Clean Run - March 2018 - 60

I won't do too much with the dogwalk
until she's fully confident with the end
of the seesaw and its movement. Again,
Darcey was very happy with the wobble
board and had some really good skills
with it, being able to rock it side to side
as well as backward and forward. I think
the key here is time-little by little and
every step heavily rewarded. The key is
to keep moving on-she is so cute and
has such an expressive face that it's hard
to let her work through her worries,
however it is essential that I allow her to.
So when I feel the need to pick her up
and console her, I remind myself of that!

dogwalk training by teaching them to
do it as fast as they possibly can so they
need to be confident in their proprioception before that. Shady has trouble with
this; if you ask him to go from a sit to a
stand on the small board, his back right
foot falls off. This isn't a problem as the
board is only one brick height off the
floor, but it would be a problem on the
actual equipment. For Shady the dogwalk is narrower than his paw width, so
it's important that he feels comfortable
and knows exactly where his feet are before I ask him to tackle it at speed.

Targeting
Darcey and Dexi continue work on their
targets. Darcey is very happy with her
front paw target and Dexi seems to be
aware of the carpet, as he doesn't miss
it. Shady is having more problems; he is
fine being asked for a flyball-type hit on
the target, but has difficulty when in motion on the board. I think his problems
are twofold: firstly he's having problems
with the width of the board and secondly his stride is enormous when moving
at full tilt. One stride is almost the length
of the down plank at full speed. He isn't
yet confident enough to tackle a narrow
plank at full tilt, so I have problems setting him up with a starting point that
will successful for him. It's very hard for
him to turn around on a narrow plank,
so I'm going to have to rethink how I will
break a dogwalk down for backchaining.

The first photo shows Darcey's version
of a paw on the seesaw do I sneakily
used the reward to get Darcey to put
more weight on her paw as you can
see in the second photo.

other Contact Work
With all three dogs I continue to work
on wobble board skills as well as core
strength exercises (the basic ones). I've
also started doing tricks on a small board
that is propped on a couple of bricks to
make sure they are confident with their
paws on a narrow surface. I will start the

him to hidden toys. I'll add them to his
mat work, initially with a thrown toy and
then progressing to three toys laid out.
I'll simply cue him to take the toy when
he makes the right choice. I've made a
note to make sure that as he starts to
collect for the turns, he maintains the
full stride for the straight sendaway. D

Since the narrow plank is just too hard
for him at the moment, I've set up his
mat with two marker poles so that I can
to teach him his turns. At the moment
I'm clicking and rewarding every hit.
I plan to progress to putting the toy out
ahead of him and simply cuing "get it"
for a hit or asking for a retry for a miss.
The aim is to have his focus fully forward
and to get the full stride so that I'm sure
he's comfortable hitting the target at full
speed. Once we have that, I'll start to cue
left and right turns. Shady's understanding of verbal left and right is excellent
and I use the cues all the time when we're
out and about, or in the house, to direct

This is a nice hit, but Shady is
looking at me. He needs a toy in front
to get his focus forward.

He's doing well here out in front of
me. This is important because it
shows his understanding and ability
is independent of my position.

Occasionally I walk Shady back
onto his target, looking to see his
back feet reaching for the mat.

I started agility training and competition in the late 1980's, about the same time I started clicker training, and have also competed in working trials and obedience. After all
these years, I still think agility is the best of all dog sports for both dogs and handlers, and clicker training is the best way to teach it. I am a positive trainer because 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. I thoroughly enjoy
training my dogs and teaching others. Over the years I've been privileged to teach all over the world, from Australia to Japan, and across North America and Europe.
I have worked with many talented handlers and thoroughly enjoyed every moment. Contact me via my website at www.kissagility.com or via my Facebook page at
https://www.facebook.com/KISSagility.
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Clean Run | March 18

http://www.kissagility.com https://www.facebook.com/KISSagility

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