March 2021 - Five Fault Club

Shaping an Awesome Retrieve

Able has been to two agility shows now. He was a bit overwhelmed by his first experience (I probably should have set his ex-pen up in a less high-traffic area so he could watch from a distance) but he gained more confidence as the day went on. He loved meeting lots of new people, especially Isaac and Kate.

He also has a new nickname – “Beaver”. I have never met any dog so obsessed with chewing wood. He spent his first morning at home trying to chew the hardwood floors. He’s given that up but he’s still keen on ripping all the rotten wood off the railings of the deck, or just digging up the deck itself, or chewing on the edge of a door… Hopefully my house will survive his puppyhood more or less unscathed!

My main focus this week has been our retrieve. I taught my previous dogs to retrieve by … well, I never taught my first three dogs to retrieve. I started it but didn’t make a lot of progress and then one parent or the other swiped the puppy off my hands and taught it how to retrieve. The basic method I was using was Chuck It and Pray – grab an exciting toy, get the puppy engaged with it, then throw it and spend the next ten minutes begging them to bring it back while they had a whale of a time without me.

Able at Ten Weeks

I’ve had my puppy for two weeks now, and I swear he is getting bigger and heavier every day. He is quite a confident pup and loves exploring new things, especially with his mouth.

The garden at the new house is an overgrown treasure trove full of puppy toys.

I had a list of over twenty things I planned to do with him in the first couple of weeks. I’ve actually managed to do a little bit of most things with him, although of course we are only at the baby steps of everything. Unfortunately he has to spend a lot of time in his ex-pen as Rik is not quite ready to meet him face-to-face yet, but I shut her in my bedroom with a Kong every few hours so that he can come out and have an adventure in the garden.

Here’s The List … most of these things will be works-in-progress for many months.

Paws in a Box

Paws in a Box is a great fun trick to introduce you and your puppy to training through shaping. It’s also useful to develop your pup’s understanding of where their back feet are at they move around. Most pet dogs need to improve in this skill when they first start agility training, as they aren’t used to thinking about it too much – the back legs just tend to follow the front ones.

Shaping Behaviour

A lot of dogs learn how to sit, lie down, and come by following a piece of food in their owner’s hand. There’s nothing wrong with this, but for agility training it is easier if the dog is more thoughtful about exactly what he is doing. We like to use a process called shaping to encourage the dog to invent new behaviours that he can offer to us. If you have used a clicker previously, this can be useful in shaping – if not, you’ll need a verbal marker such as “Yes”, as shown in this video.

Paws in a box with the late Dr Sophia Yin. Notice how she starts with the easiest possible behaviour (looking at the box) and then gradually increases the complexity. This dog is very experienced at shaping – your dog may not make so much progress in one session, so try to keep the “step” between one level and the next as small as possible so that you can still reward frequently.

Toilet Training for Future Agility Superstars

This is not a post about how to stop your puppy piddling on the carpet. If you need help with that, I’m sure there are lots of other great resources out there on the internet for this. My basic approach is to confine the pup when he’s not supervised, take him outside very frequently when he is, and gradually extend his level of freedom.

Recent experience with Able has taught me that I am not, in fact, a toilet training ninja. Just as well he’s cute…

Agility dogs lead a slightly different life to most pets. They often travel in the car for several hours at a time (and stay the night in there too), and are required to toilet on a short time frame in unfamiliar, high-distraction settings. There are a few extra things you can do with your toilet training to help make these situations easier for both of you.

5 Very First Training Sessions

I recently got a new puppy – my first baby puppy in 14 years! This happy event has been several years in the making, and I have spent most of that time working on an absurdly detailed puppy plan that will no doubt go out the window shortly after first contact with a real puppy.

One thing I’ve thought about a lot is the Very First Training Session, which has been a frustrating and disappointing experience with each of my previous dogs. After a lot of research and reflection I think I’ve figured it out and Able had a much more pleasant introduction to training. But first, a tour of my previous dogs…

1995: FUNZIE

The only baby photo of Funzie where she isn’t just a blur of fluff. Berta the cat does not look amused.

When: Six months old, at the local obedience club. Everybody knows you couldn’t train a puppy before it was six months old!

The Plan: Not be the worst puppy in the class, and pass our Grade 1 certificate.

The Result: 3 stars

Funzie was rather overwhelmed by being in close proximity to 9 strange large dogs at once, so walking with me on a loose lead wasn’t a problem. She was also good at sitting when I pushed on her bum, but not so good at lying down ad very bad at staying – because she was terrified. Still, not the worst puppy in the class so goal achieved!