Workout when it’s rained-out

I’d rather be stuck inside than trapped in the mire. And, just because weekly agility classes are canceled doesn’t mean you can’t do things at home to improve your agility team. Develop good practice habits! Here are some things you can be doing with your dog inside:

Strengthening and Stretching

  • Squat Thrust – With your dog in a sit, have them stretch to a treat in your hand directly above their head. The treat should be positioned such that they move straight upward, keeping both hind paws on the ground. They should then recoil back into the sit position. Give them the treat every time. You can also use a hand touch instead of a treat lure. Good for hind end strength. Do this exercise 10 times.
  •  High Five – First, teach your dog to handshake. When they do that reliably with both their left and right paws, you can move your hand higher so they have to stretch farther to place their paw in it. Good for shoulder strength and reach. Do this exercise ten times on each side.
  • Snoopy – Pick up one front paw (right) and then reach back to pick up one opposite rear paw (left). They should now be balancing on two legs. Gently rock them back and forth and side to side. Good for core strength and balance. Do for ten seconds and then change sides.

Obedience

  • Stay – Practice the 3Ds of your stay (Duration, Distance, Distraction).
  1. Have them down stay for 3 minutes (duration).
  2. Have them sit stay while you walk into another room and return (distance).
  3. Have them hold either position (sit or down)  with a ball placed in front of them. Release them to get it (distraction).

Ground Work

  • Changing sides – Practice your front and rear crosses in the living room. That’s right!
  1. Front Cross – start with them on your left and begin walking forward. Put your right hand in front of their nose and make a 90 degree turn, having them follow your right hand. You have effectively switched sides. Now, start with them on your right and switch to your left.
  2. Rear Cross – same as above, but say “go” and have them move ahead of you. When they move forward, step behind them. You are looking for their head to switch from one side to the other, not to make a circle around.

Targeting

  • Target Plate – Improve your targeting at home. Make sure that your dog understands to target a small plastic plate with their nose. Chose three handling positions to work from:
  1. Recall – Your dog is moving toward you and the target plate.
  2. Send – Your dog moves away from you to the target plate.
  3. With – Your dog is running with you toward the target plate.
Dan Roy – Performance Dog Training
SF SPCA CTC (San Francisco SPCA Certified Trainer and Counselor)
CPDT-KA (Certified Pet Dog Trainer – Knowledge Assessed)
info@performancedogtraining.com • 619.838.8238
Association of Pet Dog Trainers - Dog Training Professionals

Is my dog suited for agility?

Is my dog suited for agility? That is one question that seems to be asked a lot lately.  I can understand the reason why. In these tough economic times one needs to know if their investment of time and resources will produce a dog that can perform.

Cows are not built to climb trees.  But, most dogs are built to run, jump and follow human direction.  Some dogs are better at it than others.  Herding breeds like Border Collies, Australian Shepherds, Shelties, Cattle Dogs, Corgis, to name a few, can really rocket around the agility course.  These herding types have been genetically selected and breed for strength in those areas.  Nevertheless, I have seen incredible abilities from other, seemingly unlikely breeds like the Bichon Frise, Chihuahua, Beagle, and others.

Just get to the training! “I will wait and see” is what one of my good agility friends told me when trying to decide whether to train his Australian Shepherd puppy for agility.  My friend was simply going to wait and see if his dog was a good agility candidate.  He was going to wait and see if his dog wanted to do agility.  Well, what a waste of time.  If you wait and see, you will have wasted precious training opportunities.  You should just get to the training.

Train the dog you want.  You must have the faith that your training will bring forth the fruit of your labors.  If your dog lacks motivation then train for it!  If your dog lacks the self control then train for it!  If you want an agility dog then take the dog you have and train them for it.  Follow the well established guidelines of animal training starting from Pavlov to BF Skinner.  Follow the guidelines of effective dog training from Karen Pryor and Jean Donaldson.  Find a good agility instructor that understands the principles of classical and operant conditioning and applies them to agility training.

The real questions should be the one you ask about yourself – Am I suited to train my dog for agility? Do I have the patience to train with an objective attitude?  Do I enjoy the training process?  Do I have the resources and time to partition aside for this endeavor?  Am I the type of person that can commit to a task and follow through with it?  You may not be able to answer yes to all of these questions, but if agility is something that you want to do, then just get started with it.  Don’t wait! Of course your dog can do it – Just show him how!

Dan Roy – Performance Dog Training
SF SPCA CTC (San Francisco SPCA Certified Trainer and Counselor)
CPDT-KA (Certified Pet Dog Trainer – Knowledge Assessed)
info@performancedogtraining.com • 619.838.8238
Association of Pet Dog Trainers - Dog Training Professionals

Agility Start Lines

Agility Start Line Workshop for August 15, 2010

Most people agree that having a motivated dog on the agility course is a good thing.  When our dogs are happy then so are we.  Their fondness for agility is reflected in the way that they move.  More speed equals more fun, right?  Well, at least most of the time.

As trainers we work diligently to nurture enthusiasm in our canine athletes – encouraging them to go fast and rewarding them handsomely when they do so.  If we have done our jobs correctly they will be completely enthralled by the sport, intent on following direction and ready to run their hearts out. 

So, can we blame them when after we enter the ring, and having them sit at the start line, that they experience an unbridled surge in energy?  Sometimes, before we can take one step forward, it is Yahoo and Zoom! Our dogs have broken a start line stay and are now running their own course.  Good luck ever catching up!  It is times like those that I find myself asking, “Which part of the sit/stay did I forget to teach?”

My Start Line Workshop is designed to teach you to get a more reliable stay while maintaining a motivated dog.  Although a stay can give you a lead out advantage, there are also ways to position yourself to do a running start.  Running starts are fun for the dog and can increase their motivation should they be suffering from lack of confidence or other issues.

In the Start Line Workshop you will:

Learn Methods - you will learn training methods to take home to teach a solid stay.
Release – as important as the stay is a controlled release. Choose a good release signal.
Proof your start line – the capability to hold for duration, distance, and through distractions.
Read the opening – can the dog read the open sequence from your lead out position?
Get by without one – learn how to do a running start.

If it sounds like fun, it will be.  Always work at your dog’s level.  I will remind you of that.  Keep them interested in the game and you will have an animal that will work with you.  Bring a lot of good treats and their favorite toys.

Dan Roy – Performance Dog Training
SF SPCA CTC (San Francisco SPCA Certified Trainer and Counselor)
CPDT-KA (Certified Pet Dog Trainer – Knowledge Assessed)
info@performancedogtraining.com • 619.838.8238
Association of Pet Dog Trainers - Dog Training Professionals

Barking in Agility

Sometimes you really need to throw yourself into things to learn about it. I did that with an attempt to train my Australian Shepherd, Rifle, to stop barking. It all began when we were “excused” from the obedience ring for barking excessively.

Up until that point Rifle could bark all he wanted, within reason. I had actually encouraged it early on to build excitement for agility competitions and training. It works, and he flies through the course, vocalizing the whole way. But, for some strange reason I got it into my thick skull that I was going to use my expert training techniques to change all that. I must report that after much agonizing, I failed to meet my goal. Simply said, it is not within my reach or my capabilities. Likewise, I no longer have the desire.

I gave up on this aspiration – to stop Rifle’s barking completely. It was causing me to become depressed and develop a Nazi-like mentality. I had lost my agility dog! He didn’t want to run anymore. What used to be an enthusiastic pull to the start line became a death walk. I woke up one morning, looked at myself in the mirror and said; “what am I doing? I must be going mad?”

 This “wakeup call” had taken two months. It came after talking the situation over with many of my colleagues. I read a really good book,  Barking, The Sound Of A Language  by Turid Rugass. Clearly, my expectations were too high, cruel and unreasonable. Rifle’s need to communicate is so deep, I no longer want to or need to stifle it completely.

All that said, I did make significant progress on toning down the bark:

  1. He has to stop barking before I throw his toy at the beach. To keep him from barking further I tell him to bring the toy to me – it is difficult for him to bark with a toy in his mouth. I do not throw the toy again unless his yapper is closed. He does this readily.
  2. Barking at dogs that are walking by my house – he is allowed to bark a few times, until I say “enough”, then we go to the kitchen for a treat. Whenever I say “enough” he readily stops barking.
  3. On the agility course – He needs to shush at the start line or I will wait until he does before I release him. After that, my boy can do all the happy sound making he wants. It no longer is a bad thing for me to hear, rather it is music to my ears. I have my agility dog back!

Watch Rifle bark on course. Do you think it matters?

Dan Roy – Performance Dog Training
SF SPCA CTC (San Francisco SPCA Certified Trainer and Counselor)
CPDT-KA (Certified Pet Dog Trainer – Knowledge Assessed)
info@performancedogtraining.com • 619.838.8238
Association of Pet Dog Trainers - Dog Training Professionals

“Should we say NO?”

Hello,
I hope that you guys are enjoying working with the dogs as much as I am.
 
“Should we say NO to our dogs?” – That was one of the questions asked during this morning’s class.
To answer that question, I first needed to ask myself – Do I say ”no” to my own dogs? In a round about way, I believe I do. I use many NO euphemisms like; Stop it! Ah Ah! Enough! I try not to say it with an angry voice or yell at them. It is better if you teach a dog what-to-do instead of what-not-to-do.
 
The best way to explain this is with a typical training scenario - No Jumping on People, Uninvited. I will teach my dogs to sit nicely in front of people in order to earn the attention they are seeking – a pat on the head, “what a good dog”, a cookie, etc. I teach them the polite way which is the ”may I please” instead of “yo dude!” I begin teaching this with my dog on-leash, by walking directly to my guest, having my dog sit at close range, and rewarding with a treat from myself or the guest. I do this until my dogs are automatically greeting people with a sit. At that point the behavior would be considered fluent. It is after much repetition that if they do start to jump on my guest I say “Oh Oh”, “Too Bad” and bring them to my side - therefore, I take away their opportunity to earn affection from that person and implement a short time out, at my side. This is well within the bounds of good dog training techniques. (By the way - I teach my dogs to jump on me on a cue – “hop up” and pat my chest. Once again, this is done by my invitation. If they take a gratuitous “yo dude” leap into my face, I do not consider that very polite. They learn to discriminate between when jumping is appropriate and not.)
 
I hope that this explanation adds some clarification. Let me know.
 
Dan Roy – Performance Dog Training
SF SPCA CTC (San Francisco SPCA Certified Trainer and Counselor)
CPDT-KA (Certified Pet Dog Trainer – Knowledge Assessed)
info@performancedogtraining.com • 619.838.8238
Association of Pet Dog Trainers - Dog Training Professionals

Contacts Training Workshop and FUN RUN

As with any training endeavor, follow these guidelines for an optimal outcome:

  1. Envision – have a picture in your mind of the contact performance you want.
  2. Plan – partition your contact training into small, achievable steps.
  3. Count – keep track of how many repetitions you have done at a particular level.
  4. Adjust – know when to push to a more difficult level, stay at the current level, or drop to an easier level.

What I like best about a FUN RUN:
1. You get to train your dog in a near competition environment.
2. You get to see all the new and upcoming talent.
3. It’s inexpensive.

Dan Roy – Performance Dog Training
SF SPCA CTC (San Francisco SPCA Certified Trainer and Counselor)
CPDT-KA (Certified Pet Dog Trainer – Knowledge Assessed)
info@performancedogtraining.com • 619.838.8238
Association of Pet Dog Trainers - Dog Training Professionals

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