Clean Run Magazine - January 2008 - 18

DG: What are the three most important handling skills that you teach your students? AR-C: First, the handler must learn how and when to properly cue the dog to be on handler focus vs. obstacle focus. Your dog should always know when he enters a sequence whether you are going to be asking him to work very closely to you or to work at a distance, or perhaps somewhere in between. Your ability as a handler to project with your body and verbal cues what you expect of your dog in a given sequence is essential to creating and maintaining the ﬂow of communication between you and your dog at all times. Second, the handler must learn how to clearly time smooth transitions between obstacle and handler focus, or vice versa, within the amount of time it takes to run a course. Third, the handler must learn how to maintain the dog’s obstacle performance criteria in the ring. This last one is extremely important to me, since I feel it is unfair to the dog for the handler to require different criteria in different environments. The lack of understanding that many handlers have on this topic is what leads to ring-wise dogs: dogs that stress up or down unnecessarily in the ring, dogs that lack impulse control in the ring, and so on. I always teach my students how to mark correct and incorrect behaviors with their individual dog in the ring before they trial, so that they understand this concept and have a clear way of communicating to their dog the same set of criteria the dog is accustomed to in training. This creates trust and security between dog and handler in all environments and at all levels of distraction. DG: Can you explain the concept of maintaining criteria in the ring a bit more? while they are handling the dog in the ring. You must be handler and trainer, constantly monitoring your dog’s performance and stress level. On a personal level, this ties back to discipline. It is what I enjoy most about agility: the challenge of getting consistency in the ring. DG: You completed two MACHs in one day and you qualiﬁed several dogs for the ﬁnals at USDAA nationals for multiple years. How do you train your dogs to be so consistent? Once I have a learned behavior, I teach the dog to perform the behavior in drive. Drive can be created by switching from treat to toy, or from stay to restrained send, when training in a class environment. From the foundation up, I step up drive and get the dog consistent immediately. I want my dog to feel like being in high drive and being pushed by me for speed is normal. I run and rev my dogs up even during early puppy training. Then I add distractions. Drive ﬁrst: Distractions second. A simple distraction may just be another high-drive dog working in the same room. All my dogs learn to think and focus in drive before they are in the ring and have to deal with the trial environment. I train to a high level at home, particularly for weaves, contact obstacles, and start lines. At Mountain Freaks, we do extensive prooﬁng. We set criteria that the dog can understand whether we are in the ring or training in the yard. The process must be fair to the dog. I believe that the dog should thoroughly know the behavior so the dog understands immediately when you mark the behavior as correct or mark the behavior as incorrect. DG: You are expecting your ﬁrst child in November 2007. How will that affect your agility training? AR-C: Every handler should be able to enforce (mark/reward) correct or incorrect behavior in the ring. With any type of dog, moving from Novice to Excellent, the dog is going to get ring wise. We often see dogs in Novice with perfect obstacles that fall apart by the time they are in Excellent. Whether the dog’s ring behavior is due to stress, high drive, or simply ignoring the handler, trainers need to be able to enforce and reinforce behaviors in the ring. This is the only way to ensure performance excellence on every obstacle… everywhere. I want my students to judge their dog’s performance AR-C: For the short term, I’m going to rely on my family for help so I can continue training some at home. I hope to be trialing again in the early spring. DG: What goals do you have for the future? AR-C: My biggest goal is to win at the AKC Nationals though I’ll deﬁnitely be aiming for a spot on a world team in the next few years. D Diane Goodspeed is an agility instructor and author. She has multiple dogs that compete in agility, obedience, and herding, though she spends most of her time and resources with her Sheltie, Demon, in agility. “It’s official: my entire crew loves this toy!” © DOGHOUSE ARTS The Crunch ‘N’ Tug “Most dogs love to crunch on an empty water bottle, others love the feel of a fleecy exterior. This toy has both. I love it because once you remove the water bottle, it folds flat for easy packing. Plus the bungee makes tugging easy on my back (and I’m sure on my dog’s body as well!).” Susan Garrett Twister, Buzz, Decaff & Encore www.dogdreamstoys.com 18 Clean Run | January 08

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Clean Run Magazine - January 2008

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