Clean Run - January 2018 - 37

training environment with unhappy
behavior? There's lots said about what
dogs recognize, but I am absolutely certain they recognize agility equipment.
The first time I took my old dog, Jester,
to an obedience show, it was hilarious.
Excited, as he recognized the routine
for a show-packing the car, early start,
longish drive, lots of dogs-how could
he fail to recognize that he's at a show?
Even our warm-up routine was much
the same. I took him into the ring for his
turn and he was actively looking for the
agility equipment. So much so that the

judge asked what he was looking for
and wasn't overly impressed when I told
her! He settled down and with experience learnt to recognize the difference
between the two types of shows. Now
back to my point. Jester had an excited
association with equipment because I'd
taken a great deal of care to build that
association. If he'd lacked confidence
before we started, that association
would have been much harder to build.

how to drive away down a line of jumps.
I cheer led him around the course every
round that we did. My friends with the
same issue had a Border Collie as their
next dog, which nicely solved the problem for some of them, as a lot of Border
Collies seem born wanting to work and
will happily drive forward with little or
no training. The rest end up training
with someone like me, doing remedial
training to teach drive.

The second reason is that many years
ago I did "drag" a dog around an agility
field. My first dog, Buzzy, never did learn

Shady will keep going with this training
until I see the drive that I want. D

A: I let Shady see me placing the
toy out by the marker I am using and
then we run back to the start. B: The
send! C: Shady avoids the distraction
(Mariella loves to help with training).
D: I get ready to run in so I can reward
at the marker. E: It's important to note
that the more effort you put into your
training, the more you'll get out-
we've built up to this nice sendaway.

I started agility training and competition in the late 1980's and around about that time I started clicker training. I've competed in both working trials and obedience.
I still think agility is the best of all sports for both dogs and handlers and clicker training the best way to teach it. I thoroughly enjoy training my dogs and teaching
others. Across the years I've been privileged to teach all over the world, from Australia to Japan, all across North America and Europe. I've worked with many talented
handlers and trainers and thoroughly enjoyed every moment. I remain a positive trainer; reward builds behavior so much faster and better than any other method.
If the solution to a problem is going to upset my dog, it clearly isn't the right solution. Contact me via email at jo@kissagility.com or through my website: www.kissagility.com.

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January 18 | Clean Run

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