Clean Run Magazine - June 2009 - 65

chances of the dog cutting across the tunnel to get to the cookie? Probably pretty high, especially if he hasn’t really been taught to drive through the tunnel at speed. So if he cheats, it tells you that he’s fixated on the target and not on the obstacle. The dog is choosing to make the target his goal because he doesn’t understand the job you’re asking him to do. Along with the target, you should also be using your voice, praise, a clicker, hand cues—whatever it takes to mark the behavior you want. When you release your dog to the tunnel, don’t wait until he’s through the tunnel heading to the target to praise him. Praise him the moment he locks in on the tunnel and moves toward it—that’s the point where you say Good Job, Good Dog.” If you find your dog cheats, this should be your clue something is wrong and you should step in. For instance, if your dog can’t go through an L-shaped tunnel without cutting the corner and going directly to the target, then change the shape of the tunnel so the dog can recognize what you’re trying to teach. When your dog cheats, shorten the sequence or try changing it until he’s successful. Uh-oh, Is My Dog Just Going to Pattern Train? Yes, if you don’t change the position of the target frequently, Stuart says. The longer you leave the target in the same position, the harder it becomes for the dog to understand the concept of driving ahead. He’ll look for his cookie where it used to be, not where it is now. So be creative. While you’re varying the dog’s distance from the obstacles, also move the target’s position, forward, backward, off to either side. The dog will quickly learn that as long as you’re telling him to Go On, he needs to keep driving forward. Each time the dog is successful, you can change the sequence to make it a little harder, but not so hard that the picture changes completely. As the dog begins to understand that targets can move farther away, Stuart suggests putting an obstacle (such as a jump) at the other end before the dog reaches the target. So if the dog is doing a jump to a tunnel, the next step would be going through the tunnel to a jump on the other side of the tunnel before he reaches the target. You might also increase the distance on the front end, so instead of going 10' to the tunnel, the dog has to go 15' to the tunnel. The next session, add a jump so he’s going 15' away to a jump, then to the tunnel, and so on. Using Multiple Targets Once your dog understands targets and can switch smoothly back and forth from handler focus to obstacle focus on cue, Stuart recommends adding a second target to your training program. Stuart explains, “Multiple targets keep dogs from ‘hanging’ on the target. Dogs catch on pretty fast; so if they get to a target and there’s no cookie on it, they say hey, there was a cookie here last time, and they just don’t move. They’re totally convinced there’s a cookie there somewhere, and they’ll June 09 | Clean Run sniff the ground forever looking for it. But teaching your dog to go to a secondary target eliminates this problem.” To illustrate his point, Stuart uses his favorite analogy: “If I put a $100 bill on the same part of the agility field each day, then everybody would gravitate toward that part of the field. There would be no reason for them to go anywhere else. On the other hand, if I started dropping $100 bills all over the field, people would start running out there as fast as they could to find them. Nobody would stay in the same spot. They’d shove each other out of the way to get to where the rewards are. Using targets in random places along a course keeps your dog motivated because he never knows where the next one might be. Let’s say you want your dog to do a jump/ jump/tunnel sequence. The tunnel is curved, and there are two more jumps after the tunnel. If you put a cookie target out at the exit of the tunnel or at the bottom of the dogwalk, the dog will naturally assume that’s the end of the exercise. But if you ask him to keep going by adding another target later on, he’ll continue driving forward to find it.” Training multiple targets is easy if your dog is already solid in his single-target training. Start with a baited target on the ground 3' or 4' from your dog. Send your dog to it several times (varying the distance). Then add a second target a few more feet farther out from the first one. Release your dog to the first target, and as soon as he gets his cookie, release him to the second target. (You may have to show him at first if he doesn’t understand.) As you increase the distance between targets, you can add obstacles, and your dog soon learns that he can have a reward for doing the first obstacles; but if he keeps going, he’ll get a second reward as well. Explains Stuart, “This keeps the dog moving forward in obstacle focus instead of inadvertently shifting back into handler focus as soon as he gets to the first target.” 65

Clean Run Magazine - June 2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run Magazine - June 2009