Clean Run Magazine - December 2007 - 34

Trainer’s Forum By Brenna Fender Tinna Brown First, I would try to ﬁgure out exactly what is causing him stress, what signals he is giving, and what types of environments feed, reduce, or eliminate his stress. On Talking Terms with Dogs: Calming Signals by Turid Rugaas is a good guide for helping us to identify the signals our dogs are giving us if they are stressed (snifﬁng, scratching, ears down, and so on) and lists some possible reasons for stress as well. Next, you will need to do some research and explore the competition environment: • Take him to the competition to watch. If this creates stress, start by going to a different class, run-through, or match. • Sit with him and then walk him around the competition site. • Play with him at the site (Frisbee, fetch, shadow handling, and so on). • Try some obedience maneuvers or tricks at the site (stays, restrained recalls if possible, lefts and rights, high-ﬁves, and so on). My dog is sensitive to stress and the environment. I need suggestions for prooﬁng him for competition. Tinna lives in New Jersey with her three dogs, MACH2 ADCH Calabria, ADCH Frazzle MX, MXJ, TM-S, and Stomp OA, NAJ, AD. Currently, Tinna and “Friends of Frazzle” are busy raising funds for canine epilepsy research and collecting blood samples to “Seize the Gene.” (http://www.dizzydogs.com/bracelets.htm) • Make the competition experience a rewarding one by using favorite reinforcers. All these steps can help him become desensitized to the possible stress of the competition environment. You are not competing; you’re just visiting and having some fun with your dog. During this time, you need to make sure he is not stressed at all and you will most likely need to go to a few competitions just to be certain. After several times, he should begin to get excited about going to a competition since you are just playing with him. If you are successful with exploring the competition environment, try entering a match or going to a few run-throughs. Remember, in these situations it is most important to make sure that your dog is not stressed; don’t worry too much about the courses and trying to run clean. You have already desensitized your dog to the environment, but if something happens, you will need to act quickly and redirect his stress; Angelica Steinker Angelica, owner and operator of Courteous Canine, Inc. in Lutz, Florida, is the author of both Agility Success, a book on the mental training aspects of agility, and a new book, Click and Play Agility on clicker training agility. Visit her website at www.AngelicaSteinker.com. M.Ed., CDBC I think there are two issues here: reducing your dog’s stress and playing prooﬁng games. To reduce your dog’s stress evaluate what is causing the stress. Avoid the things that cause your dog stress as much as possible. When I started in agility, I competed with Jack Russell Terriers. One of them got very stressed if I crated him anywhere but in my car. So I reduced his stress by crating him in my car and keeping his crate covered so he could not see things that got him, pardon the pun, all jacked up. I tried to do what I could to assist him with relaxing his body. There are many available options to help your dog reduce stress. 34 If your dog is stressed by seeing other dogs, try the calming cap (www.gentleleader.com). The calming cap is made of soft fabric and it pulls over your dog’s head and eyes. Dogs can still see with a calming cap on but they can’t see as well. Because the cap removes detail from their vision it can be a great tool to help a dog feel comfortable in an agility trial environment. Another fabulous resource is Leslie McDevitt’s new book, Control Unleashed. The book explains in wonderful detail the many things you can do to help a stressed dog feel better in a trial environment. Leslie teaches readers to get in tune with their dogs by monitoring their dogs’ breathing, eye-blink rates, and level of muscle relaxation. There are many great ideas in this book, including games to help reduce a dog’s stress. Evaluate your own stress and work to reduce it. Find ways to have fun because that helps your dog have more fun. Surround yourself with fun people who want you and your dog to succeed. Some coaches don’t enjoy working with a stressed dog, but many do, so train with one that does. Locate any tension in your own muscles. Work to loosen that part of your body by mentally focusing on each body part. Tighten the muscles as hard as you can and then release them. Monitor your own breathing because holding your breath can trigger stress in some dogs. Monitor your tone of voice and use the one that your dog likes best. Be aware that your facial expression can trigger stress in your dog. I use both smiles and serious facial expressions during training so if I get intense about something my dog is less likely to become stressed over the change in my demeanor. Proofing is both a science and an art. I believe in overpreparing dogs for what they will see in the agility ring. This means that I create prooﬁng games that are ultimately challenging simply to give my dog and myself a boost of conﬁdence. In light of that, I suggest you create a nightmare proof. In your worst nightmare what would be happening? For my Jack Russell the worst nightmare would have been squirrels on the agility field. And conveniently I had squirrels in the trees next to my agility ﬁeld. I taught my terrier that if he ignored the squirrels, he could then chase the squirrels when I cued him. This worked great. We would run a course and Clean Run | December 07

http://www.dizzydogs.com/bracelets.htm http://www.gentleleader.com http://www.AngelicaSteinker.com

Clean Run Magazine - December 2007

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run Magazine - December 2007