L2 Distance - Dog goes out around pole from 2′ away
L3 Distance - Dog goes out around pole from 4′ away

L3 Front - Dog hits center line of front ray diagram at least three out of five times

L2 Handling - Dog allows for handling of feet, tail and ears. Minimal fussing

L2 Leash Manners - Handler stays in one spot. Dog maintains loose leash for one minute.

1. Start to teach “close” - basically, a swing finish into heel position on my right side. (”Side” is my word for this same position on my left, though I don’t think Ellie associates the word with the position yet.)

2. Verify that Ellie understands the “side” position well enough to give it a verbal cue. Apply the verbal cue.

3. Play more crate games. See how far away we can get and still send to the crate successfully. Currently, I can send reliably from about 4 feet, straight in.

4. Work on left pivots and correcting heel position on her own. She’s very close to “getting it”

5. Continue to work on hand targets. Currently the plexiglass is on my hand completely. Work on getting it on the floor without my hand.

7. Work on collar grabs with dinner. Add a few mild ones before playing games - with lots of fun treats.

8. Have fun with the jumps. Make some low ones that she can play around in. Save the purple rubber frisbee for just this game.

9. Bring the step ladder inside and work on trotting through it.

10. LLW, of course.

11. Scootch. Call to front position and then scootch.

12. Find something to use as a perch. This is a job for me.

A few weeks ago, I purchased Greg Derrett’s two training videos, Foundations and Shame About the Handler. I’m now officially in love with Greg’s handling techniques. His foundation work is exactly what I’ve been looking for. I just wish I would have had this video at the beginning of the summer.

Fortunately, fall in Ohio is usually pretty nice, so I still have at least two months of nice outdoor weather. Truthfully, some of the circlework would be fun to work outside in the snow as well.

Jo’s “Teach Your Dog to Turn” (membership required) and “Direction Cues”

So, thinking about left and right directional cues. Jo makes a very good point about pre-planning what the cue will mean when it is delivered. Does “left” mean turn left now or does it mean turn left after the next obstacle. I think the way that I’ve taught Ellie and Katy “left”, it’s definitely a turn left now signal. And it’s definitely a spin. I’m not sure that I can take the spin and adapt it with the same cue to equipment.

SG instructed us to teach the directionals without the spin. The dog needs to be able to head in the right direction without spinning themselves around in a circle. But, if I’m reading Jo’s article correctly (and following Greg’s example), the spin is taught first and then adapted to useful directionals on the equipment. I’m a bit confused about the best way to do this. Though, by teaching Ellie to spin left, and reinforcing it so that it’s become an extremely reliable behavior, I can definitely get her to respond and turn to her left side almost instantaneously. Some more thinking on my part is required.

Greg’s “wait” command is going to be my command of the week. It’s obviously essential to all future exercises and I really like the stand position. I also like the routine of placing the dog in the wait. I may want to shape it - though I wonder if the routine of the physical cues (lifting the dog a bit, then grabbing the scruff) help reinforce the behavior because the cue is so distinct.

Victoria Farrington, Bob Bailey and Gary Wilkes all describe using a NRM (no reward marker) during shaping sessions.

Victoria’s explanation from the agility.uk forum really made it clear for me. Why waste time and energy during a shaping session letting the dog try every trick in the book. A simple NRM will help get the dog on track without a huge amount of handler interference.

I worked one NRM session with each dog today using Bob Bailey’s description. They both caught on right away (Katy was a whiz kid, of course). The only confusion that I have is that Bob seems to indicate that a cue is already in use for the initial hot spot. I’m wondering if the same cue (Sd) is then used for the *new* hotspot. Guess I’ll have to ask the experts…

For the session, I used pyrex refigerator bowls - a green round one and a red square one. I used un-unh as my NRM, but I think I’m going to use “not that”. It’s more concise.

On to the next step with this behavior. I’m asking for a nice, square solid sit. One second count. Nose touch above her head. My hand target is within her reach so she doesn’t have to jump or really even move her body to it. Only her head. Hopefully, I’ll see the slightest bit of weight shift towards her back end.

(note: with new steps in the shaping of this, the original list will have to be redone.)

Session 1 :: Only problem is my sloppy handling. If she sits at an angle, she has a tendency to twist as she reaches for the hand target. I think I want her sitting straight on in front of me. Hmmm. Does that mean going back to shaping the sit and selecting for position. I think I’ll wait until after this next session and watch how bad the twisting is. I’m feeding this behavior in position.

Session 2 :: Patience. She’s doing really well. All I want to see is collection of the back. Keep sessions really short since the handler can’t seem to maintain her criteria for longer than about ten treats.

Next session. Same as before.

Katy hasn’t practiced her skateboard training in awhile.

During the last practice session, she was standing on the skateboard and easily tolerating lots of movement under her feet. Mostly, though, it was moving because of her weight shifts rather than moving because she was actually pushing it. I would like her to push it - moving with her front feet on the skateboard and her back feet on the ground.

Goal for todays first session: Orient the skateboard so that Katy’s body is closer to parallel with the board. Click for solid front feet on the board and a good position (between 12 and 3 o’clock). Any movement of the board is good as well.

Session 1 :: OK. So Katy isn’t clear on where her feet should be on the skateboard. Totally my fault - I never taught her that there was a preferred placement of her feet. The problem is that she tends to walk towards me on the board and ends up on the front, upturned end. And then she pops a wheelie on the board. Which is cute and she doesn’t mind it. But it conflicts with what I want the finished behavior to be.

Next session, she will be clicked for the placement of her front feet. Both feet, anywhere on the flat part of the board. I’ll stabilize the board a little bit so we can focus on the foot placement.

Session 2 :: Much better. I put the skateboard on the pink velour blanket so it didn’t move around too much. I’ll repeat this session a couple of times. After maybe one or two more sessions, I’ll change the criteria to putting her feet anywhere on the flat part except for the one inch before the upturned ends.

Session 3 :: Perfect. She’s getting and is successful at least 80% of the time. Next session, raise the criteria for feet being closer to the center of the board.

Clicker Retrieve
From Deb Jones
with modifications for using a tennis ball in preparation for flyball.

TRAINING STEPS:

I. With tennis ball in your hand, close to you

1. Look at ball
2. Move towards ball
3. Sniff ball
4. Touch w/nose
5. Touch with mouth/teeth
6. Put mouth over ball
7. Close mouth over ball
8. Hold in closed mouth
9. Increase hold duration

II. With ball placed on floor within 3 ft. of you

10. Look at ball
11. Move towards ball
12. Sniff the ball
13. Touch w/ nose
14. Touch w/mouth/teeth
15. Put mouth over ball
16. Close mouth over ball
17. Pick up off of floor
18. Increase vertical distance off floor
19. Turn towards trainer w/ball in mouth
20. Move one step towards trainer
21. Increase number of steps towards trainer
22. Bring ball to trainer

III. Adding distance

23. Place ball four feet away. CT for pick-up
24. CT later & later on return
25. CT when dog reaches handler
26. Keep increasing the distance that the ball is placed away from the handler
27. Yo-yo distances
28. Place ball on a raised surface - like a chair seat, ottomon or overturned laundry basket.
29. Repeat steps 23 through 27 with the ball on a raised surface.

IV. Adding requirements

Retrieve over jump
Proof for send anticipation (stimulus control)
Proof for distractions

Solutions for common problems:

Playing with the object, including keep away: 2 treats/toys, trade, on leash work. Shorter, calmer retrieves. Place object rather than throw it.

Mouthing: size & type of retrieve object. Position of head.

Anticipation: NEVER CORRECT, just don’t reinforce. Reinforce the stay instead.

In class on Saturday, Ellie was off leash and decided to take off and visit some of the other dogs. This is always kind of embaressing, plus, not all of the dogs in the class are necessarily interested in meeting her (though fortunately, they were all tolerant of her).

She seemed to think that running away from me was quite a fun game.

Susan Garrett sets her classes up for this situation in the most excellent way. If your dog runs away, then your job is to leave the building as quickly and inconspicuously as possible. All of the other handlers are aware of the situation and it’s their job to keep their dogs under control. This eliminates the dog getting to enjoy a game of keep away. Plus the dog will hopefully learn that it’s their job to pay attention to the handler - because if they don’t, the handler may just disappear!

Unfortunately, not every class room is as well planned out as Susan’s. So, I decided last night that I have a great way to teach Ellie if I rush towards her and grab her collar it’s a good thing. Everytime I give her any special treats - like frozen bones or licks off of spoons - I’m going to rush towards her, grab her collar and then give her the special treat. She gets the treats anyway - so why not get some great training out of the situation.

I’ll probably also incorporate this into intermittent training sessions. This would be a great game to use with the veal flavored baby food. Sneak up on her, rush in, grab the collar and then let her take a big lick out of the jar.

I’ll also play the same game with Katy.

Have You Washed Your Paws

8. Dog sitting in a solid upright sit, eyes on handler, Click for upright sit - three seconds.

Started with a few clicks just for a quick, straight sit. Then two clicks for a two second sit and then about 8 C/T for a three second sit. She’s ready to go to the next step.

Which is:
7. Dog sitting in a solid upright sit, paws moving off of the ground. Click for either paw anywhere off of the floor or collection of body towards the upright position (straightening of back, backwards lean).

For the first session, I’m going to look for collection of her back - not requiring her feet to come off of the floor. I think there is a good chance that when she doesn’t get the click for the three second sit, she’s going to move out of position and try something else. I want her to know that the next step is a progression from the straight sit. So that she understands she has to stay in the sit to get to the next step. We’ll see how this goes…

Here are the steps that I came up with for “Have you washed your paws”. This list is the second iteration of the steps. As I typed them up from my handwritten notes, I added at least two additional steps.

For each step, the trainer should identify the criteria and then write out exactly what they are going to click for. All with the goal of eliminating the “thinking” that we are tempted to do during the training session.

(1 is the finished behavior, then each prior step proceeds down the list. I would start my training with step 9)

Finished Behavior: 1. Dog sitting back on his hind end, paws up at his eye level, pads facing handler. Holds for three seconds.

2. Dog sitting back on his hind end, paws up at his eye level, pads facing handler. Hits the position, time in position doesn’t matter. Click for feet in position for any amount of time.

3. Dog sitting back on his hind end, paws moving off of the ground and up toward the dog’s eye level. Click for paws above chest level.

4. Dog sitting back on his hind end, paws moving off of the ground and up toward the dog’s eye level. Click for both paws anywhere off of the floor and dog holding upright position for up to three seconds.

4a. Dog sitting back on his hind end, paws moving off of the ground and up toward the dog’s eye level. Click for both paws anywhere off of the floor and dog holding upright position for up to two seconds.

4b. Dog sitting back on his hind end, paws moving off of the ground and up toward the dog’s eye level. Click for both paws anywhere off of the floor and dog holding upright position for up to one seconds.

5. Dog sitting in a solid upright sit, paws moving off of the ground. Click for both paws anywhere off of the floor.

6. Dog sitting in a solid upright sit, paws moving off of the ground. Click for either paw anywhere off of the floor.

7. Dog sitting in a solid upright sit, paws moving off of the ground. Click for either paw anywhere off of the floor or collection of body towards the upright position (straightening of back, backwards lean).

8. Dog sitting in a solid upright sit, eyes on handler, Click for upright sit - three seconds.

8a. Dog sitting in a solid upright sit, eyes on handler, Click for upright sit - two seconds.

9. Dog moves from any position into a solid upright sit. Click for upright sit - any amount of time.