Sharky's Diary Chapter Five - Written January 2008

Sharky’s Diary – Chapter Five

Well the Christmas break is well and truly past, the first agility show has been and that has given me a bit of a hurry up to think about my training with Sharky. I have been very good over the last week giving him lots of time, so long may that continue!

One thing that I have been doing with Sharky since he was a puppy is concentrating on his rear end awareness. It is much easier for a dog to manoeuvre itself around an agility course if it is aware that it has 4 different legs, and how to make them all work at the same time. This may sound silly – surely a dog knows how to use it’s legs? The easiest way to explain this is to try to walk an adult dog through a ladder lying on the ground, or get them to walk backwards away from you. Many dogs find this difficult as they are not in the habit of lifting their hind legs separately, driving from the front and letting the rear end follow along.

The first step is to get your puppy trotting through a ladder. I used the metal ladder that is in my garage – not the most ideal but seemed to work for Sharky to get the initial idea. A wooden ladder can be a bit easier, and often does not have rungs as high as the metal one. Your dog should trot through with head down looking forward, and should not bunny hop through the ladder, twist his head to look at you, or rush towards the end of the ladder to get the treat.

To get your pup walking through ladder, stand with you on one side, and pup on other. When pup puts feet inside the rungs of the ladder, click and drop a treat within the rungs. Then step across to the other side of the ladder. When pup is happy crossing the ladder, move to one end. When moving from one end to the other, it is good to click which the dog is still within the ladder and drop a treat within the rungs. If you always click and treat at the end of the ladder, you will encourage your dog to rush to the end to get the treat. The idea is to have your dog trotting confidently from one end to the other without rushing. This can be done at an early age as long as you have the attention of your pup. Do not lure your pup through the ladder. He should think about what he is doing, and then offer the behaviour to get the click/treat.

Once your dog is confident on the ladder, you can introduce caveletti work – often used with young horses to encourage balance. The cavaletti are low jumps which can be in a straight line or semi-circle. When your dog is more experienced, you can vary the height and distance to encourage him to watch and think about each step to be taken. Cavaletti can be made out of many things. I started using crushed coke cans placed on bricks with poles balanced on top. Below is a closeup photo of this, as well as Sharky completing them. You can see that even though Sharky is trotting round a slight bend, he has his head down and looks balanced.

Another idea that I saw recently used pool noodles strung together to make a lightweight ladder. This has the benefit that it can be used one way with the rungs very low to the ground, or up the other way the rungs are higher. These noodles can be purchased from The Warehouse and are easy to cut into lengths and tie together. Following is a photo of this, as well as Sharky trotting through them. The fact that I took these photos while at home by myself should give an indication of how happy he is to trot through the cavaletti. You can also purchase small cones and punch holes in the sides to put poles through as another idea or use that good ole Kiwi ingenuity to come up with your own plan. It doesn’t matter what the cavaletti are constructed of, but in general a normal jump pole across the middle is good. Personally I would not use actual agility jumps for this exercise because they are harder to move around and get close enough, and your dog might get a bit confused about whether they should be trotting across or jumpingthem.

I recently attended a seminar on “Maximising Performance of the Canine Athlete” run by Rachel Dellar of Hydropaws (http://www.hydropaws.co.nz/) and Charlotte Rundgren of Dynamic K9's (http://www.dynamick9s.co.nz/) where I got some of these ideas from. There was a lot of information given on this seminar about exercises to improve both the adult dog, and also to start with your puppy. Rachel and Charlotte will be holding another seminar near Hamilton before winter starts and you can contact them through the above web-sites.

In an earlier article I talked about perch work. This is another excellent idea to -encourage rear-end awareness. You should ask the dog to rotate around the perch both ways. It is possible that he may more stiff to work one way than the other. If this is the case, ensure that you work that side more often.

You can also teach your dog to walk backwards away from you. Make sure you reward for baby steps as this can be a hard thing to learn. You want your dog to think about what he is doing rather than walking into him to force him to move away. If you are sitting down, and your dog takes one step backwards, click and throw a treat between his front legs. This means he has to take more steps backwards to get the treat with is further reinforcement. Again you want your dog to move backwards confidently using each leg at a time rather than bunny hopping. Once your dog is able to perform this exercise, you could try and get him to walk backwards up a flight of stairs. This requires very good awareness of the rear-end, and you should ensure that your dog is physically strong enough to do this. Do not overdo this training, and take it just one step at a time (joke?).

Another exercise I have done with Sharky since he was about 5 months old is working around 2 stick in the ground poles. To start this work, I put up the pole, moved Sharky towards it and clicked/treated when he moved around the pole. He quickly learnt that I wanted him to walk around it. Then I was able to move further away and send him around the pole. Once he was confident with that, I added another pole and now send him round one pole then the other. This enables you to practise front crosses with your dog as well as training an “out” command. I don’t always do front crosses, sometimes get him to go round the 2 poles in a circle rather than a figure eight. Sharky loves this exercise, and I mark the finish of it with a “yessss” at which time he hoons towards me to get his tug toy. Without intending to, I have created a huge drive by saying “yes” which I think will be very useful when I start training the weaves. Following is a photos of the poles that I am using – great quality purchased from my local soccer shop for $6 each (photo 1010548). I have just recently found this shop in Hamilton which has a lot of agility equipment for soccer players which can be adapted for dog training. The shop also sells equipment on trade-me (yes I am slightly addicted!).

Thanks to those of you who have given me positive feedback about this article.