Clean Run Magazine - June 2009 - 52

New Concept: Maintaining Commitment Even with a shallow pinwheel, as you step into your front cross you will be moving out of your dog’s working space. Your dog needs to understand that when an obstacle comes within his working space, he should continue on and take it while you slide away into position. You may have heard the term “commitment point.” It means the place where the dog has committed to taking the jump; the handler can then move away into a new position and the dog will still take the jump. If you are like me, you have felt some frustration at your inability to see your dog’s commitment point. Finally, it dawned on me that my Bull Terriers do not have a commitment point. I actually have to train them to have one. By clicking and treating your dog for going ahead to the jump, even though you are moving away, you can train your dog to have a commitment point, too. As a rule of thumb for Pigs Fly dogs, I think it is fair to train them to commit to anything in their working space, whatever the working space is for that particular dog. Once the obstacle falls into that space, the dog should go ahead and take that obstacle, even if the handler moves away. Set up a pinwheel that is deep enough that the middle obstacle is outside your normal working space. For most dogs, this would make the closest edge of the middle jump at least 5'-6' away. Stay to the outside of the “pocket” of the pinwheel and send the dog to the middle obstacle. Do a front cross between #3-#4 and #7-#8. If you have trouble with this, make the pinwheel shallower and break down the lateral send as described in my CR January 2009 article. The first and second photos show how your dog must maintain commitment to the obstacles even as you move away from them. If you were just to remain alongside your dog on a pinwheel such as this, it would be obvious to him that the second jump was in his working space. But as soon as you start moving away, the message becomes more ambiguous. As you move away as I do in the second and third photos, the jump is now 6' or more away from you and clearly out of your dog’s working space. Should he still take the jump? You have to teach him a doggy algorithm: once the jump is in your working space, it remains active as your handler moves away, unless the handler signals otherwise. FC Lateral Send If you have done a lot of repetitions of free shaping the jumps and reinforcing your dog’s working space, your dog will probably pick right up on this exercise. If not, you may need to break it down and move away only very slightly at first. Click/treat your dog for maintaining commitment to the jump as you move away. If you can move out of your dog’s working space and have him still take the obstacles, you can slip easily into position for a front cross as I do in these photos. Notice how my path is almost a straight line from jumps #1 to #3. The object, when doing a front cross on a pinwheel this way, is to stay out of the pocket. For the lateral send, you want to stay out of the pocket and move in almost a straight line from the first jump to the third jump as you send your dog out to the middle jump in the pinwheel. 52 In reality, most situations where you do a front cross on the landing side of a pinwheel will warrant a lateral send and a supporting arm. However, this is a super exercise to teach the concept of maintaining commitment to the jumps within the dog’s working space. Clean Run | June 09

Clean Run Magazine - June 2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run Magazine - June 2009