Clean Run - October 2015 - 11

Always keep in mind our immediate goal is to give our dogs the most
fantastic reward we can for their behaviors. This means that although we
may want our dogs to retrieve the toy
or open it themselves, at the moment
that is irrelevant. You can work on
building that skill away from the agility
equipment. Right now we just need
to work on adding incredible value to
whatever behavior the dog has just
given us, which means we want as
little lag time in the reward delivery as
possible. So throw that toy hard, run
up to it with your dog, immediately
rip it open, and celebrate!

Unless I need to get major distance out
of a throw, in which case I will throw
the toy like a baseball, I mostly throw
my toys in the same way I would skim
a rock across water-sidearm. By using
this technique I can flick the toy out
fast and forward with little or no wind
up, which means timing my throw is
simpler. Ideally I want the toy to skim
across the ground and be fast and exciting. It does not need to go far. I want
to avoid slamming it into the ground
or tossing it skyward so that it gently
hits the ground. (This is probably not
politically correct, but don't throw like
a girl! Being a girl I can say that.)

Keep the Whole Session in Mind
from Start to Finish
After you finish rewarding your dog for
a behavior, your session hasn't ended.
Be sure you maintain your connection
with the dog all the way back to your
crate or to the point you will be resuming
your drill. This can entail tugging, informal energetic heeling for treats, or
anything else that allows you to maintain attention and connection.
Improving your session work is not only
about reward delivery. Our dogs are always learning and are affected by what
we do, at all times. Therefore, although
you may have just given your dog the
best reward of his life, if you disconnect
from your dog to talk to a friend or an
instructor, or if your dog finishes his
reward and heads for the hills (sniffing
as he goes), the value of your training
session just took a huge hit.
Think about your training session in terms
of a beginning, middle, and an end. Your
goal is to have a successful session from
the moment you call your dog out to
work until the moment you put him
away. Management is the key to that.

Plan the timing of your throw to accomplish your goal. For the most part
I want to reward the dog while he is
running forward, shooting the toy
forward in front of him so he can continue right after it. I want to avoid the
late throw or the errant throw, because
for maximum effectiveness I want to
capture and continue the behavior
I like rather than causing the dog to
check in with me.

How to Throw a Toy for Maximum
Effectiveness

If your first reaction to my toy throw
suggestion is that you can't do it and
you're terrible at throwing, then guess
what? Practice! I have a lime tree in my
backyard and I have students practice
chucking limes at my fence until they
feel good about their mechanical skills
or until I run out of limes.

Whether you are throwing a ball, a tug
toy, or a treat-filled toy, the dynamics of
your toy delivery have a huge impact on
how effective your reward will be. If your
throw is dynamic and exciting, your dog
will run hard to chase it down. If your
throw is lackluster, your dog might not
chase after it at all. You want a compelling
throw rather than a boring one.

Rewarding well is definitely a mechanical skill and there are many facets to
mechanics. Although it may seem
tedious, practicing throw accuracy to
improve your timing and finesse can
make the difference between building mediocre behaviors or brilliant
behaviors. I have turned some moderate speed dogs into impressively fast

October 15 | Clean Run

dogs, just by changing the dynamics
of thrown toys.
Improving Your Hand Delivered
Rewards
There are times to use thrown rewards
and times to deliver rewards from your
hand. To maximize the effectiveness
of all your training, you want to be
thoughtful about your choices. When
I want a dog to power away from me
confidently or when I am rewarding
a distance behavior (or occasionally
when I am rewarding a controlled
behavior from a distance), I will use
a thrown toy. If my dog is near me,
or I want to add value to a controlled
behavior, or I want to build value for a
specific part of a behavior, I will reward
out of my hand.
I feel the tug toy is our best possible
tool for this; however, if your dog doesn't
love tugging, it is not the tool to use during your agility training, at this moment.
In part 2 of this article, I am going to
give you techniques to improve your
toy play as well as more techniques for
improving the value of your dog's food
rewards. But when using a reinforcer
to reward agility behaviors, use what
your dog will love at this moment.
Strengthen the tool you would eventually like to use away from agility in
separate training sessions.
Now we are going to take a reward
your dog already likes and elevate it.
The first thing to consider is that allimportant energy level. If you are not
being fun and full of energy when you
are training, you are already making
success very difficult. I am actually a
low energy person myself, but when I
take that 30 seconds or 60 seconds to
engage my dog in a training session,
I put everything I have into it. "Quality
not quantity" is another phrase I live by.
I would rather do 45 seconds of brilliant
training than 5 minutes of mediocre or
even just "good" training. If I am constantly training for high drive and brilliance, and that is all my dogs practice
and experience, then that is all they will
know. It will eventually become a way
of being rather than something I need
to work for constantly.
When I reward out of my hand, especially
with treats, it is of utmost importance that
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Clean Run - October 2015

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