Clean Run Magazine - February 2010 - 67

#5 Train the dog to believe in what you do The next most helpful idea for training for NADAC success: Your dog learns that what you are doing on course is deliberate. For example, when you decelerate on course, it is not because you are getting tired; it is on purpose because you want the dog to do something with that information. If you turn your feet and shoulders, it is not because you ran out of room at the gamble line, it’s because you want your dog to read that cue. If you lead out on the left side of the first obstacles, it’s not because the course opening starts on the right side of the ring, it’s because you are giving the dog information about where the course goes as soon as you leave his side. And a hundred other examples…. This isn’t a NADACspecific training problem. When you consider the way your brain actually processes movement, the difficulty in executing what you intend to do, your awareness of what you actually do, any bad habits you have or Band-Aids (handling fixes) you use, and any mental management problems or stress, you probably do a lot of things on course that aren’t deliberate. The problem isn’t really your dog being confused by inconsistencies in what you do; the actual problem is your dog’s learning you don’t do things on purpose. At least in the former case, the dog might check in with you in his confusion. In the latter case, the dog actually learns to ignore a whole lot of what you do. Unfortunately, he can become good at this and you might not even know it’s happening—until you run into the course challenge where he needs to pay attention to your deceleration, rotation, or positional cue and he doesn’t even notice. Here is a possible example: Let’s say you begin clapping on course. What does clapping mean? Often I find it means “I’m nervous or unsure if you are going to respond to the cues I’ve already given you.” Okay, so which behavior do you want to see from your dog when you clap? If you can answer that definitively and you have taught your dog how to respond to clapping, and you are doing it because you want to communicate something: great news, there are no problems with clapping on course. But if you haven’t, you may not be doing it for any real or predictable purpose and, worse, you might just be clapping out of habit. It doesn’t actually mean anything to your dog, other than to alert him to the fact that you’re nervous, which is arguably not a great cue. February 10 | Clean Run I know it’s probably not all that helpful to tell you to become a better handler but following are some ideas to avoid the problematic aspects that can show up when you want to solve different kinds of agility puzzles. Before you worry about what the dog is doing, worry about what you are doing. Well don’t worry exactly; just train yourself to handle or give cues deliberately. I don’t think a dog can even begin to develop a consistent response to your cues until he can recognize them; so your deliberate behavior has to come first. Yes, this really does mean that I ask my students to practice their front-cross body language in the kitchen with a can of beans. A very common problem I see with young teams is the handler tends to be more concerned about what the dog is doing, than what she is doing. I think it is a mistake to keep reacting and adapting your cues to try to get the dog through a sequence. This makes for a constantly changing mix of cues for the dog and he can never “believe” what you tell him. Instead, give the cue you intend to give long-term and if the dog pulls inside or goes wide or pulls off or strides incorrectly, then you have an opportunity to teach the dog, “When I do this, you do that.” Resist the urge to add overrotation, or a verbal cue, or a double half-twist to “get” the next obstacle. In other words, don’t value getting through the sequence over the training opportunity that the sequence provides. What I have found important in training for NADAC success applies to training for success in any venue—it’s not so important which handling system you follow, but that the signals/cues you do use are done deliberately. This means you have taught yourself control and awareness of the cues you give, and you have trained the dog to expect to get pertinent information from you. When he is looking for information from you and it makes sense to him, he can “believe” and develop a refined response. Next month we’ll discuss five more tips to complete our recipe for success in any venue. D Andrea is a professional trainer, consultant, and coach who takes great pleasure in helping her students, both in Seattle and elsewhere, enjoy their dog, training, agility, and success, probably in that order. Contact her via www.agilityflix.net, where you can check out her training products and services and brags about her own dogs. 67

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Clean Run Magazine - February 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run Magazine - February 2010