Today in Foundations for Agility class at Cowtown Dog Sports we learned about crate games. I’m late catching the bus on this one, but I’m so glad I’m on board now! Based on how quickly Jackie understood what was expected, I’m fairly sure her foster family must have practiced some version of crate games.
Our homework this week includes: putting Jackie in her crate, closing and latching the door. Then I place my hand on the top of (or front of) the crate, which becomes a cue for her to sit (or lie down) and when Jackie sits or lies down I feed her a treat that I take from a bowl on top of the crate (rather than from a bait pouch on my body). Then I open the crate door; if she tries to exit the crate I simply block her calmly with the crate door, close it and start again. Once she is sitting or lying down, I open the crate a tiny bit, Jackie stays laying or sitting, then I close and latch the door and feed her a treat from back in the crate (not near the door) as this builds value for being back in the crate.
Eventually we gradually build up to opening the crate door completely and leaving it open while I stand back, while Jackie stays sitting or lying down, and Jackie remains quietly inside the crate until she is released with a cue. We also practiced Jackie staying calmly inside the crate while I put her leash on, and she only exits the crate when I release her with a release word “ok!”
Playing the crate game builds value for Jackie being in her crate. Going forward it is important to always be consistent when she is crated, to only allow her to exit the crate on her release word, and otherwise to build value for her to stay quietly inside the crate when asked, whether or not the door is open.
It is ok for Jackie to decide to go inside her open crate on her own, and exit on her own. But when the handler places her in her crate on cue “kennel up!” Jackie stays in the crate quietly until released “ok!” whether or not the door is open or closed, and whether or not the handler is standing back, crouching, or holding her leash.
We continued with learning nose touch a hand target while in stand-stay. The point is to reinforce Jackie for standing still in the same position. Our homework this week includes continuing to work on reinforcing stand-stay by having Jackie touch my hand target, then rotating my hand palm up and with my other hand dropping a treat into the now palm-up target hand and letting her eat it out of my flat upturned palm, and repeating several times while Jackie is stationary in a stand-stay.
When we were ready to leave class to go home, I was excited to see Jackie jump up into the back of the car into her crate! Such a good girl, and it sure is a big help to not have to pick her up each time. In addition to being great for my back, this behavior is potentially life saving since it prevents her charging into traffic or loose into other dogs when exiting the car, or her crate at a dog show.
- Crate games, where have you been my whole life!
- Foundations for Agility homework includes continuing to play crate games, and continuing to learn stand-stay
- Jackie can self load into her crate, and knows to stay there until released, which is not only extremely convenient for me, but potentially life-saving
