Sharky's diary chapter 6 - written February 2008

Last month we were very fortunate in having Greg and Laura Derrett doing seminars in NZ. I did Laura’s puppy seminar with Sharky and found it to be very valuable. Following are some of the extra things that I learnt from Laura that I have not already covered in a previous article

It’s yer choice – idea of this is for dog to learn control, and to ignore toys/food unless you say it is ok to get it. Start with a closed fist full of tasty treats with hand in front of dog. Dog will usually use their nose and paw to try and prise treats out, but keep fist closed. When dog backs off, then give the treat from your other hand. After a couple of times of this, you may be able to hold your hand open with food showing, if dog comes to get food, then close hand. Dog will quickly realise that to get food, he has to make a choice to leave it, and it is then your choice to give it to him. You can graduate to placing bits of food on the ground around your dog, without him helping himself. This can be very handy when training with food or toys around, as your dog will realise that he can only get them once you say so. Some dogs can take a while to get this, but as long as you are patient and consistent it can pay huge rewards later.

Reinforce nose touches – I have only been doing these around my stairs for my contact training lately, but when I did the standard nose touch on the day of the seminar, realised that I hadn’t been reinforcing it enough because Sharky’s nose touch was pathetic. Since then I have concentrated on using the nose touch on my hand to get Sharky into position before doing my ladder work, always treating for a good hard touch, and he is now a lot better. I had Sharky neutered a few weeks ago, and he was extremely sore, but still wanted to be working, so I just did heaps of nose touches which made him use his brain, but not his sore back end. Laura suggested doing nose touches with a full bowl of food beside the dog, then also reinforcing the “it’s yer choice” game.

Restrained recalls – these are great games for getting your dog worked up about getting back to you. Get a friend (or if you don’t have any, the nearest person that you can find!) to hold your dog, walk away from dog holding a toy in front of you, then when friend lets dogs go, run away as fast as you can. Dog should run to catch up, when it does play tug with the toy you are holding. You can play many variations of this game – run away from dog, but when you decelerate, dog should also slow down. If stationery when dog is let loose, then he should stop when he gets to you, and look for the toy. Can also throw another toy forward as a decoy, dog should still stop when gets to you and play with toy you are holding. All of this enforces the value that your dog gets from playing with you, and should be heaps of fun for both of you.

Reinforcing release cue – although Sharky knows his release cue is “tack”, in some situations I can say “tack” and he looks at me as if to say “are you sure”, “is that really my release word?” Then I know that I haven’t been reinforcing it enough. I try and do this often by playing with toys in the backyard, releasing him to eat etc, but sometimes it is not enough. Then I need to have a concentrated session on rewarding him for releasing on “tack”. I can do this by having him sit, then when I say “tack” and he gets up, I click and treat for the movement. If I do this a few times, he is very quick to release because he wants the treat.

My articles might be getting a bit boring talking about control, release commands etc, but it is so important that you have this basic focus before you get anywhere near agility equipment. If you do not have this, then spend a few weeks playing round with your dog teaching these basic skills, and I would be sure that your future agility training will be more successful than it would have otherwise been.

So back to what I am training at present. Sharky is now 11 months old, and I have not done any training on jumps, weaves or contact equipment. But, as soon as I think he is old enough, I will be able to train him very quickly because I have very good basic control and focus. His contact training on stairs is going very well, and I have begun to fade out his nose target.

Following are 2 photos of Sharky on his stairs, and you can see the behaviour that I am expecting – regardless of where I am, he should be facing ahead, 2 feet on stair, 2 feet on grass, doing multiple nose touches on his target. Again, I have taken these photos while at home by myself (not having friends, or passersby to hassle!) so Sharky has been offering this behaviour while I have been to the side and front trying to get a pic at the right time. These stairs were made specifically for training this behaviour and I have been lucky enough to borrow them from Nana Neilson who has a vested interest in the training of her grandson! Prior to having these, I did use the steps on my back porch which would have worked as well. To start with, I put Sharky on the bottom step and asked for one step down with a nose touch on target. I graduated to driving down 3 steps to the target over a long period of time then moved back to only one step when I first started fading the target. I expected the same behaviour when I faded the target – hard multiple nose touches on the ground – but tended to reward a lot, often with only one touch rather than waiting for 4 or 5. I try and be in different positions – beside the stairs, running forward, and also releasing him from top of stairs while I stay behind. The idea of this is to encourage Sharky to be comfortable driving into position while he is in front of me. I also have been a bit more dedicated in taking my travel plank to shows so I can train in different places.

I also am currently training on cavaletti, front crosses round poles, restrained recalls, crate games, and circlework.

I will explain circlework in the next article and the value of this ,as well as discussing the different ways of teaching weaves. I have decide to teach weaves using weave-a-matics, partially because I think it will suit Sharky, and partly because it is a method that I have not used before, so am keen to try it out.