Clean Run - April 2017 - 22

Shade enjoying the
chase portion of the
fetch exercise.

Shade is clearly weighing his
options here.

His legs just keep growing so I'll
leave body awareness training
alone for a while.

Natural body awareness training-in
his own time and at his own speed
Shade is getting to grips with the
slopes of the Malvern Hills.

idea that a sound from me is linked to
an object. Sylvia Bishop always taught
names for toys and I've found that to be
a fun way of introducing the notion of
labels. First I think I'd better teach him
to bring toys back!

to play with. Our own land is fairly flat,
but we've been renovating which gave
him the opportunity to play in and
with branches and twigs, always under
his own steam. The field out front has
been plowed for the winter and that's
another surface for him to experience.

Next on the list is pointing, the idea that
a gesture from me is a request for him
to go and interact with an object. This
is simple to teach. Drop some treats on
the floor and point to them. Drop a toy
and point. Build up to hiding food and
toys and pointing to them, which also
teaches the beginnings of persistence.
Interaction with objects is important
because at its most basic it is what agility is about. So we play the 101 things
to do with a box game, which he has
started, and then move on to a cone, a
stool, and anything and everything that
it is safe for him to interact with. We're
looking for confidence and to build his
repertoire of offered behaviors.

Here Shade is being rewarded with
food for placing the toy in my hand.

new Skills to Introduce
He needs to be introduced now to several concepts, firstly labels; that is, the
22

Body awareness I will leave for a while,
as he is growing so fast that I can't see
much point really. I clearly remember
my eldest daughter being very frustrated with her flute when she suddenly developed problems playing.
Her teacher told her to leave it for two
weeks and explained to me that she'd
probably had a growth spurt and it
would take her brain a little while to adjust. I'm not going to wait until Shade
is fully grown, but I don't want to add
frustration to training that is supposed
to be fun; I don't want to teach him
that working with me is difficult. In the
meantime, I'll take him places where he
can learn to use his body naturally and
continue to introduce him to lots of different surfaces. The Malvern Hills offer
steep slopes, rocks, and sharp inclines

Agility Decisions
Thinking forward, I need to make some
decisions about agility since I'm planning to train and run the three youngsters, as I discussed in my first article,
as well as resume the sport with Ty,
Shade's sire. Previously I have always
adapted my handling to suit my dog.
Chianna was a Saluki x Lurcher and
I struggled for motivation with her,
micro-management irritated her and,
since she had not one drop of a desire
to please anyone, if she was irritated
she'd walk away! So she was loosely
handled, utilizing sends as far as possible. Koda adored me and couldn't be
bribed to take his eyes off me so it was
front cross all the way with him. Kaya
was nervous and needed a lot of support. Yogi was a highly independent
dog so he was sent out ahead and I
used a lot of verbal cues with him; left
and right were a priority as he worked
some distance from me. Tyzer, the only
one of the youngsters that's had agility
training, was four months old when I
ripped my Achilles tendon badly so all
of Tyzer's early training was done with
me on crutches. It gave him a wonderful send and his weaves, tunnels, and
contacts are all truly independent. A
crutch is an excellent tool for throwing
a ball a really long distance! However, it
also means he loses his mind if I run in
front of him.

Clean Run | April 17

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run - April 2017