Clean Run - April 2018 - 33

Starting Your Puppy Off Right:

BRONAGH DALY PHOTOGRAPHY

Rear-Foot
Targeting
Bobbie Lyons, CCFT, KPA CTP, Cert CF, photos by author

Many performance sports require a
dog to jump, propel his body forward
at high speed, and complete other
powerful movements, so it is important to teach your puppy how to shift
his weight to his rear limbs so that the
powerful hind limb and core muscles
can be put to work.
But there are a lot of misconceptions
about rear-foot targeting. Most people
believe that having a puppy target
a raised object with his hind feet is
teaching rear-foot awareness. In reality, it is teaching your pup to shift his
weight forward. Once your puppy is
lifting a hind leg higher than normal,
while reaching for a raised object, it
decreases rear-foot awareness because much of the puppy's weight is
shifted to the front limbs.
I teach rear-foot targeting in a manner
that causes the puppy to put weight
on his rear feet so that he learns how
to shift weight to his hind limbs and
actually use his rear feet vs. just sliding

his feet on the ground or touching a
raised object.
The rear-foot targeting skill can be
used to train a variety of performancerelated skills:

* Puppy is working on a matted surface: rear-foot target is the carpet
side of a bath mat, a towel, a crate
mat, or another non-matted surface.

Teaching Rear-Foot Targeting

* Two-on/two-off contacts can be
trained using a rear-foot target behavior. This is much preferred over
using a front-foot target because it
keeps the dog's focus on his rear feet.

Here's a plan to shape your puppy to
put his rear feet on a mat or floor-level
target while shifting weight to his rear
feet. But first, get ready before you get
your puppy:

* Trick training, obedience training,
jump training, and more.

* Get your clicker/treats ready (using your puppy's meal for training
is ideal).

I recommend always teaching targeting skills on the floor. When picking
your target, consider what surface
you are working on and use a diﬀerent
surface as your rear-foot target. Some
examples might be:
* Puppy is working on carpet: rearfoot target is a rubber-backed
bath mat or a K9FITbed with the
rubber side up, a yoga mat, or another non-carpeted surface.

* Place an object on the floor that
your pup is likely to not be afraid
of and that has a different surface
than the floor.
* Ask your dog to walk forward over
the mat so that he is aware the
mat has been placed on the floor.
* Position yourself about one of
your puppy's body lengths away
from the mat.

Important: Teaching repetitive movement that requires your puppy to back up to a raised object may
disrupt neuromuscular control and coordination due to shifting most of his weight forward. Once your
puppy is old enough, rear-foot targeting to higher object as part of a strengthening strength training program
is okay. But puppies should not participate in repetitive training until growth plates are closed.
April 18 | Clean Run

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