Clean Run Magazine - May 2007 - 16

Bridge and Target Training for Agility, Part 1 Article and training photos by Francoise (Sassie) Joiris Training animal actors, unlike training agility dogs, is something that cannot be done at one’s leisure. When one of my dogs got booked for a job that required him to bark with a citronella collar on and then sneeze when the burst of air came out (we used plain air in the collar) I had a week to teach him to not only do the action, but also to really enjoy doing it. On the whole, getting a week to train a new behavior for television is a long time; sometimes it’s just a day or two. Still, I don’t expect the same reliability from the dogs when they’re acting as when they’re doing obedience or agility. Nevertheless, I’ve found that the techniques I use for “speed teaching” dog actors translate pretty well to teaching new skills to agility dogs. Virtually all the training I do is based on teaching the dog to respond to different types of bridges and to learn a wide variety of targeting skills. What Is the Intermediate Bridge? Most dog trainers are fond of having, as the expression goes, a number of different tools in their toolbox. By becoming familiar with many different ways to teach something successfully, trainers increase their ability to solve new training challenges. One such tool is the intermediate bridge. The bridge, as those who are familiar with clicker training may know, marks the moment the correct behavior has occurred and bridges the time between that occurrence and the reward (primary reinforcer). The click of the clicker is a bridge. The intermediate bridge is similar, yet a bit different. An intermediate bridge serves to tell the dog that he is doing the right thing and should keep on doing it. In this form of training there are two types of bridges: the terminal bridge (like the click of a clicker) and the intermediate bridge, which tells the animal a terminal bridge is forthcoming. Terminal and intermediate bridges can be mechanical (clicker, flashing light, and so on) or verbal. I have found sounds that logically progress from intermediate to terminal like Ex, Ex, Ex, Ex, Ex as the intermediate bridge, and Excellent! as the terminal bridge, or Guh, Guh, Guh, and Great! Any combination of sounds will do, although it’s a good idea to avoid sounds that are used in other contexts. Many people already use rudimentary forms of intermediate bridging instinctively. Praising a dog continuously while he’s doing the right thing, clapping as the dog weaves, even chanting a hopeful Sit, Sit, Sit while the dog stays sitting on the table can all be interpreted b y d o g s a s fo r m s o f intermediate bridging. Although the usefulness of these impromptu bridges is somewhat debatable, © JOE CANOVA the intermediate bridge can be a powerful tool that greatly cuts down training time if used in an organized and thoughtful way. Bridges can be used in conjunction with virtually any form of training to enhance communication between trainer and trainee. I’ve found many different uses for intermediate bridging in agility training. When a dog is learning contact performance, I use an intermediate bridge the whole way across the obstacle, so that the dog that does not hit the contact correctly knows exactly where his performance went off track and that rest of 16 the obstacle was not the problem. I use the intermediate bridge to teach stays, both on the table and at the start line, and have even used intermediate bridges quite successfully with some dogs with bar dropping issues. Why Is the Intermediate Bridge a Useful Tool? Clicker trainers know that one of the hardest things about clicker training is timing. The click marks the behavior, so being even a fraction of a second off can mean missing the moment the dog was right and missing the chance to click. This is hardly fatal; there are many wonderful clicker trainers who have developed terrific exercises and games for improving timing, and dogs are very forgiving of mistakes. But with the use of an intermediate bridge, the dog has information the entire time and is aware not only of what went right, but also of the exact moment that the behavior ceased being right. For example, if you’re working on dogwalk performance, you want the dog to race full speed across the obstacle and hit the contact. If you’re clicking for the contact, the dog will not get reinforced for the full-speed race across the obstacle unless the contact performance is acceptable as well. By starting the intermediate bridge the moment the dog gets onto the obstacle, the dog is aware of everything he’s doing right. If he misses the contact and the intermediate bridge instantly stops without a terminal bridge, he knows exactly where he stopped being right. This is much like the game where you tell someone they’re getting warmer, warmer, warmer as they get closer to the object they’re trying to find. The moment they stop hearing “warmer” they know they’re off track and head back to where they were. “Hot” when the object is found is the terminal bridge; “warmer, warmer” is the intermediate bridge that helps speed up the process. You don’t have to reward each warmer with a treat because warmer means good things are happening. One of the things I like about the intermediate bridge is that it can be taken into the ring. Although I’d rather know that a dog is 100% sure of the desired performance before trialing, the truth is that many of us practice “good enough” training because agility is our after-work hobby and we can only devote so many hours to it. Through my students I’ve found that using the intermediate bridge with a dog that is uneasy being approached by the judge while on the table helps that dog know he’s doing the right thing by staying on the table. My students have used intermediate bridges in the ring to reinforce contacts and weaves as well. Clean Run | May 07

Clean Run Magazine - May 2007

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