Last weekend Able and I went to an obedience seminar. It was the first chance we’ve had to take part in a class with other dogs and people since lockdown, and I was mostly pleased with how well he behaved. He did get a bit over-excited and make a leap at my nose at one point though!
I used to compete in obedience a long time ago, when the training methods were still very traditional. I haven’t kept up with the new advances over the last decade, and this was a great chance to catch up on what I’ve missed. I took pages and pages of notes and I’m looking forward to applying what I learned with Able a year or so down the road, once he’s started his agility career.
I was particularly interested in the new method I learned for training heelwork. Regardless of the sport, good dog training is about splitting behaviour into pieces. I taught my last obedience dog to heel by just rewarding him for being right next to my leg and hoping for the best … but now I know how to split this up into different skills (like driving forward from the rear so that the dog can use his body well, and knowing exactly where heel position is during the different parts of the handler’s stride).
The Maimed Finger Incident
I was walking the dogs a couple of days before the seminar when Able and I had a very painful misunderstanding.
Able, like many adolescent Border Collies, likes to stalk my other dog Rik. Whenever she goes outside to pee, he stands at the edge of the deck and waits for her to come back. As she progresses through the house, her enthusiastic herald bursts into every room ahead of her, so that he can turn around and stare at her as she approaches that door too. I don’t love this behaviour, but I don’t hate it enough to keep the dogs separated all the time either, so I’ve decided to tolerate it (Rik is surprisingly unbothered). I do insist that he turns around and comes to me when I call him, at least.
Able’s herding tendencies mostly show up at home while we’re hanging round at home. He wasn’t really doing it on walks (except for the first two minutes when the dogs sprint in big circles round each other) until after lockdown. Three weeks of no off-lead exercise made Able a Very Overstimulated Puppy when he finally got his freedom back, and I’m still working on getting the stalking back under control.
On this particular day, I called Able while he was stalking Rik. His body turned around and came straight to me (he knew that I would go and get him and move him away from Rik anyway, and coming voluntarily might involve bikkies). Meanwhile, his head swivelled round at the end of his neck like in The Exorcist so that he could keep track of Rik’s whereabouts. The result was that when I held his tug toy out he tried to grab it without really looking at it – and he grabbed a finger along with it!
Tugging Etiquette
Most agility people use tug toys with their dogs. The best tug toys are fairly long, often with a bungee handle at one end, and some sort of fleecy or furry object for the dog to grab at the other. You won’t find them at the supermarket, but there are a few crafty people in our agility community who make and sell them.
Tug play is a great reward for agility because:
- It keeps the energy level up. Eating food physiologically lowers your arousal – that’s why some people tend to comfort eat to relieve stress. We want our dogs at a fairly high level of arousal (although not frantic!) when they are doing agility, and for most dogs tug toys help with this.
- It’s interactive. The biggest reward should be the game that you have when your dog brings the toy back to you. This means you can train with toys lying around and, unlike with food rewards, you can prevent your dog from enjoying his reward if he decides to “help himself”. Just ask him to drop it, and set him up for another attempt. This also means that your dog is easy to catch at the end of an agility run, because he wants to tug with you.
- It lasts a while. You can keep tugging with your dog while you move a jump, walk back to your start point etc. This helps to keep your dog focused and “in the zone”, and provides fewer opportunities for him to wander off and get distracted.
However, tug toys can become a bit of a double-edge sword. Here’s a quick rundown on how to avoid some of the common problems:
Biting your hand. Make whatever noise comes naturally to you (whether that’s “ouch” or the F word…) whenever you feel teeth on your hand, and stop playing for 30 seconds or so. If it becomes a habit, you can play a game to teach the dog to take it gently. Hold the toy so it is mostly contained in your hands, with a small piece (about twice the width of the dog’s jaws) between your hands. With your dog facing you, tell him to get it. If he takes it nicely, play for thirty seconds; if not, hide the toy behind your back for thirty seconds. Keep playing until your dog consistently takes it without biting, then see if you can reduce the width even further.
Not letting go. Only ever say your drop or give cue once. Take hold of the dog’s collar with your other hand, and hold it against your leg (this makes it easier for you to hold if he pulls away). Move your other hand right up to the dog’s mouth, so that the toy goes slack and your dog can’t pull against it. Wait until he gets bored of holding the tuggy (sometimes you will need to let go of it first), and then resume the game as soon as it touches the ground. If you have food handy, you can give this as a reward after your dog lets go nicely on your first cue – but keep it in your pocket until after he’s let go, so that it’s a reward and not a bribe.
Running away with the toy. Never try to chase a dog who’s playing keepaway with a toy (he’ll win, and you’ll make the habit stronger). I put a lot of effort into teaching Able to bring toys straight back to me when he was young. If this is a general problem, you could start with a fairly boring toy like a Nylabone) and shape your dog to retrieve this nicely, then gradually build up to more exciting toys like his favourite tuggy. You can also play a variation of the Two Toy Game with tug toys. Choose two toys of similar value, and throw one for your dog. Once he’s picked it up, run away with the other toy for him to chase, and then celebrate with a good long session of tugging once he comes to you. More generally, make your tug sessions when he does bring the toy longer and more fun (experiment with what your dg likes best).
Dogs that won’t tug. I’ve had a couple of dogs where tugging did not come easily, and I got there with light-hearted perseverance. Get down on the floor and play with your dog between training sessions. Make lots of happy noise, tease him with the toy, have crawling races – just act like you’re having fun, and the tugging will come eventually. In the meantime, you can use “lotus” or “clam” type toys in your training, which are fabric balls with velcro seams. You can hide a treat in the toy and then the dog can rip the velcro apart to get it.