Clean Run Magazine - November 2007 - 49

Dog visually locks on to entry and accelerates; handler is still behind dog indicating poles. Dog gets into single-striding pattern; notice the dog’s left front leg. Dog hits the entry; handler marks the entry with a verbal reinforcer. Handler now moves forward fast to catch up to dog and prepares to throw reward ahead upon completion. he doesn’t, black or white. The dog gets it, he gets marked, mom is happy, and he gets rewarded. If the dog misses, he hears no mark and the fun stops, period. Gray areas cause confusion. Confusion causes inaccuracy. If the dog misses, stop! You don’t need to yell or say “no,” but the fun needs to stop—immediately. If your dog is yipping or spinning or barking, wait him out. When he settles down, go back and give him a second shot at the same entry. Retry from the same station with the same action. If he gets the entry, mark and reward. Now is the time to be animated and rev up your dog. Before moving up to the next step, especially after the dog missed the first time, I repeat the current action again to make sure the dog has gotten the idea. Generally, the harder time a dog has understanding a particular step, the more I repeat that action even when successful so that I can balance the negatives of missing with lots of positive reinforcement for the successes. Mark, reward, and celebrate if successful. If so, repeat from the initial starting point, Level I, including the first jump. If the Dog Misses the Same Entry a Third Time If the dog misses after simplifying by one step, on the third try, we go to the next step, the guided entry. The guided entry is the closest we come to giving a correction. We take the dog gently by the collar and approach the poles from the same angle we are working on. With our hand still on the collar, we guide the dog through the first three poles. We do not mark or reward here because we did the work for the dog. Note: If the handler has a small dog and can’t reach low enough to do this, we use weave poles that are lower in height. Then we retry the previous step, halfway between the jump and poles with the restrained send again. If successful, mark, reward, and try the full exercise (including the first jump). If successful, jackpot and end the session. Your next session should begin at the same level where you left off and work that level longer due to the lower success rate you had in the last session. If the Dog Misses the Same Entry a Second Time If the dog misses the second time, you should again pause and then follow the next procedure: to simplify one step and do the restrained send. For Level I, that means taking the dog halfway between the jump and the poles, about 7' away. From there (you’re now on attempt #3), start with your hand on the dog’s COURTESY OF JOE CANOVA collar or your hands around the dog’s shoulders, and do a restrained send at the same angle of entry while giving the Weave command and releasing to the poles. Make sure your dog is looking at the poles before you release him. If the Dog Misses the Same Entry Again If, after the guided entry, we retry the half-step restrained send and the dog misses, we are working above the dog’s level and need to drop back a level. For example: If you are at Station 2 (30° hard-side entry), I would then and only then make the angle less, to about 15°, which is midway between Station 1 (0°) and Station 2, (30°). If you were at Station 0 you couldn’t go down in stations so you would open the poles slightly and work Station 0. Only change one criterion at a time. You would not, for example, both open the channels up and make the angle easier. Summary First try Fail success next action success repeat once more and then advance success repeat previous step success do whole action from beginning repeat from same spot Fail second time Fail third time Fail fourth time use restrained send from half way guided entry repeat restrained send (4th try) go back a station, if already at Level l, station 0, open poles November 07 | Clean Run 49

Clean Run Magazine - November 2007

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run Magazine - November 2007