Clean Run - March 2014 - 12

By Nancy Gyes

Right on
drills
Target

My drills this month continue with my theme from
last month's article, "Toy Control and Targeting." You
can skip the targeting part of these drills and just
reward in your normal fashion, or you can review last
months' article and work the short drills and target
games before you begin with the longer exercises.
Why target? Just like using a nose or foot target for
contacts to get your dog to travel to a specified location, using toys and targets in your jump training can
greatly ease teaching your dog to move forward of
you and stay on the line you have established with
correct body direction and motion.
Targeting at the end of a course or drill teaches your
dog to travel smoothly and with speed over the final
jump rather than turning around and looking at you,
potentially dropping a bar, adding a stride, crossing
your path, or turning back to bark or nip-all things
that can happen when the dog realizes you are far
behind at the final obstacle. If you struggle with the
timing of tossing reinforcement to your dog, it is helpful to have the reinforcement already in place on your
dog's line so that you don't end up rewarding your
dog for turning and checking in instead of driving forward. Targeting your turns can help you teach and
reward your dog for tight turns. Also, instead of having his head up and looking at your hands on turns,
your dog is driving head down, focus forward, following where your chest and feet are headed. There is really not anytime that I want my dogs to look up at me
in agility, so I like to reward low and with thoughtful
targeting and toy placement.
Here's a really important tip when using any kind of
targeting with your dog: if you have to tell your dog to
leave the target alone after you place it, then you have
not done enough preparation work, and you will just

make targeting stressful and negative. When I throw a
toy to the finish line while I am training my dogs, they
rarely even watch where I throw it; their interest is in
moving forward to the obstacles so they can eventually find their way to the reinforcement. If I had to say,
"No, no, leave it" every time I put a toy somewhere, the
game would not be fun for my dogs. Self-control around
toys is important, but it should come from building a
solid foundation using fun, easy games, not punishment. So start small and keep it simple until your
dog happily lets you place targets around the course
and won't cut corners or leave you to go get them.
If your dog doesn't play with toys you can experiment
with a food toy (for these drills I like the fabric Rip N Tug
Lotus Balls that you hide a cookie in) or you can even
try a Manners Minder (now called a Treat & Train). You
could also teach your dog to foot target a small phonebook-size item, and then mark it and reward with a treat
when your dog does the foot target. Years ago when I
taught my Sheltie Jack to weave, I used a foot target
placed about 20' forward of the weave poles which
he ran to and placed his front feet on. This allowed
me to get more distance from him while he weaved,
then I could move to him and use a treat to reward
him after he placed his feet excitedly on the target.
After my dog is allowed to get his toy reward in the
middle of the course, I often send him back one obstacle to get back on the numbered drill, but my dog
won't get the toy the second time. Or sometimes I
play tug and then just move to the next obstacle in
the exercise rather than repeating the drill without the
toy reinforcement. Change it up, be random-don't
always repeat the turn or the send without a reward.
I hope you enjoy the right on target drills and your dog
enjoys all the rewards! D

Nancy Gyes and her husband, Jim Basic, run Power Paws Agility in San Jose, California. Nancy has been the AKC World Team Coach since 2006, and has been
on the AKC World Team seven times, four years with Scud and three with Riot. Nancy and Riot finished 1st in 2002 and 2nd in 2001 in Individual Agility classes
at the FCI Agility World Championships. Nancy also won the USDAA Nationals four years in a row, 1998 to 2001, with three different dogs: Scud, Riot, and
Wicked. In 2001 and 2002, Nancy and Riot were the 24" jump height AKC National Champions. Contact Nancy at www.powerpawsagility.com where you can
also view other articles and videos.
12

Clean Run | March 14

http://www.powerpawsagility.com

Clean Run - March 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run - March 2014