Clean Run - November 2013 - 11

10-STEP PROGRAM u

to Boost Confidence and Speed
By Nathalie Lafleur

I designed this program for a student with a young dog just
starting out in agility. The problem started when they introduced sequences. This dog had good enough individual obstacle skills to start sequencing, but was so focused on his handler
that he couldn't do more than one obstacle without coming in to
her and jumping, lunging, and otherwise stopping the play. He
clearly didn't have the information he needed to continue the
game. This is a pattern that this handler had experienced with
one of her other agility dogs, and was determined not to repeat.
Once we started the youngster on this program and could see
the benefits, we ran the more experienced dog through those
same steps and were astounded to see the difference in how
he ran! This is a dog that had earned his championship several years ago, but had lost his joy and was becoming anxious
when running agility. After doing just a few steps in the program, exactly as we had with the younger boy, he transferred
the energy previously reserved for frustrated, frantic barking,
and constant check-ins, to flying through the sequences with
speed and accuracy like never before!
To my delight, by step #6 both dogs-with vastly different experience but with similar issues-were doing 10 obstacles in a
sequence with speed and confidence and having a blast doing
it! The common denominator for both dogs was a lack of consistent communication about when to check in and when to
keep going on a course. Once they had what they needed, they
were able to relax and do their job.

The first thing I recommended to this handler was to stop doing jump drills in sequence when training. Why? Because if
you think about it, where do we do most of the handling of
our dogs on a course? At the jumps! If you do a serpentine, a
threadle, a push-through, etc., your focus is on your dog and
his attention is on you, thus the dog moves into handler-focus
mode. My student's young dog was not yet ready for this important transition.
As you will see, the first six steps of the program are done
with tunnels only. Again, why do you think this is? Because,
as a wise instructor of mine once told me, dogs love tunnels
since they can't make mistakes. Contrary to bars that can be
knocked down or contact zones and weave entries that can
be missed, the possibility of the dog making a mistake when
performing a tunnel is highly improbable. Notice that I'm
talking about the dog's obstacle performance, not how we
handle the dog on course.
I decided to leverage that love for the tunnels in the early steps
of the program in order to boost the dog's confidence and
allow the handler to introduce simply running with the dog;
thereby, setting a foundation for obstacle-focus cues.
If a dog is confident, his speed will definitely increase.
Before you begin working the program, it's critical that you decide what your cues will be for both obstacle-focus mode and
handler-focus mode.

The important thing is to make sure your cues are clear
so that you don't have a dog wondering what he's supposed
to do. If possible, you should videotape your sessions
so that you can track your progress.
November 13

Clean Run

Clean Run - November 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run - November 2013