Clean Run - October 2014 - 62

A treat is placed on the ground to start the Up and Down game with Misiu. He eats the treat from the ground.
Misiu is clicked when he reorients to his handler. A treat is then placed on the ground to set up the next repetition.
Once the dog is comfortable, add ring gates and eventually his trigger.

It helps create focus and connection to the handler. Start with a
pocket full of treats, something
that is small, easily visible on the
ground, and doesn't leave residue
or crumbs.
1. Tell the dog to Find It.
Note: You only need to say Find It
a couple times to help set up the
pattern and to tell the dog where
the treat delivery is going to be.
After that your click will do the
work for you.
2. Place a treat on the ground
near your feet. Do not toss
the food.
3. When the dog finishes his
treat, he will look up slightly
at you. The instant he lifts his
head toward you, click and
then put another piece of
food on the ground.
4. Repeat.
You are clicking the dog's attempt
of orienting to the handler and
will be shaping focus. In the beginning, just click the head up or
orienting. Very quickly within the
pattern the dog will look at you
expecting his next treat.
Please realize this is not a focuswith-duration game, or a look-stay
game, as one of my students
calls it. It is a pattern, you must
be rhythmic and precise with your
timing. Your pattern is
Dog's head comes up - click -
put the treat down, repeated over
and over.
62

When I first do this game, I start
with 10 treats so I do not do too
many repetitions. I like to practice
three sets of 10 treats, spaced
1-2 minutes apart (with a break
in between). When your dog gets
the hang of it, you can play the
Up and Down game in a box of
ring gates or in the work space
where you do agility.
Once the dog is comfortably playing this game in the work place,
you can add a trigger. I would add
an excitement trigger first, to ensure the dog can play this game
while something exciting is going
on, before adding a worry trigger. The goal is for the dog to stay
engaged in the pattern. If he can,
you can start to add his trigger
(sound). Since you are still desensitizing, start with low level sound
first. If you start with the full-blown
trigger, it could scare your dog and
ruin all your groundwork. You could
also start with general trial sounds
then build up to adding his trigger
sound. The dog should be playing
the pattern game, then the trigger
should start and go away while
you are still playing the game. If
you do not have a remote control
audio system, you will need to
have someone help you control the
sound. Please train smart; come
up with a plan and do a dry run
or two without the dog so that you
don't accidentally set the dog over
his threshold.
You will be tempted to skip steps,
but don't. Slow and gradual exposure to the trigger sound is best.
While the dog is playing this game

in the presence of his sound trigger, I like to see if he can start
to think rather than just play the
pattern game. During the pattern
game, I have the handler wait 1-2
seconds before clicking to see
what the dog does. Hopefully, he
will offer a "look stay" (attention
with duration) or, better yet, the
dog retains focus and offers another behavior. That is the point; he
will start to think in the presence
of his triggers. I find that asking
the dog to perform a specific task
like giving him a cue or command
in the face of a trigger, adds an
element of pressure. The dog
usually shirks away or will not respond because there is something
bothering him and he cannot possibly think. When you remove that
pressure by playing a predictable
game, the dog often starts to be
able to think on his own.
The other pattern games discussed and demonstrated in Leslie's DVD are:
Treat game: This an· 1-2-3 no-pressure gameisthat
other

helps elicit orienting to the
handler. The handler takes
three steps, stops, and gives
the dog a treat. Dogs quickly
figure out that the handler
stops every third step to give
them a treat. The dog starts to
look at the handler on the third
step, expecting a treat.

Pong game: This is
· PingDown game, but the the Up
and
treat
is rolled away from the handler
so that the dog needs to turn
and orient back to the handler
Clean Run | October 14

Clean Run - October 2014

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