Clean Run - October 2019 - 34

Remember that the turn a dog can do from a standstill will be very hard for him to replicate when
he's approaching at speed. It's also well to remember that unless your dog can accelerate from a standstill,
there is always a tradeoff between a shorter distance traveled and the amount of speed that's lost
achieving that shorter path.

until you cue him to take his reward,
use this as an area in which you will
stop and play with or feed your dog.
Be careful with it, as dogs quickly
pick up areas of reward. Also, always
remember that a send should be rewarded at or beyond where the dog
was sent to. Elsewhere, reward at the
end of the sequence. Make sure that
you pay attention to the reward and
focus on your dog. If you're feeding,
do it more than once. If you're playing,
have a real game. Your dog is working
for his reward. Make it worthwhile!
Figure 1: We start at the beginning
with one jump. Revisit your cues; think
about your handling. If you can always
be there for your dog, go you! If not,
make sure that whilst the reinforcement
is there, you use the opportunity to
generalize your cues across all the physical positions you're likely to use. When
you're working with some distance into
the turn, pay special attention to your
collection cues.
Figure 2: Still with one jump, work the
discrimination. Agility is in the main a
three-way discrimination: go, turn left,
and turn right. If your dog jumps long,
it will be very hard for him to make a
nice turn. Conversely, if your dog always
jumps short prepared for a turn, you'll
waste a lot of time on course. So, practice the cues that tell your dog to jump
long or jump and land close to the wing.
Figure 3: We bring in a tunnel to move
the reward away from the jump. Spend
some time and make sure that both
you and your dog are fluent with your
chosen cues. Vary your position; chal-

lenge yourself! The diagram shows a
fairly loose wing wrap; many dogs find
turns, especially tight turns demoralizing, so we allow young dogs a little
more room as we want this to be rewarding for them.
Figure 4: Another jump is added to
test the discrimination. Start with
the jump some distance away. The
tunnel is there as a clear target and
to encourage drive out of the wrap.
Gradually bring the jump in until the
gap is a little closer than you're likely
to see in competition. Once your dog
is confident, move the jump back out
to a sensible distance, and work the
discrimination. Sometimes cue the
180 turn, sometimes work the wing
wrap. Keep going until you are both
fluent with the concept. Remember,
you want to be able to do this at speed
and at a distance too. No matter how
far away you are, always support your
dog's expected path with your body
language: feet, hips, shoulders, and
eyes facing the next obstacle.
Figure 5: Now, we add some speed
into the wrap. Keep calm and remember that your dog has excellent hearing. Raised voices are often the cause
of the stress that leads to the displacement activity you see from many dogs
when they're asked for a turn. Think
about the timing of your cues and remember that your dog needs to jump
short to make the turn.
Figure 6: Layout for the exercises that
follow.

Figure 8: Longer, simple sequences.
Work every inch of each sequence, no
matter how simple. These are set to
help vary the length of sequences for
young dogs. It gives you the opportunity to get into the habit of paying
attention to detail. Handle proactively,
driving your dog to where he needs
to be. Never under any circumstances
aimlessly blast a dog around a course
of his choosing; you need to be actively giving information.
Figure 9: Here, we add more wing
wraps to a single sequence.
Figure 10: This is a nice example of
a sequence in which the ability to
handle turns from a distance is very
useful-not essential-but useful. For
many people, the ability to stay calm
is closely linked to how fast they feel
they need to move. Staying calm is a
big help to most young dogs!
Figure 11: Now we move the wing
wraps away from the tunnel. Remember your cues and timing. Many young
dogs come out fast and confident. By
their second season, they're much slower and warier. This is generally directly
related to the timing of cues. Too much
late information and a sensible dog will
slow to the point where they can make
a turn no matter how late your cues are.
Confidence is often knocked by unkind
responses to mistakes; for a sensitive
dog, just a slump of their handler's
shoulders is enough. Watch your dog
closely. Is he excited when you set him
up? If not, why not? D

Figure 7: The same as Figure 5. but with
an extra jump added as a distraction.

I started agility training and competition in the late 1980's, about the same time I started clicker training, and have also competed in working trials and obedience.
After all these years, I still think agility is the best of all dog sports for both dogs and handlers, and clicker training is the best way to teach it. I am a positive trainer
because reward builds behavior so much faster and better than any other method. If the solution to a problem is going to upset my dog, it clearly isn't the right solution.
I thoroughly enjoy training my dogs and teaching others. Over the years I've been privileged to teach all over the world, from Australia to Japan, and across North
America and Europe. I have worked with many talented handlers and thoroughly enjoyed every moment. Contact me via my website at www.kissagility.com or via my
Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/KISSagility.
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Clean Run | October 19

http://www.kissagility.com https://www.facebook.com/KISSagility

Clean Run - October 2019

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