. Use your reward marker, and feed, feed, feed. Inch by inch, move the pad forward between the guides while you and the dog always start at the entrance to the guides. Eventually the pad is at the far end of the guides. Inch by inch, move the pad forward between the guides while you and the dog always start at the entrance to the guides. Release the dog to move ahead of you, touch his pad, and down while you catch up. You should start moving as soon as your dog moves forward ahead of you to his pad. Eventually the pad is at the far end of the guides. Now your dog drives ahead of you to his pad, touches it, downs, receives a treat, and waits for release. At this time, you can put a cue word to this behavior; I use Tap. It’s also time to start proofing the wait for release. Sometimes leave your dog and return to him to give additional treats; sometimes run past as your dog downs on his pad and then return to reward; sometimes lag behind; and sometimes work on additional lateral distance. Step 4: Adding a Motivator It is now time to add a motivator out in front of the dog to insure forward focus and encourage the dog to leave the guides straight. You need to first identify what object you can use to motivate your dog to focus and drive forward. A tug toy is ideal because the dog will drive to it and then you can reward him with a game of tug, but any object the dog can be taught to drive to and touch to earn a food reward can be substituted. If your dog is uninterested in toys or tugging, but is food motivated, you can use operant conditioning to teach the dog to touch and interact with a container filled with treats, such as a sock, a water bottle, a bait bag, a toy with a Velcro closure, or a food 38 tube (a plastic container with a slit in one end, such as the nut and bolt containers from hardware stores) to earn a treat from the container. Dogs can also be trained through operant conditioning to touch an object, such as a ball on a stick, to earn a food reward. See my original four-onthe-floor article in CR December 2005 or on my website at www.pawsonthewind. com, my article on weave training in CR February 2007, or my Dream Weaves DVD for details on building motivation for an Clean Run | October 08
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Clean Run Magazine - October 2008

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run Magazine - October 2008
