Clean Run - October 2012 - 5

The Bandana System
By Michele Godlevski, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, CC, BS

You’re at an agility trial walking your dog around, outside the rings. All of a sudden, a dog you don’t know comes running toward you, probably because he broke out of his crate. You yell, “Loose dog!,” but no one seems to know the dog or his owner. So, what do you do? In an ideal world, the loose dog is friendly to both people and other dogs. The dog runs over to your dog, you reach out and catch the dog’s the collar, and the owner is eventually found. No harm done. However, I’m betting some of you reading this are thinking “that would be my dog’s worst nightmare!” Now imagine if the loose dog did not like other dogs. He’s running full tilt at your dog, and you don’t have any idea what might happen next. You unknowingly put your dog in harm’s way, hoping to attract the off-leash dog to you in order to catch him. Now imagine this dog was also afraid of strangers, and especially didn’t like to have his collar grabbed. At a bare minimum, you would probably never attempt to catch an off-leash dog at an agility trial again. Years ago, when I attended Clean Run Camp, they had a “bandana system.” Any dog who had “space issues” would wear a bright-colored bandana around his neck, so that people knew not to try to pet the dog or let their dog go up to say hello. It was simple and effective. Just recently, we held the first-ever Virtual Agility League (VALOR) Nationals, and I employed a modified version of CRC’s bandana system. The event took an incredible amount of planning since all but a few dogs that attended were either highly distractible or reactive in some way. We held the fiveday event successfully and without incident, although the scenario described above actually did happen once. Interestingly, the result was quite different than you would think—all due to the bandana system. VALOR Nationals participants were given the choice at checkin of a range of color-coded bandanas. Red bandanas were for dogs with reactivity toward strangers and unfamiliar dogs. Purple bandanas meant the dog was okay with people, but didn’t like other dogs. Blue bandanas were for dogs that liked other dogs, but didn’t feel comfortable with strangers. Orange bandanas were for dogs that were just highly distractible in the

ring, and green bandanas were for dogs that liked people and other dogs, and weren’t really bothered by distractions. The event was carefully choreographed so that each handler got 30 minutes in the ring, both to walk the course and run it. While one handler had the ring, only the handler’s invited videographer/friend was present in the ring. However, there were still people walking dogs around the ring, people waiting for their turn in the ring, and people socializing. The difference is that everyone knew when a dog was inside the ring what his “issues” were, by the bandana color the dog wore. We stayed far away from the orange bandana dogs while they were in the ring. We also knew, without asking, that a green bandana dog would like to be petted, and a red bandana dog needed his space when walking around. All runs went smoothly, and the handlers reported they were relaxed and really liked the supportive environment. There was, however, one time that a dog broke free from a fenced enclosure and went running up the driveway, toward the road. Seeing the purple bandana, people with dogs on leashes moved out of the way, but a person without a dog knew it would be okay to lure the dog in until his owner could catch up. The whole thing played out like a well-choreographed dance. But most importantly, no dogs or humans were harmed in the process of catching the dog and returning him to his owner. There was no hesitation, everyone knew exactly what to do and who should do it. While I realize that traditional agility venues do not allow bandanas to be worn by dogs inside the ring, imagine if a colored bandana worn at an agility trial while outside the ring would be enough to make sure your dog was not petted unexpectedly or sniffed from behind without warning? And, wouldn’t it be nice if your dog did get loose and was running free, that everyone would know immediately what to do? If I can share just one thing we learned from VALOR Nationals, it would be that the bandana system really rocks.

Michele Godlevski

Michele Godlevski is a Certified Canine Behavior Consultant (CBCC-KA), a Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT-KA), and has endorsements in dog obedience and agility instruction from the National Association of Dog Obedience Instructors. Michele has earned eight championship-level agility titles and has qualified for an agility national championship every year for the last five years. Michele owns Teamworks Dog Training, LLC, located in Raleigh, North Carolina. Michele teaches agility classes, including a Therapeutic Agility Class for reactive dogs, and offers in-home behavioral consultations as well as InBoard training in her home. Information about Michele and about Teamworks Dog Training can be found at www.TeamworksDogTraining.com. October 12 | Clean Run 5

http://www.TeamworksDogTraining.com

Clean Run - October 2012

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