A new experience for me today: I worked with a dog on a long line for the first time. In preparing for the ongoing training of Jackie, about a week ago I purchased a 30 foot long line. I’ve worked several horses in long lines, and lunged several more horses with lunge lines, and even written blog posts about equestrian long-lining, however tonight was the first time I’ve worked a dog on a long line.
I LOVE IT. It seems so common sense, but the dog having the freedom to run a fair distance away, and have one hundred percent error free recall practice was brilliant. Jackie was able to run along with Gunner (Gunner has had off-leash privileges where appropriate for many years now), sniffing and exploring the levee and river banks, and each and every time she lifted to look at me or paused her sniffing to look back, I was able to recall her for a high value chicken reinforcement, thus loading the recall bank with error-free practice.
Since we were out during high traffic time when the weather is finally decent enough for folks to venture outside, any time Jackie got too involved with staring at another dog, bicycle, stroller, horse-and-rider, or whatever, I could easily recall her back to me enthusiastically running the opposite direction knowing full well that I had complete control if she should decide not to recall. Only twice did I have to give the slightest reminding encouraging pressure on the leash to re-direct her focus to recall to me, and other than that the leash was fully loose. The brilliant part was that I was free to focus on my actions, because I knew I had the lifeline of the 30 foot leash if anything distracting should occur.
In addition to the reinforcement of a bite of chicken each time she recalled, the releasing her with an “ok!” to go back to her exploring walk was a huge reinforcement as well. Long have I loved line-driving and long-lining horses, and now I am a convert to long lining my dog as well!
Loving this Hi Kiss purple (of course) long line:
One hundred percent error-free recall practice, and I can reinforce each time, building toward a strong, reliable recall:
Pearls:
- New experience with a long line for a dog, and I’m a fan
- Completely error-free recall practice establishes a foundation for a solid future recall
- The handler has the luxury and safety factor knowing I can control my dog in the event of anything distracting or unexpected happening in a more distracting environment, while still working to install a strong recall
- The reinforcements of running toward me as I run in the opposite direction, getting a cookie when she gets to me, and being released to continue sniffing, running and exploring are triple reinforcements for the all important recall
