Clean Run Magazine - October 2007 - 22

Black and White Part 1: The Table By Elaine Coupé Bounce is a bit of a wimp, and always has been. He doesn’t down on the table with a drop—heaven forbid, he might skin an elbow or scratch his chest! But a down is a down. Or is it? Sometimes Bounce would get on the table and down, but very carefully. Translation: slowly. Or he would “half-down.” You know the position: I’m working my way down but will you take this with my front elbows pushing up? Sometimes he wouldn’t down at all. Compounding the problem was a health issue that at one point in time had him so afraid of the table that it was an aversive. But, while he still has the health issues, he no longer has the fear. So, a down is a down 22 Being My youngest dog, Trip has awesome obstacle performance—though sometimes getting him to actually turn on course is a problem. Nevertheless, his obstacle performance is terrific. After my first agility dog, Shadow, now over 12 years old and retired, was trained to contacts by pointing at them and weave poles by babysitting them, I knew when I got Bounce, now 6 years old, that there were better ways. I also found out with Bounce that if your foundation training is good, when you step to the line at a trial you’re not as nervous: your dog will do the obstacles correctly because that’s what you’ve trained and all you have to worry about is the handling. Amazing! But as happy as I am with Bounce’s training, I knew there were still some minor holes. With Trip, I wanted to plug those holes before the leak developed. The solution was simple, so simple I almost still cannot believe it: just present things to Trip in black and white. What he’s doing is right or it’s wrong. There is no in-between, no shades of gray. That almost sounds simplistic, doesn’t it? Yet I find that we humans, so used to shades of gray, have an inordinate amount of trouble defining for our dogs the black and white of the behavior that we want. Let’s look at some obstacles and try to see where we humans go wrong in defining black and white, right and wrong, behavior for our dogs. We’ll start with a relatively simple obstacle, the table. right? No, it’s not—not if I accept those shades of gray. By accepting those slow downs, or the half-down, or by repeating the command two or three times I have created a huge gray area. I never know what down I will get at a trial. I have accepted so many different behaviors, that Bounce is free to offer any of them and see what I will take. The most important point here is that a slow down, a half-down, a down then a slight push up, a stand, or anything other than an immediate down are all different behaviors. If I can’t tell Bounce which behavior I want, I can’t expect him to do it! I am perfectly prepared in training to reward that correct down: get on the table and just do it. Anything else results in pulling him off the table and repeating the sequence that led to it. I am not yet “punishing” him for incorrect table performance (such punishment to consist of putting him in his crate while I work Trip) because I don’t think I have yet been black and white enough for him to be totally sure of the behavior. When we have enough documented repetitions under our belt (900-1000), then punishment for incorrect performance will result. How does this translate to training a young dog? I am a firm believer in training such behaviors as sit, down, and stay away from Clean Run | October 07

Clean Run Magazine - October 2007

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