From the Agility Obstacle Task Pack - A-frame!

The agility grab bag gods knew exactly what we need last Friday morning, right before our last agility trial for July. Ocean's a-frame contact behavior goes between 2 on and 2 off at home and at class to running at shows. Sometimes that running ends up being striding just above that much needed yellow zone. So I sat with this card for a couple of hours and thought about what my plan of attack would be.

I ended up opting for this little course out of Clean Run's Exercise Sourcebook Volume 1. I swapped out the tunnel for my a-frame and kept the teeter as bonus contact training. I ran the black circles for our session. Since we would be showing for two days right after this session, I also swapped out the jumps for my hoops and jumps with no bars. For two trials in a row, I had jumped Ocean for three days straight...I wanted to give him and his body a little bit of a break from that. I really like working handling at home with those hoops because it's essentially working flat work with an obstacle.

 

This video is of our entire training session and it's nine minutes long. But, at least you can see how the hoops work and I wanted a visual for anyone who might want to use the impulse control exercise I worked with O at the bottom of the a-frame.  In class last Wednesday, we worked on getting O to hold his 2 on, 2 off and not self-release to something very high value (a tug toy.) For him, running agility is very self rewarding and his "running contact" is him quickly self-releasing from the a-frame. I used this same exercise here at home...and will continue to when we have an A-frame in practice. The exercise itself is pretty simple. I place the tug toy on the ground about 4 to 5 feet away from the bottom of the a-frame. If you're training with a friend, you can have them place the high value reward for you. The high value reward can be anything your dog loves...it could be really yummy food/treats or their favorite toy. Tugs and balls are much more valuable to Ocean than food is. When Ocean runs to the bottom of the a-frame and holds his 2 on, 2 off....I release him to the toy and we play as his reward. The first attempt he does self-release and grabs the tug which is what he shouldn't do. But he figured it out the next and following attempts. Another thing I like to do which you will see closer to the end of the video is to play tug with Ocean while he is in the correct position on the a-frame. I'm more or less rewarding for position like how you would feed your dog a treat in the correct a-frame criteria position. This idea would work for any pieces of the contact equipment and the table. If the dog moves out of position off the equipment....the play stops. If the dog moves back into position...play more. If your dog is very tug play motivated, they will really enjoy this sort of game and reward.

If you show up....your dog will show up...

A lot of people ask me how do I get that attention and focus while heeling. I just got a message about it this

afternoon. I'll share a portion of what I wrote here:

Instead of drilling heeling as formal heeling, I would incorporate a lot of play and games with the heeling. I always tell people you want to be so cool to your dog, they will choose working with you than looking at what is the distraction. When they do pay attention to you, reward that...you want the dog to think they get a bigger payoff by looking at you than the stuff on the floor or the dog in their peripheral vision. When I taught the guys heeling...I kept heeling patterns very short, very dynamic, and very fun. I make a big deal out of heeling with attention with them and make it feel like they cured cancer with their heeling. LOL I always stopped working while they wanted to do more. My philosophy is to build the love for the work first and then polish with the precision. Does that make sense??

I like to think of this stuff like if I were a teacher. We've always had those teachers in high school or college who were as dry as dust....blah, blah, blah...reading from the text book is their lecture...asking the back row of the class to pay attention. You couldn't wait to get out of there if you showed up at all. Then we had the teachers who were so cool and fun....interactive with their lectures and examples of what they were teaching you. We all loved them and worked hard and studied hard for their tests...we were present for their class. We never missed the classes of the cool, hip and fun teachers. Training dogs is very much like this...what sort of teacher are you?? 

Why "Play" should be in all handlers' training tool boxes

Play is an ability that is much needed in the tool box for any dog trainer, no matter what the sport. It is also very valuable for those dog trainers who are not involved in sports but have their dogs as companions. Despite it being very valuable, not many people put much time into developing play skills with their dog training.

    Whenever I bring up the play discussion and want to see someone play with their dog (who may not necessarily be a "play person"), they do one of two things. The first is they may pet their dog with some verbal praise and that's the end of it. The second thing they might do is wag a toy in front of their dog, then push it into their face...and say "See! My dog doesn't like to play!" The one thing few people do is play like a dog. When you watch dogs play, they stalk, they freeze, they run forward, and they retreat. It's almost like a dance. Some dogs will truly rough house and some will 

Ocean Playing with Dad (and Lars - Party of One)

act like fencing partners never making contact (this is how Lars and Ocean play,) and some will run and run chasing each other playing tag. 

    To create meaningful play with your dog, copy their play style - the advance and the retreat. Gently touch, tap, or push (depending on your dog's personality) your dog and quickly scurry away. Your dog will eventually follow your lead...but if this is something that is totally not your style, it may take them some time. They might be wondering what aliens could have done with their owner! Keep on with this play dance until your dog is very engaged with the game. Make sure you change up what you do...running in different directions, vary your speed, stalk them, making yourself taller and shorter. Be fun! If you are playing the way you dog likes, you will be tired at the end of a play session.

    If getting silly with your dog is something that is far outside of your comfort zone, venture out there and go for it. Play builds solid relationships between the dog and the handler. Play should be a part of your regular training plan and it should happen spontaneously when working with your dog. I, as a trainer, make it a point to make my training and work a game...so the training itself is play. I do play a lot with the boys in between each drill and exercise and try to bring so much enthusiasm to what we're doing they come to love "the game/work." When I do play with Lars and Ocean, a lot of the time I have no toys on me and I do that on purpose. When you are in front of a judge, you have no food and no toys...you can only bring yourself into the ring. So, my play with them involves just me so I "practice" engaging them regularly so it becomes almost second nature when I really need it. Being able to play or motivate with a dog with no toys or no food is worth it's weight in gold and a tool we all should have at our disposal.