Clean Run - September 2014 - 20

treat on the ground, I must retract
my arm and the motion of that retraction will serve as a lure. So, will
I use my left arm or my right arm
in this case? See Figures 4 and 5.
You cannot eliminate yourself as
a lure entirely, so be smart about
how you lure. Do try to get your
hand out to deliver the treat as
quickly as possible, and pull it
back as quickly as possible (don't
lure your dog around the post with
a cookie in your hand!). But be
clever about which hand you use
so your dog is not encouraged to
turn the wrong way.
4

Reward All Zones
With One Exception
Even though the red and blue zones
may be the most difficult zones
when the dog is circling counterclockwise, you should still reward
your dog for passing through each
and every zone on the circle, with
one exception:
Since your dog has already been
very highly rewarded at your front,
from the time he first came in to
your life, you should avoid delivering reinforcements directly in front
of your body until your dog has
become proficient at the behavior. For many dogs, once they have
received a cookie at the handler's
front, there is too much value in
staying at that location, and too
little value in turning away. The
dog will often start to offer a variety of other behaviors at that
point, rather than continuing on
through the space in front of the
handler. See Figure 6.
6

If I deliver a treat with my right
arm, my dog will likely turn to his
right to get the treat. When I pull
my hand back, my dog will follow
my hand, turning clockwise rather
than counterclockwise. This does
not help the behavior.

P
R

If I deliver a treat with my left
arm, when I retract that arm,
my dog will follow, and is more
likely to continue turning in the
correct direction, garnering more
clicks/treats. I may have to reach
around the pole to do this.
20

Avoid delivering reinforcements
directly in front of your body.
Your dog already finds this location highly rewarding, and does
not need more incentive to stay in
front of you for this behavior!

Start Small, Then Ask for More
In the beginning, be prepared to
click and treat five, six, or even seven or more times as your dog travels around the pole. You will need
to be quick! You want to build value

for each and every point around
that pole. Don't ask your dog to
travel through more space than he
is comfortable travelling through, or
you will create hesitancy and slow
circling. You will find almost immediately that the "easy" zones do not
require as much reinforcement. So
while you will continue to reinforce
in those zones, the pieces of the
pie that your dog will have to travel
through will quickly become larger.
However, in the difficult zones, you
will want to maintain a high level of
reinforcement, again, taking care
to vary where your clicks and treats
are delivered throughout the zones,
rather than in the same place each
time. You've worked hard to be precise prior to this point, now you
must be precisely variable with
your clicks and treats!

Practice Before You Train!
Because the delivery of the reinforcement is so important for this
behavior, practice how you will deliver reinforcement before you get
your dog out to do your training.
Once again, this ability has broader
applications to your agility training.
Did you practice throwing your reinforcement before you started weave
pole training? Did you practice the
delivery of your reinforcement,
without a dog, prior to your contact training? Would the training of
those, or any other behavior, have
been improved if you had practiced
beforehand! Don't skip this step!
Remember, think, plan, and then do!
This is one of my favorite behaviors
to teach to trainers because of the
nature of how the clicks and treats
must be delivered. There is a lot
to be learned through training this
simple behavior, and, of course, a
lot of fun to be had as well!
Don't forget to also teach your dog
to circle clockwise!
Until next time, happy training! D

Daisy Peel has won multiple national and regional championships and has represented the USA in international
competition more than 10 times with three different dogs. Educated as a high school chemistry teacher, Daisy
teaches classes and seminars in the USA and worldwide, in person and online. Visit her online classroom:
http://classroom.daisypeel.com.
Clean Run | September 14

http://classroom.daisypeel.com

Clean Run - September 2014

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