Agility Foundations Week 5

Jackie was excellent today in agility foundations! I'm so pleased with how much confidence she is gaining. Today when we got to class she actually climbed up into our coach's lap for a quick cuddle, which makes me so happy that Jackie loves her coach.  We started foundation games to learn contacts, as well as starting front paws on a perch today.

For contacts, I will need a 1' x 4' plank about 4" off the ground.  Jackie walks across the plank that will eventually become the behavior for the dog walk, and pauses with her back feet still on the plank while her front feet are on the floor. With my clicker and treat, I reinforce the behavior of first walking across the plank and then landing with her hind feet still on the plank with her front feet on the floor. Be sure to work in a circle and approach from both directions/sides and with the handler on both the left and right of the dog. We also want to reinforce body awareness by luring Jackie to turn in a small circle while keeping all four feet on the plank (rather than stepping onto the floor) while she turns around on the plank.

In order to begin learning sending to a perch, first we had to introduce Jackie to the perch; we are using an upside down rubber feed tub about eight inches in diameter as our perch.  I will continue to build value for the perch by teaching Jackie to place her front paws up on the perch and reinforcing that behavior.  Once she understands "Perch!" then I can begin to send Jackie ahead of me to the perch with "Go perch!" Be sure to use the arm and hand closest to the dog to cue the behavior.  We will continue to build value for nose touching a target.

In continuing Jackie's agility foundation education, I think a good question for myself as a handler is "Where is the value?" It has been challenging finding a food treat that Jackie loves, and as well as homemade treats and cat treats, I've been using training while out walking with success, since Jackie stays more excited and engaged while out exploring and running. My goal is to be sure that the value lies in the cue and carrying out the behavior, and not from where the treat is being dispensed such as my hand or the physical target.  I've learned to reinforce Jackie after saying her release work "Break!" so that she knows driving rapidly forward is the key to getting the reinforcer, not just following my hand or a target that has a cookie in it.

Pearls:

• Reinforce contact behavior by having Jackie walk over a 1' x 4' elevated plank and stopping with her hind feet on the contact and her front feet on the floor
• Increase body awareness by reinforcing turning around on the plank with keeping all four feet on the dog walk plank to prevent falling later when she actually goes on the higher dog walk
• We will learn paws up on a perch, followed by send ahead to the perch "Go perch!" by using the arm and hand closest to the dog
• Where is the value? I want the value for Jackie to be in the cue and carrying out the behavior; clicker training has been my ally in transferring value to a specific cue; remember the behavior is learned first, then a cue is added
• Jackie using her own muscles and her own mind to generate the behavior, then being reinforced, then adding value to a specific cue is key; the value is in the cue, and carrying out the behavior is reinforced
• Especially grateful for an excellent coach that Jackie loves too

Jackie staying motivated while learning during hiking along the river:

Agility foundation props this week include a small rubber bucket used as a perch and a 1' x 4' board used to begin learning contacts: