Clean Run - December 2019 - 29

Beginning Sequencing
with Tunnel/A-frame Discriminations
By Jo Sermon

This month we look at the A-frame/
tunnel discrimination. Essentially this
is a cue discrimination exercise. Which
begs the question, what is a cue? How
do you teach a cue? A cue is a discriminative stimulus. If that sounds complex
bear with me, this is a complex subject.
If I ask you to sit in a chair next to a tunnel, with your hands under your legs,
your shoulders pressed into the back
of the chair, and your eyes on the sky,
and then give your dog his tunnel cue,
would your dog go and do the tunnel?
Very few people train verbal cues to
that level, and most handlers who
try this exercise are unsuccessful. So,
what's going on? The answer is that the
verbal signal isn't the only discriminative stimulus in play. What does you
sitting down mean to your dog? The
answer varies, but it generally means
we'd like the dog to be quiet; it's a cue
to settle and chill out. It's also something we do every day, so the resulting
association is strong and consistent.
Sitting down is, therefore, likely to over-

ride any other cues, such as the presence of agility equipment.
Your line of sight is another strong
and consistent cue. Dogs use it all day
long to work out where we're heading
so that they can get out of our way or
come with us. Feet, hips, and shoulders
are similarly strong cues that work in
the same way, and they were also removed in this example. The conclusion
that you should draw from this exercise
is that it's rarely one isolated cue that
dogs respond to.
How do you teach a cue? By association. Take the example of drug-detection dogs. They are taught an indication, such as a down, which is heavily
rewarded. The cue-which is the scent
of the relevant drug-is introduced,
and from that point, the dogs will be
rewarded only for giving their indication in the presence of that scent. Dogs
quickly learn that it's rewarding to lie
down when they smell the drug and
off-cue indications (no scent) soon extinguish in the training situation. That's

a simplistic version of the training. The
point is that the cue is a scent. Because
most people are verbally oriented, it's
easy to assume that the most salient
indication to a dog is a verbal cue.
Unfortunately, because we talk all day,
that's rarely the case.
The next point to consider is that because cues are built by association,
they also change over time as new
associations form. Puppies know that
"Come" means come and sit in front as
that's what most puppy classes teach. A
seven-year-old dog will probably have
several interpretations of that cue; at
home, it often means come indoors
after a walk or get into the car, and in
an obedience ring, it means sit in front.
Trainers who have reliable verbal cues
are consistent in both their application
and expectations.
Back to our tunnel/A-frame discrimination. It's time to decide which cues you
want to teach. A lot of this will depend
on which, if any, handling system you
are following. From my perspective,

Clean Run - December 2019

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