Clean Run - February 2015 - 52

to food, which can be calming. I would try to tone it all
down a bit and then invite a thoughtful dog back to earth
to continue the session.
If your dog is lower drive I recommend you keep him
moving in one easy direction while you're sounding
happy and sweet. The object would be that he does not
even know there was a mistake made. You train with an
upbeat attitude above all else, keeping everything fun
and making it all as easy as it can be for him. Simplify
everything down to the actual matter at hand and break
the work down into easy steps. Sometimes doing a few
tricks before going back to "work" can make the world
a happier place. Don't rush this dog, let him figure out
what you want, one cue at a time.

Telling the dog "oops" or "wrong:" Some dogs
work well with these marker words. I am not against
them in every scenario, but I use them less and less in
my own training. Lower drive dogs often can't handle
these "downer" words at all and higher drive dogs
sometimes don't care enough for it to matter. If people
do use them, avoid having the words sounds as peppy,
happy, and light- hearted as saying "good dog" would. I
value my voice inflection to a very high degree and my
dogs know more about being on the right track (or not)
because of my voice inflection than my actual words.
Your voice inflection for your marker word should not
be peppy or scolding.

Scolding yourself: These moans and groans accompanied by a dramatic head throwback are designed to
let your classmates and teacher know that you know
you made a mistake. But these negative words and
sounds are the kiss of death for many dogs. Usually
they happen when the dog just took your incorrect cue
perfectly well. Stop doing it. It serves no real training
purpose. And it is not fair to the dogs. Sorry, this one is
a big pet peeve of mine.

Overusing line-ups to the leg: When dogs make
mistakes, just stopping the forward momentum is upsetting their apple cart. The stopping often creates a side
change if you don't have a plan to immediately pull them
around you (see "Making a loop" below) and then you
may need another side change (line up to your leg) to
set the dog back up to re-start. Many dogs get sick of
line-ups or they aren't trained well enough that line-ups
are easy for them to execute. Adding line-up into an error in progress can be disaster. If you need to do a lineup to set up your dog again, be sure to take your time
and give a clean, clear line-up cue and give the dog a
chance to execute the cue. Reward your line-ups! Let
your dog know that you know line-ups are not always
the most fun (and work hard at home to make line-ups
very fun and easy to do whenever you can).

Cheerleading to excess: I know it is designed to keep
them pumped up, but cheerleading often results in
stress and confusion when piled on top of some errors.
Use it like salt in the soup, just enough to improve the
flavor but not too much to spoil it. Watch the dog; is
your encouragement working or not?

Making Matters Worse
Knowing what kills and builds drive in dogs will help
every handler become a better dog trainer. Here are a
few drive killers that directly relate to fixing errors.

Start-line stays: Do they build drive? They do not for
most dogs; so, if your dog is lower drive, don't fix an
error by going back to the start line to do another stay.
If the stay is the error, you may need to perfect that
behavior outside of agility. My favorite option to avoid
doing additional sit-stays is to re-start the drill midsequence from the position I want to be in (usually the
original lead-out position) and then send the dog back
to the last jump I'm past. Yes, the dog ends up taking
that jump in the "wrong" direction but I can stay ahead
to handle as I had wanted to in the first place and I did
not have to ask for another sit-stay.
FC
1

Restarting a Sequence Without a Lead-out
The handler is working on a front cross to the weaves. She
began the drill with a lead-out, but the dog missed the weave
entry. The handler does not want to keep repeating the
lead-out with her lower drive dog, but she wants a chance to
work on the timing of the front cross. So, starting from her
original lead-out position, she sends the dog the wrong way
over #2. This gives her a chance to practice the front cross
without repeating the start-line stay.

Easy Handling Tips
*

Making a loop: Making big, easy loops is my favorite
way to reset the dog after an error. I make a nice easy
loop back to the start (how far back depends on how
much momentum I need to add or remove for success).

Every dog is different. Experiment with what keeps your dog working nicely after an error is made.
The point is to be consistent.
52

Clean Run | February 15

Clean Run - February 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run - February 2015