Jackie is continuing to gain confidence while playing agility. Our homework this week will focus on building value for going over jumps, building value for chasing the lotus ball, generating excitement by playing games Jackie loves, and practicing the 1,2,3 game.
To build value for jumps, just send Jackie over the jump and reinforce her for going over, and repeat with varying rewards until the behavior of going over the jump has a lot of value.
To help build value for the lotus ball I should reinforce Jackie for chasing the ball and feeding her the cookies directly from the ball as I "explode" it for her on the ground level as she is chasing it.
To generate excitement, I need to get creative with playing games Jackie loves to play, such as tag-a-fencepost-and-run, "I'll get you" game, "sshwoom" game, and experiment again with using squeaky toys as well as her exploding lotus ball. We need to continue to build excitement so that Jackie is excited to play; the more enthusiastic I am the more Jackie's enthusiasm builds as well.
Start lines (and the whole mini-course really) are just the "1,2,3, Go!" game we learned in Foundations 1 class. Going back to the basics of playing the 1,2,3, Go game: where Jackie starts in a sit-stay, then I place a target (or a toy she loves) a few feet away from her on the ground, then say "Break! Get it!" and let her eat a cookie off of the target. Then I can build back up to Jackie starting in sit-stay, me leading out ahead of her a few paces, then 1,2,3 "Go!" and running then feeding her a cookie.
Our coach reminded us that a good way to gain must-have skills for handling a trial environment is to take your dog to novel environments and play with them there. Can they sit confidently in Home Depot? Can they nose-touch or walk quietly on a loose leash while strolling outside a busy dog park? Will they recall while off leash in an open, interesting environment if another dog or squirrel happens past? Confidence and reliability in new and distracting conditions must be proofed before the dog is ready to handle a trial environment.
Jackie playing a mini-course:
- Jackie needs to continue to build value and confidence for startlines (1,2,3 "Go! game)
- Homework also includes building value for jumping over a standard bar, building value for the exploding lotus ball by throwing it so Jackie can chase it and feeding her cookies directly from it
- Experiment with ways to build up excitement for Jackie: games, toys, running; in general keeping my speed and enthusiasm up
- Consider visiting new surroundings to begin proofing calm and confident behavior in preparation for trial circumstances
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