Clean Run Magazine - March 2010 - 46

If you build it they can run! Instead of thinking of the behavior as a stay, we need to think of it as, “wait motionless for the cue, and then shoot off and run like heck in the direction I point you.” The stay thus has both a static and a dynamic component, and it is crucial to train both pieces. Once you understand this, you can see why so many people have trouble with their dog’s stays. They focus almost exclusively on the static component (stay) and rarely, if ever, train or reward the dynamic component (breaking out of position). I prefer a verbal release cue to a physical one. You can remain perfectly silent as you walk out to position on course, and then give the verbal cue to release. This is clean and precise. On the other hand, your body has to move to get out to your position on course, so your dog had lots of opportunities to guess wrong about when to release. If you have a physical cue for a release, your dog will be watching every movement and anticipating when the movement that means his release is coming. The swing of your arm as you walk or the bob of your head as you turn to take one last look out at your first side change could both be taken as cues to release by an amped up or slightly stressed dog. It seems to be easier for a dog to understand that he needs to ignore all your physical movements and just wait for the verbal release. You need to train a specific verbal cue for the release. I suggest a short, staccato word, such as O.K. or Break. Your dog’s name should not be a release cue. You want to reserve your dog’s name as a cue to check in, not release. Only your bottom jaw should move when you release your dog. No arm, no head, no upper body motion should accompany your release. This is much harder than you might think, and very few people have trained it. Try having someone video your release and it will give you invaluable feedback as to how truly verbal your release is. This article focuses solely on training the release. We will examine start-line behaviors and contacts in upcoming articles, and a solid release is a prerequisite to training those behaviors. Although there are undoubtedly many practical applications for the release, the scope of this article is limited to training the release itself. A challenge when training a release is there are usually surrounding training struggles (manipulating the dog by leash into position, pushing on the dog’s rear to make him sit, continually correcting/reminding the dog to stay in position, and so on), which can dilute your dog’s ability to learn the release. By the time you get to training the release, you’ve butted heads with him over so many things that he is unable to digest the release lesson. Thus, to train a solid verbal release, you first have to isolate the release behavior from all the behaviors that usually surround it. The crate is an easy tool to use to train the release, because it makes it very black and white for the dog. You don’t have to worry about his position, his breaking, wandering off, or what he is doing, at least at first. Following are the steps that I use. Jump cup strips Clip-on jump cups PVC ttings: 3-way, 4-way, and 5-way connectors 1" and 2" vinyl tape 1" and 11/4" PVC pipe in red, yellow, blue, violet, and white Piggy Pointer: I prefer to use the crate to teach the release because it limits what the dog can do and makes it easier for him ® to choose the “correct” behavior. It also has the charm of training your dog to wait to be released from the crate, which is a practical behavior that can save his life. However, if your dog is not crate trained or has problems with the crate, you could also use a sliding glass door or any other gate/door that you can see through. www.cleanrun.com Clean Run | March 10

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Clean Run Magazine - March 2010

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