Clean Run Magazine - April 2008 - 59

How to Use Your Dog’s Natural Behaviors to Train Him When Pigs Fly If You Can’t Beat ’Em, Join ’Em By Jane Killion, photos by Louis B. Ruediger If you did the exercises in the previous articles, your dog is probably becoming operant and he is excited about doing agility exercises, at least in a familiar environment. Here’s the problem. Your Pigs Fly dog still has a lot of passion in life to do things that are at odds with what you want him to do. Your dog is the dog that is obsessed by sniffing, that is oblivious to anything but running off to play with other dogs, or that just checks out when he sees a flock of birds Look at the focus and drive these Norwich Terriers have for digging. go up in the air. That can make it challenging to get your dog to the point where you can take him to a trial and qualify. How do you get around this challenge? You could train a lot to overcome these distractions and eventually teach your dog not to sniff, play with other dogs, or chase fluttering things, but what a waste of great enthusiasm that would be. What if, instead of eliminating these behaviors, we could control them and use them as fuel to power agility behaviors? What if we could find a way to make your dog as passionate about doing the seesaw as he is about digging a hole? Light a Fire with ICE Capturing Your Dog’s Interest Let’s call the things that have natural, pleasurable meaning for your dog (like sniffing or chasing things) “hot” activities, and let’s call the things that have no meaning for your dog (like jumping a pinwheel of jumps or lying down on the table) “cold” activities. By using the hot activities as reinforcers for the cold activities, the enthusiasm that your dog feels for the original hot activity will, over time, transfer to the cold activity. The previously meaningless activity will take on the aura and excitement of the hot activity. To get your Pigs Fly dog as on fire to do a serpentine of jumps as he is to chase squirrels, give him some ICE! • Identify what your dog finds naturally motivating, his “hot” activities • Control the hot activities so that your dog can only get them from you • Exchange the chance for your dog to do a hot activity in return for your dog’s performing a cold activity April 08 | Clean Run Live Wires Identify Your Dog’s Hot Reinforcers The first step in making your dog excited to work with you is the “I” in ICE. Identify what your dog finds naturally motivating. The difficulty is, not all dogs want the same thing, and many of the things that a dog wants seem distinctly incompatible with what you would like him to do. Isn’t running away to play with other dogs, sniffing, or scurrying off to perform surgery on a stuffed toy incompatible with staying in the ring and completing an agility course? It may seem like the fact that your dog wants to chase squirrels is at odds with your desire for him to run in agility, but I am going to show you how they can really become one and the same desire. When handlers say that their dog lacks motivation or drive, what they are really saying is that their dog lacks motivation or drive to do the things that the handlers want them to do. All dogs have motivation and drive; you just have to find it. The first thing you need to do, therefore, is identify the things that your dog loves and has Many hounds can be profoundly uninterested in doing anything like obedience or agility, but that does not mean they lack drive. Look at how flat this Rhodesian Ridgeback is when doing obedience. Then look at him lure coursing. That is the drive you want to harness and use for agility. 59

Clean Run Magazine - April 2008

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run Magazine - April 2008