Sharky, Nemo, Stevie and Pac having a great time
Friday, June 27, 2008
Sharky's Diary Chapter Three - Written November 2007
So, you think you have good food and play drive, a reliable wait, and your dog offering behaviours? Then it might just be time to think about how to train contact equipment.
There are many different options as to what you can train. A common method used currently is the two on two off behaviour – 2o2o. The idea is for the dog to have the front feet on the ground and the back feet still on the contact equipment with a stop until you release him. This is the method that I currently use with Cannon and it has been quite effective. My intention is to teach Sharky this method as well, but I want to go further with him and teach a constant head position ie so he looks forward when in the 2o2o position rather than turning his head around to look at me.
Other options include 1rto (1 rear toe on, supposed to be easier for the dog to reach that position), 4 on the floor (dog lying on ground just beyond the contact, also easier on dog’s body), running contact (a method taught by using a touch it board), and the most popular method at present, telling the dog to walk on, then running to the end of the contact and screaming your particular preferred words - grass, spot, wait, stop, by crikey dicky, you just wait there you @#$&, or in some cases just unleashing an unholy yell and see where that gets you! Now that might sound funny, but if you get to watch an entire class of dogs (which you do if you are lucky enough to be judging them), in an intermediate class there might be at least 50% of handlers who use the 4th option. And surprise surprise, it really is not that effective.
With Cannon, I taught the contact behaviour well, then got a bit carried away in the ring for a while and found myself saying “grass, wait bob”. Seemed logical at the time – grass was 2o2o command, then I wanted him to wait there, and then I wanted him to bob his head. The bob was because if he did not descend the a-frame with his head lowered, he found it hard to balance with some of the slippery painted ones that we are fortunate not to see anymore. When I heard this on video I thought “how ridiculous” and stopped saying anything except “go go go” because I figured that Cannon did really know what he should be doing our problem was me confusing him in the ring. Our contacts then went back to being very reliable again. At home I do a lot of clicking and reinforcing him for the 2o2o behaviour.
My intention with Sharky is to teach the 2o2o behaviour really well, and then not require a particular word to command that behaviour; he will just assume that position until I release him from it. At this stage I am going to teach him to nose target while in the 2o2o, expecting multiple nose touches until I release him. There are several benefits of having a nose touch as well as a 2o2o:
• by giving the dog a job with his nose, he cannot be twisting his head around to try and locate his handler – much easier on the dog’s body
• the dogs weight is then transferred to his hind end, as he cannot maintain his balance with head down and weight on front
• the nose touch should add speed as a dog cannot run as fast looking sideways as it can looking straight ahead
• dog can be released straight ahead from the contact with a lot of drive if he is already pointing in the direction where he is going
So, how to teach it – based on the method developed by Susan Garrett………
To teach the nose touch, I used a round plexi-glass target (like most training tools, very easy to order from www.cleanrun.com). I started teaching a nose target on my hand, and clicking for a very hard touch (should have a nose wrinkle). Once I had a solid touch, then I started holding the target in my hand, and over time lowering it to the floor. I only clicked for a hard touch (with nose wrinkle), and to start with, I kept the target in my hand so I could judge how hard the touch was. Once Sharky was confidently nose tapping, then I withheld the reward after the first nose tap, and he then tapped again. By doing this, I built the behaviour so he is offered multiple nose taps.
It is easy to rush to the next stage, but if you are starting with a 7 week old puppy doing this sort of work, then you have oodles of time to ensure that you get the exact behaviour before you move on. Once you have a solid touch, then you can put the target on the ground. The idea is not to get your dog to run to the target, but to be stationary with the front paws not moving.
To teach the 2o2o I started teaching as per last month’s article with a small stool or perch. Sharky has been happy offering a 2o2o position on most obstacles I put him front of him for several months. Now that he has a solid nose touch on his target, I started moving him to my stairs. Ideally you would have a set of stairs constructed with 4 to 5 steps up each side, and a table top in the middle to use for your contact training. This will not look anything like the contact obstacles, and means that any mistakes will not later be associated with real contact equipment. But, if you don’t have a friendly handyman around, you can start off using steps around the house. I have 2 steps to my deck which I am using at present. I started rewarding Sharky in the 2o2o position, and checking that he still understood his release command in that position. Then I moved on so that he was on the bottom step with the target on the grass. Ideally he should have his head down focusing on the target so that when I give him the command “nose” he drives into the 2o2o position with multiple nose taps until I release him. The first nose tap is the critical one – it should be a hard tap with a nose wrinkle for a reward.
When away from your own house and stairs, you can use a travel plank to practise similar exercises. It is named for its portability, and I should be taking it to all shows with me to encourage me to train it regularly! Following is a photo of Sharky on his travel plank, and as you can see it should be fairly easy to construct. The idea of the travel plank is not to get the dog to run the length of it and stop, it is more for him to jump on from the side and then into the 2o2o at the end of the plank.
Next month I will continue with tips related to this method of training contacts, and also talk about some of the pitfalls that I have already encountered.
Fiona Ferrar
There are many different options as to what you can train. A common method used currently is the two on two off behaviour – 2o2o. The idea is for the dog to have the front feet on the ground and the back feet still on the contact equipment with a stop until you release him. This is the method that I currently use with Cannon and it has been quite effective. My intention is to teach Sharky this method as well, but I want to go further with him and teach a constant head position ie so he looks forward when in the 2o2o position rather than turning his head around to look at me.
Other options include 1rto (1 rear toe on, supposed to be easier for the dog to reach that position), 4 on the floor (dog lying on ground just beyond the contact, also easier on dog’s body), running contact (a method taught by using a touch it board), and the most popular method at present, telling the dog to walk on, then running to the end of the contact and screaming your particular preferred words - grass, spot, wait, stop, by crikey dicky, you just wait there you @#$&, or in some cases just unleashing an unholy yell and see where that gets you! Now that might sound funny, but if you get to watch an entire class of dogs (which you do if you are lucky enough to be judging them), in an intermediate class there might be at least 50% of handlers who use the 4th option. And surprise surprise, it really is not that effective.
With Cannon, I taught the contact behaviour well, then got a bit carried away in the ring for a while and found myself saying “grass, wait bob”. Seemed logical at the time – grass was 2o2o command, then I wanted him to wait there, and then I wanted him to bob his head. The bob was because if he did not descend the a-frame with his head lowered, he found it hard to balance with some of the slippery painted ones that we are fortunate not to see anymore. When I heard this on video I thought “how ridiculous” and stopped saying anything except “go go go” because I figured that Cannon did really know what he should be doing our problem was me confusing him in the ring. Our contacts then went back to being very reliable again. At home I do a lot of clicking and reinforcing him for the 2o2o behaviour.
My intention with Sharky is to teach the 2o2o behaviour really well, and then not require a particular word to command that behaviour; he will just assume that position until I release him from it. At this stage I am going to teach him to nose target while in the 2o2o, expecting multiple nose touches until I release him. There are several benefits of having a nose touch as well as a 2o2o:
• by giving the dog a job with his nose, he cannot be twisting his head around to try and locate his handler – much easier on the dog’s body
• the dogs weight is then transferred to his hind end, as he cannot maintain his balance with head down and weight on front
• the nose touch should add speed as a dog cannot run as fast looking sideways as it can looking straight ahead
• dog can be released straight ahead from the contact with a lot of drive if he is already pointing in the direction where he is going
So, how to teach it – based on the method developed by Susan Garrett………
To teach the nose touch, I used a round plexi-glass target (like most training tools, very easy to order from www.cleanrun.com). I started teaching a nose target on my hand, and clicking for a very hard touch (should have a nose wrinkle). Once I had a solid touch, then I started holding the target in my hand, and over time lowering it to the floor. I only clicked for a hard touch (with nose wrinkle), and to start with, I kept the target in my hand so I could judge how hard the touch was. Once Sharky was confidently nose tapping, then I withheld the reward after the first nose tap, and he then tapped again. By doing this, I built the behaviour so he is offered multiple nose taps.
It is easy to rush to the next stage, but if you are starting with a 7 week old puppy doing this sort of work, then you have oodles of time to ensure that you get the exact behaviour before you move on. Once you have a solid touch, then you can put the target on the ground. The idea is not to get your dog to run to the target, but to be stationary with the front paws not moving.
To teach the 2o2o I started teaching as per last month’s article with a small stool or perch. Sharky has been happy offering a 2o2o position on most obstacles I put him front of him for several months. Now that he has a solid nose touch on his target, I started moving him to my stairs. Ideally you would have a set of stairs constructed with 4 to 5 steps up each side, and a table top in the middle to use for your contact training. This will not look anything like the contact obstacles, and means that any mistakes will not later be associated with real contact equipment. But, if you don’t have a friendly handyman around, you can start off using steps around the house. I have 2 steps to my deck which I am using at present. I started rewarding Sharky in the 2o2o position, and checking that he still understood his release command in that position. Then I moved on so that he was on the bottom step with the target on the grass. Ideally he should have his head down focusing on the target so that when I give him the command “nose” he drives into the 2o2o position with multiple nose taps until I release him. The first nose tap is the critical one – it should be a hard tap with a nose wrinkle for a reward.
When away from your own house and stairs, you can use a travel plank to practise similar exercises. It is named for its portability, and I should be taking it to all shows with me to encourage me to train it regularly! Following is a photo of Sharky on his travel plank, and as you can see it should be fairly easy to construct. The idea of the travel plank is not to get the dog to run the length of it and stop, it is more for him to jump on from the side and then into the 2o2o at the end of the plank.
Next month I will continue with tips related to this method of training contacts, and also talk about some of the pitfalls that I have already encountered.
Fiona Ferrar
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
