Clean Run - May 2017 - 40

Remember when adding a verbal cue, that to begin with it needs to be
paired with the behavior as it's happening so that an association can be
built between the cue and the behavior. The cue is then gradually moved
forward so that it predicts the behavior. if there's no response do not re-cue!
Re-cuing is one of the most damaging training habits.

shift hips or roll over. The only time I use
the cue "stay" is if I train with an obedience trainer who thinks it important. I
am old fashioned enough to think that
a 30-minute stay a couple of times a
week is good for training and this is
what Shady will gradually work towards.
I reiterated this training across the next
week, by which time Shady was seeking out his mat to settle on. From there
I left him to settle on his own, only actually asking him to settle if he bugged
one of the other dogs. With a 4-monthold baby in the house and her mother
desperate for sleep, it had become
a priority that the dogs keep quiet.
Shady had several attention-seeking
behaviors that got my instant attention: licking Boogie and making him
bark in protest, scratching at the door,
and grabbing Darcey's collar. I made a
note of them and started to preempt
them by distracting him or asking him
to settle. If he was overtired and just
couldn't help himself, he went back in
his crate with something to chew.

Sit and Down
During this period sit and down were
worked on exclusively with a verbal
cue, rewards thrown away to enable
repeat. With the work on food refusal
Shade started to find this fun. His down
became quicker and his sit better understood. Throwing rewards away
started to become counter productive

as it encouraged snarfing behavior. So
we moved to releasing from the sit for
reward. That one goes: cue sit, reward
in place, move to the pup's side, cue release, and throw food forward. I'd obviously heavily rewarded Shady for sitting
in front of me at this stage as he didn't
like sitting next to me at all. Note to self:
make sure he's rewarded for sitting in
different places relative to me. I started
the same for his down, again he wants
to be close to me, which is natural.
Remember when adding a verbal cue,
that to begin with it needs to be paired
with the behavior as it's happening so
that an association can be built between the cue and the behavior. The
cue is then gradually moved forward so
that it predicts the behavior. If there's
no response do not re-cue! Re-cuing
is one of the most damaging training
habits. It leads to intense frustration
on the handler's part which is really
unfair. Get a friend or family member
to watch you training and count the
number of times you re-cue. Each time
you do, you're building an alternate association, "sit" means do nothing until
I say something again, or more likely,
do something else. A lot of trainers
maintain that physical or body cues are
more easily understood by dogs; it's
my experience that people are better
at teaching them. Verbal cues are very
important to me as I'm considerably
slower than my dogs. About this time I
added a whistle to Shady's recall so that

he could hear me from farther away. A
new cue is placed in front of the old so
that it comes to predict it.
It became obvious that Shady is highly environmentally aware, as a good
working Beardie should be. In practical
terms this means he builds a strong association with place so it's important to
keep notes of where you've progressed
with each behavior until he learns to
generalize behavior across locations.

He's also quite person-specific; he
comes when I call him but is very confused by my daughter Kristy. When she
calls him he looks anxious and tends
to remain where he is; she has a habit
of walking towards him to reward. It
doesn't really matter what a pup learns
with a different person, but it is something to be aware of. D

I started agility training and competition in the late 1980's and around about that time I started clicker training. I've competed in both working trials and obedience.
I still think agility is the best of all sports for both dogs and handlers and clicker training the best way to teach it. I thoroughly enjoy training my dogs and teaching
others. Across the years I've been privileged to teach all over the world, from Australia to Japan, all across North America and Europe. I've worked with many talented
handlers and trainers and thoroughly enjoyed every moment. I remain a positive trainer; 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. Contact me via my website: www.agility-training.co.uk, or via my Facebook page:
Jo's agility-training.co.uk.

Clean Run | May 17

http://www.agility-training.co.uk http://agility-training.co.uk

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