Clean Run - December 2017 - 26

Walk-Back

Heelwork

After the previous month's melt down
from Shady and with equipment training
looming on the horizon, I wanted to get
his walk-back firmly established. Up until
now, he could walk backward if I stepped
into him, but it wasn't a clearly understood behavior. The aim was to give one
cue and get at least six paces backward.

Shady's heelwork was coming along
nicely at this stage. We added left about
turns in, initially on his little stool, but
we faded that gradually. It's noticeable
that he's starting to find his balance
and is starting to pay close attention for
gradually increasing periods of time. At
home he can concentrate for a good 3
minutes. Out and about it's more like 30
seconds, but we're improving.

Of all the exercises I've tried, the walkback is the one that I've found most
helps with rear-foot awareness. Shady
got the idea quickly and was soon backing up across the room. I used some folded packing paper as a rear-foot target
for him, which not only made a sound
as he touched it, but also (hopefully!) felt
different. He soon started reaching for
his target with his back foot which was
what I was looking for. I made a note
that Shady always leads with his nearside hind leg, and to make sure we work
turns to the right to help with balance.
Dexi loves to scoot backward so for him
this training was fun, Darcey also loved
having a tactile target to walk back to
and was soon happily walking backward.
Darcey being happy makes training her so
much fun. I have to be careful to balance
introducing new behaviors with the fun of
rewarding her for something she enjoys.
In amongst the setup for walk-back (plastic
packing boxes forming a channel against
our windows), I decided that Shady could
learn a down-stay whilst I worked his sire,
Tyzer. So I placed Shady in a down and rewarded him every 2 seconds. From there
I gradually increased the time between
rewards until he could hold his down-stay
for a count of 30. I then introduced Tyzer
as a distraction. As Tyzer walked back, I
threw rewards to Shade, beginning every
2 seconds and gradually increasing the
interval until we were back to 30 seconds,
with the proviso that if Tyzer got rewarded
Shady did too. If Shady moved I stopped
what I was doing and gently replaced him
without comment. Tyzer has no need to
rehearse walking backward as this is a skill
he mastered early in his training and he's
also used to other dogs being rewarded
whilst he's working because of all the foster dogs we've trained. Shady cottoned
on quickly. This is not only useful as an
exercise in self-control; it saves time when
training because you can work with two
dogs at once.
26

Heelwork is my favorite go-to behavior
if I start to lose him as he finds it easier
to pay attention when he's moving as
opposed to being stationary. In other
words, you can't do heelwork whilst
watching a dog/bird/tractor going by,
but you can offer hand touches, paw
whacks, and a down with your eye on
the distractions.

give a Paw
Having the dog offer me his paw is a nice
shoulder-strengthening exercise, reiterated by the course I did. We initially work
from a sit, then from a stand. This is done
on a table or the floor. I had enormous
trouble with this trick because my right
hand and wrist aren't strong enough to
deal with Shady slapping those giant
shovels he has for paws into my hand.
I dealt with it by teaching a paw target
on the ground and then raising the target onto a box. I then went for duration
as opposed to the slap. Once Shady realized he had to hold his paw up for a
count of 3, the hit became gentler and
I then transferred it onto my hand. He
likes this. It is also one of Dexi's favorite
tricks. Darcey was predictably horrified
by the thought of anyone touching her

paws, so she was taught a paw lift into
thin air. We shaped this fully and she's
quite happy with it.
When the dog offers the paw from a
stand it also challenges the dog's balance which is a good core strengthening
exercise. You can increase the challenge
of the core workout by having the dog
stand on an unstable surface; however,
it will be a while before I'm happy to
work Shady on unstable surfaces in either a sit or a down.
I'm not at all concerned with core
strength for Dexi and Darcey as they're
both obviously well-muscled and are
older than Shady. Strength training is a
general part of their routine.

Fold-Back Down
Shady measures 24" to the shoulder and
is 27" long, measured from the breast
bone to the tail bone. He is very lean
at the moment. Agility requires a lot of
bending and twisting, and those bends
are asked for at speed, which does concern me for a dog of Shady's size. Today's courses in the UK with their endless "round the back" are designed for a
small, lightly built dog, which certainly
doesn't describe Shade. So, before we
teach jumping of any description I want
to be sure that he has the musculature
needed to perform the skills.
A basic exercise is a fold-back down and
then a stand done slowly. Shady has the
fold-back down, but lacks the strength
to move into a stand from that down
without movement. This is something
I'm working on gently, little by little.

Having Shady dog offer me his paw is a nice shoulder-strengthening exercise.

Clean Run | December 17

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run - December 2017