Clean Run - September 2013 - 10

PreparingShy Dogs
forAgility Class
By Stephen McKay

Many people are first attracted to agility as a result
of the fun and teamwork the sport
nurtures. Agility provides an
ideal pursuit
to build
focus,
enhance
obedience
skills, and
strengthen the relationship
between
teammates.
Communication and benevolent leadership are established
throughout the learning
process. Each team learns to
overcome their own unique
struggles as they attain new
milestones, navigate through
their agility journey, and
develop confidence. But
while some teams just seem
to glide through training
with an ability to focus and
demonstrate drive in the
presence of any distraction,
other teams enter training
and discover that their dog
is sensitive to training environments and activities. Still
others may enter training
with the sole purpose of engaging in confidence-building activities. Handlers, who
are themselves attempting
to learn new skill sets, can
easily find themselves focus10

ing their efforts less on skills
training and more on trying
to change their dog’s
emotional state.
For those teams
that struggle
with sensitivities to
training
environments,
some preliminary
preparation work
and class
strategies
may benefit
early agility
learning experiences and help
them succeed in group
agility classes.

Changing Our
Training Approach

The first steps in changing
behavior in sensitive dogs
may involve changing our
approach to training and
our immediate goals. Ideally,
handlers focus on teaching
behaviors on a contingency
basis, meaning we obtain
behavior that meets our current criteria and reinforce
it. In short, our dogs work,
perform at an acceptable
level, and earn a reward.
This operant conditioning
involves cognitive processing for the dog as he works
to obtain his reward. However, fear responses in our

dogs redirect the brain’s priorities away from cognitive
processes. When attempting to establish emotional
states that are conducive
to learning, handlers may
have to relax their operant
conditioning efforts while
they concentrate on classical
conditioning which involves
different methodologies.
It is useful to understand the
following six terms:
stimuli
· Triggers areresponses.that
cause fear
imaginary
· Threshold is anline where
and dynamic

dogs can or cannot engage
in some degree of focus
on a task.

· Counter-conditioning is of
pairing up the presence

a trigger with a high-value
offering such as a food
reward or a game/play
with a favorite toy.

· Systematic desensitization
is controlling the trigger
intensity so that it is first
presented at low levels
before being built up to
full strength.

· Flooding is when a dog’s
escape from a trigger is
restricted.

· Sensitization is when a
dog’s fear response be-

comes stronger and subsequently more challenging
to overcome.

Behavioral modification protocols for fearful dogs typically involve the application
of a counter-conditioning
and systematic desensitization program. It might look
like this: The handler sets up
a scenario where a trigger
might present itself at low
levels of intensity. The dog detects the trigger and the handler begins presenting something that the dog considers
high value. The high-value
presentation continues until
the trigger is out of the dog’s
detection range, as best we
can tell. At this point, highvalue oﬀerings cease until the
trigger is once again detected
by the dog at which time the
process repeats.
What is considered high
value should be decided by
your dog, not necessarily
what you may think is high
value. It is up to each handler
to discover her dog’s favorite
offerings such as a specific
food, toy, or an interactive
game. One common mistake
that some handlers make is
to commence with the highvalue offering prior to the
dog detecting the trigger. A
few pairings in this backward order can subsequently
teach the dog to search for
a fear-producing trigger
whenever the high-value offering occurs. The desirable
response you’re looking to
create is for the dog to look
excitedly toward his handler
Clean Run | September 13

Clean Run - September 2013

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