Clean Run Magazine - October 2008 - 58

Step One: Make Me an Offer In this first step, you are going to reinforce the behavior of going to an obstacle. Notice that I did not say doing an obstacle. You want to isolate and reinforce the act of choosing to go ahead to the next obstacle. Start just a couple of feet away from the jump and set the bar very low. Free shape your dog for going to the jump in increments, as I described in my March article. If, after you click, your dog stops dead and does not do the obstacle, that is fine; you are clicking the intent to go forward to the jump, not taking the jump itself. At this stage, you should feed close to you or even throw the food behind you to set your dog up to approach the obstacle again. Since it is the approach to the obstacle and not the obstacle itself you are training, you don’t want the dog loitering around the obstacle, because then he will be unable to make a new approach. Once your dog appears to be deliberately offering to move forward to the jump, you should still reinforce the approach to the jump (not the behavior of actually doing the jump), but now you can throw the reinforcer over the jump so he completes the behavior after you click. If your dog seems to be getting it, you can add a little bit of distance. Eventually, you want to work up to 3' to 5', in all directions. In the first photo, Zulu’s head is down and she’s moving with purpose. This is when I click. If your dog is not as operant as Zulu you may have to start with just clicking a glance or a step and build from there. In the second photo, Zulu takes the jump after the click because she was already committed to it. Your dog may stop dead in his tracks when he hears the click and not take the jump. That is fine. Once your dog has the idea that he has to go toward the jump automatically, you can build up to his actually taking the jump. In the third photo I throw the cookie back, which sets up Zulu for another clickable approach to the jump in the fourth photo. Step Two: A New Angle Once your dog appears to have a light bulb above his head that goes off whenever he sees a jump when you are anywhere from 3' to 5' away from it, you can add some lateral distance and start shaping him to go ahead to the jump from different angles. Piggy Pointer: It is crucial that you do not lure or tell your dog what to do. You are training him to have an automatic response of going forward and taking an obstacle if you and he are within a certain proximity to it. The cue is the presence of the obstacle, not a verbal or hand/arm cue. Whew, that is a lot easier than trying to spit out the name of each obstacle while running as fast as you can! Now I shape the approach to the jump from an angle, just as I did with the straight-on approach. Remember to do this from both sides, approaching the jump from the right and the left. www.helpingudders.com Where 10-50% of every purchase goes to rescue! 58 Clean Run | October 08

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Clean Run Magazine - October 2008

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run Magazine - October 2008