Clean Run Magazine - January 2007 - 46

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begin with the dog right on top of the bar—speed in general terms is
added at the highest level of difficulty, right up there next to getting
handlers involved! Each of the stages that you go though with your dog in
the beginning should be a “no-brainer” for the dog to complete and
achieve success. This does two things: it teaches your dog that turn work
is fun, something they can succeed at. It also lays the foundation for the
rules of the game—what will be rewarded—for later work when more is
asked, the bar is raised, and mistakes are more likely. The First Marker
The first point that needs marking is the place at which many dogs lose
control of their rears as they jump. Watch carefully; you often see dogs
who successfully turn their head and shoulders into a turn, then allow
their rear to swing wide. No matter how well a dog collects before a turn,
if the turning action comes completely from the front, the turn itself will
be wide. Many dogs whose main powerhouse is in the front , struggle with
this aspect of training, as do many young and overly enthusiastic dogs.
Watch what happens to the dog that is fully extended over a jump, or the
one that has misjudged his takeoff and had to fling up his rear. There’s
no way a dog can make a good turn that way. With your dog sitting right on
top of the bar, he should have no problem turning into you for the reward
and controlling his rear to keep it within the marked area. Make sure that
when you do this, you allow enough room for your dog’s back feet to be
clear of the bar. Reward the Effort Click and use a stationary reward: The
blue-bordered photo shows the clickable moment. Boogie’s back feet have
cleared the bar and his body shape shows that he’s in control of his
rear. This point is where the observation that you did to begin this work
really starts to come into its own. When you work a hairy dog, or a dog
that is close to the ground, it can be very difficult to tell if he’s
achieved what you need him to by simply watching the feet and legs, so
look for something else that tells you. If possible, get some video to
help with your analysis of your dog’s work. Kristy is watching the
position of Boogie’s body here since she can’t see his legs. She knows
when he’s going to knock the bar or swing wide. When he does so, the
target hand is removed and Boo is set up to try again. For reward, either
play tug in place, being careful not to swing the dog out of the circle as
you do so, or much easier, use a food reward. Be careful with your
criterion: the dog should turn into you with his rear end clearly
underneath him, collected. As we add speed into this exercise, this will
become progressively more difficult, so make a real effort to be precise
now whilst it’s easy. Begun from a place where the dog simply has to
bunny hop over the bar on the ground, no dog should have a problem with
this. In the pictures Boo is actually jumping all of 15 ! If you have a
very small dog, try painting a bamboo cane white and placing that on the
floor—for some a normal bar, even one on the floor, is actually quite a
jump! Repeat several times until your dog is performing comfortably. If
your dog struggled with this, and there are some that do, it would be
worth adding distance into the picture now and beginning to move the
dog’s starting point farther and farther back so that he learns to
control himself at speed. For many other dogs it is more beneficial at
this stage to move on and lay the foundation for the other two points that
we need to mark. 46 Clean Run | January 07 Warning : Unknown : The session id contains invalid characters, valid
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Clean Run Magazine - January 2007

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run Magazine - January 2007