Clean Run Magazine - June 2009 - 40

I consider basic training skills to fall into one of two categories: obedience skills and agility foundation skills. Obedience skills and agility foundation skills should be learned and perfected in classes designed to teach those skills. This article is for the instructor who is teaching a class that has been described as an agility handling class. The first step is to be clear about what the class is and what it is not: Tell students you are teaching a handling class and class time will be spent working on handling, not on training problems. Explain that any training deficit can be addressed in class using a quick-fix solution that may or may not get the skill fully trained, but will not make the skill any weaker, as some Band-Aid approaches can. Let students know class is a fact-finding mission and is designed to expose weak links in training. Once a training problem is exposed you expect the students to work on the problem outside class so they can focus on their handling in class. So many times when you look deeply at a training problem in agility, the roots of the problem can be traced to the dog’s understanding of the recall or stay. Let’s look at some ways to work around missing training skills in an agility handling class. Missing Obedience Skills No Recall The dog won’t come when called (includes lack of recall when dog is sniffing). Long-term Fix Balancing the Unbalanced Class By Sandy Rogers In CR April 2009, I discussed management techniques for the instructor facing the unbalanced class. One of the most challenging divides to bridge in the unbalanced class is the gap created when there is a wide range of training skills among students. Students who have done the basic training required to pursue agility can feel very unhappy when they are in a class with students who have not put in the work. And students who lack basic skills can feel frustrated or embarrassed when they are in a class with students who have the necessary skills. Instructors need a plan for dealing with this divisive problem or class time is going to be an unhappy time for all. This month we will find ways to bridge the gap. •••••••••••• Have a handout for this student with instructions for teaching the recall and instructions for teaching the dog a fast reliable reaction to his name. The handout should include some phone numbers to call for private lessons and other resources (videos, books, articles, and so on). Short-term Fix — Insist that the students reward every single instant response the dog has when he hears his name. You will have to constantly remind them; if they already had the habit of rewarding responses from the dog, they would not have the problem. Be sure they are using a very high-level reward. — In some cases the handler might have to give a treat after every single obstacle to keep the dog with her. Start rewarding immediately, with the first step toward the start line and continue all the way to the finish line. — For tough cases, instruct the student to withhold the last meal before the next class. If the dog doesn’t do better, try withholding two meals. Don’t assume your students won’t do it; just ask them, you might be surprised. — If the dog won’t eat he is not hungry enough. Two missed meals and some garlic-marinated steak works in most cases. If the dog is too stressed to eat, the student may have to get the dog used to the environment before doing agility. — As a last-ditch effort, keep the dog on leash with a buckle collar; the handler can only do what she can do on leash. Don’t chastise the handler. Tell her it is just temporary and encourage her to perfect the recall out in the real world. 40 Clean Run | June 09
Clean Run Magazine - June 2009

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