Last week I spent several days playing Crate Games with Able. We’ve improved a lot at our sit stays, although we still need to proof against very high-value distractions (see blurry photographic proof below). Now I’m focusing on the more active games that teach the puppy to drive ahead of the handler into the crate.
As I’ve mentioned earlier, I am very unathletic and I need to put a lot of work into building forward drive into my puppy. He’s too young to work on agility equipment at his age, but not too young to learn to drive ahead to an object. A couple of weeks ago it was a peanut butter lid, and this week it’s his crate.
Able’s crate is set up opposite the door in my bedroom. I’ve worked up over the last few days until we can start from the other end of the hallway and he will spring down the hall and through the bedroom to get into his crate.
When you’re working on distance it’s important to start with lots of repetitions very close to the crate. These build more “value” for the behaviour of running into the crate – because each repetition takes less time, you can do more repetitions and get more rewards into your puppy in the same amount of time.
Once you are ready to add distance do it in small increments, especially for the first metre. As you get further away you can progress in larger chunks, but don’t ask for more than 125% of the puppy’s previous personal best.
It’s also best to mix up the distances. I like to make about half of my attempts really easy (1m or less from the crate), another quarter moderately hard (up to 75% of the puppy’s personal best) and then grow the distance that the puppy can run with the other quarter of attempts. This is called “ping-ponging” and it helps to keep the balance between a high success rate (to keep your puppy’s confidence up) and a steady rate of progress.
One final tip – remember to reward where you want your puppy to be, in this case by throwing a handful of cookies or a toy into the crate once he gets there. At first I was standing still and waiting for him to go into the crate, then running up and feeding him.
Proofing Time
Once a puppy has learned a new skill, it’s time to “proof” or generalise it. This means changing the picture the puppy sees slightly, or adding a distraction he has to resist.
Some of the proofing challenges I’ve worked through with Able this week include:
The Lolly Jar: Running past a chair with his dinner bowl sitting on it. Easy if I started him from near the dinner bowl. Very hard if I started him right at the end of the hallway. He is the most food-driven pup I’ve ever had, and while he knew better than to shove his face into the lolly jar, he couldn’t quite bring himself to move away from it either. I had to do a lot more value building before he could charge past it without looking.
The Chaser: Running forward with me running along behind. This is a hard one for a lot of dogs – some like to stick with their handlers and go at their pace, and others (especially Border Collies and other herding breeds) naturally want to chase a fast-moving “sheep”. I gave Able a head start at first, and gradually reduced it. I was really pleased to see him confidently running ahead of me – just what I want for agility!
The Puzzle: Rotating the crate 90 degrees. Now he had to run at it and then make a turn into the crate. He had to stop and think the first time – he sprinted up to his crate but the door wasn’t where he thought it would be! Similar to the Peanut Butter Lid Game, it’s good to change the picture every few repetitions so that the puppy has to actually look to see where he’s going.
The Commitment: Running past the crate. Able’s crate is set up just to the right side of the bedroom door, and I brought it forward a little so that I could carry on past it. I set him up on my left side, so that I could run straight forward past his crate, and he would have to come across the front of my path to go into the crate. There was no head start for this one, as I wanted him to be a little ahead of me when he got to the crate.
This was Able’s first taste of an important agility skill called “commitment” – the dog independently taking the obstacle he’s been sent to, even when his handler’s movement is going in a different direction. The first two attempts didn’t go very well – he screeched to a halt in front of his crate and then tried to jump on me. I slowed my pace down to a walk and we had did a few successful repetitions, then when I tried running again we were successful again.
I still have some more ideas up my sleeve for curly Crate Games challenges, so we’ll continue to work on this over the next couple of weeks.