Clean Run Magazine - February 2007 - 61

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the Turn and Driving Out Again Very quickly you should begin to see what
we are looking for: the dog controlling the turn, driving around it with
his rear collected, and accelerating out again at the correct point. So
now you have marked three places of reward for your dog: the head turn
with rear end under control, the base of the wing, and the acceleration
out of the turn. The dogs should have reached the 80% to 90% success rate
for this part of the training; you’ve established a nice reward history.
You should also be seeing the body shape that we’re looking for. Keep
that shape firmly in your mind because as the dog gains more speed, if you
have to stop and think, you’ll be late with your click. Kristy and Boo
work a front cross and the drive out again. How to Progress Now we up the
stakes a little and move the dog one body-length back away from the jump.
Go through all the stages again. Gradually increase the distance until the
dog is coming into the jump from a good 10’ to 15’ away. As the dog
gains speed, his turns will of necessity be wider—but not so wide that
they take him outside of your previously defined circle—which is the
reason that it’s there. Once you are successful at that level, start at
the beginning again—one body-length away, but this time you start back
there as well. Now that you are no longer in position, you’ll have to
drop the first place of reward since you’ll no longer be able to get
into place to maintain it. However, you should by now have seen and marked
the point often enough that you’ll notice if it begins to fade—at which
point you need to go back and rebuild that part of the chain. Observation
is the key to most training, but never more so than when training for
turns. Working Up to Competition Height When both dog and handler can race
in together from 10’ to 15’ away and the dog can still maintain his by
now well-defined turn, it’s time to begin working your dog up to his
competition height. As height makes a radical impact on the dog’s job
over a bar, it is well worthwhile going right back to the beginning of the
progressions every time you raise the bar. If the dog understands, you’ll
zip through each step; if he’s having difficulty at any stage, you can
then invest some extra training time without his rate of reward suffering.
Finally you should have a dog that fully understands how to use his body
around a turn. Now all you have to do is to refine your communication
skills and your timing of cues! Boogie is a shy and introverted little
dog, generally worried about life and often very hard to bring out of his
shell. This picture shows something that you rarely see, a happy and
confident little Boo: he knows exactly what is expected of him and best of
all, he knows that he can get it right. That’s precisely the reason that
I love this method of teaching turns. All the dogs I’ve tried it with,
both my own and those that train with me, simply have a great time with
it! I do tend to work with dogs that don’t find activity of and by
itself entertaining and so motivation plays a very large part in the way
in which I approach teaching and methods of teaching. For those handlers
that follow through all the stages and lay the foundation of understanding
well, this sets the stage to build an enormous history of reward for an
activity that is more usually associated with threats and raised voices.
You often see worried dogs produce displacement activities when asked for
extreme turns. Those same dogs will then often offer their handlers
contact equipment performance in the hope of reward. How often do you see
dogs offer turns in the same way? Look again at the picture of Boo and see
how happy he is; it’s simply priceless! This picture is priceless.
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Clean Run Magazine - February 2007

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