Clean Run - June 2015 - 56

Improving
Your Dog's Motivation
and Speed, Part 3
By Katarina Podlipnik

Agility... the word itself is a synonym
for speed, energy, and strength. Some
dogs have natural talents for agility and
some dogs need a different training approach to reveal their best. This month's
article focuses on ways to help more
sensitive dogs and less motivated dogs
so they can show what great agility partners they can become. But the exercises
included here are also a great foundation
for younger dogs or a fun workout for
more experienced dogs when you are
limited by space or obstacles.
Before you start with any kind of training, the most important thing is to know
your dog. In the previous articles about
improving motivation and speed, we
have put a lot of attention on discovering
drives and passions that define your dog
as an individual. Every day you are the
source of many things your dog finds rewarding (food, playing, alternative motivators) and not that you have discovered
what motivates your dog the most, it is
time to include that motivator in training.
In last month's article I discussed what
to reward your with, so I will start this
article by saying a few words about how
to reward so our rewarding will have the
best impact on the desired behavior.

How You Reward Your Dog
The ideal is when the actual act of rewarding highlights the behavior we want.
With that we reinforce the dog to repeat
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the behavior that got him rewarded at
first place. For example, if we want to
encourage the dog to really run, the reward is given correctly when it reinforces running and it makes the dog run even
faster! If we want to practice forward
focus, the reward is given correctly when
it reinforces the dog to confidently run
forward without looking back at us. In
the previous article I mentioned that your
behavior influences the dog's behavior.
If you are excited, the dog becomes
excited. Part of this can be transferred
to rewarding as well. When we want
quick and energetic reactions from our
dogs, we need to deliver the reward on
a same way-quickly and energetically.
And it goes the other way also; when we
practice exercises that require the dog to
stay calm or static, we should deliver the
reward in a similar way.
Let's look at this from the dog's perspective. If, after you finish with a sequence
of obstacles, you throw a toy ahead of
the dog or run away from the dog with
the tugging toy, what are you encouraging him to do? You are encouraging him
to run faster through the last obstacles in
order to "catch" his reward. If you just
stand still and reward him statically, the
dog will not have to run much to get the
reward. With dogs that are highly driven
that will not make a big difference; they
run anyway. But with less motivated
dogs, who still need to learn that agility
is about running, how you deliver the

reward can have a big impact on your
dog's behavior and "activeness" on the
course. So from now on, when rewarding your dog, pay attention to how you
reward, not only what you use to reward.
And, if you decide you will reward your
dog by throwing a toy, be sure to throw
the toy on time so that the dog runs
fluidly over the last obstacles and then
after the toy.
Now that you have a plan for rewarding your dog, before we start with some
actual training, it is time to discuss the
importance of a start routine.

Developing a Start Routine
The start routine is a combination of
behaviors that make the dog excited. It
is best to use your start routine whenever
you want to transfer the dog's excitement
to the activity that follows that routine.
Our goal is to use this start routine on the
actual agility start line.
The most important part of the start routine is the word "routine." When working with sensitive or less motivated dogs,
having a specific routine can help you
a lot. Firstly, it makes the dog feel safer
and more secure since it is something
that remains constant no matter where
the dog is or what he is doing. Dogs that
tend to be shy or insecure (usually in
new environments) can find comfort in
the routine. Secondly, it also helps dogs
generalize the behavior that follows the
Clean Run | June 15

Clean Run - June 2015

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