Merry Christmas to you and your doggies from Rik and Able!
Waimate’s annual Christmas in the (very small) Square was cancelled this year due to covid. Instead a group of people decided to sit on the back of a truck singing carols while they drove around town. In Waimate no celebration is complete without our pet vintage steam engine, which was chosen to lead the procession, while volunteers ran along beside it handing out candy canes and Christmas Cake.
I never miss an opportunity to get Able out and about when strange things are afoot, so we headed outside before dinner to watch the steam engine go past. I vastly overestimated the peak speed of a vintage steam engine, but after a thirty-minute wait the world’s smallest Christmas parade arrived, and the dogs had their first face-to-face encounter with the steam engine. Neither of them were the least bit fazed, perhaps because their chances of outrunning it were excellent should it happen to veer off course and chase them.
Learning to Walk the Plank
My Christmas training project is to transfer Able’s contact behaviour onto a low plank, propped up on his mop bucket at one end to give it a tiny bit of height.
This is a simple and not particularly exciting backchaining process. I started it earlier this week by getting Able to come onto the plank and stand next to me, a few centimetres from the end, restraining him to get him a bit hyped up, and then releasing him to touch his target mat. All he has to do is step forward with his front feet off the edge, while keeping his rear feet on the plank.
He figured that out very quickly, although he did have a bit of difficulty with his rear legs coming off the side. Now we are moving his starting position back, little bit by little bit, until we reach the other end of the plank. It’s very tempting to rush this process, but the more time and cookies you put into the first little stages of the process, the better the results you will get. Your dog should really, really love their contact zone, and be super clear about what to do when they get there. You’ll achieve that by doing lots of quick, successful repetitions, rather than fewer ore time-consuming reps where you have to walk back to the start of the plank.
Keep an eye on your dog’s speed as well as his accuracy. With such a short run-up he isn’t going to be galloping into position, but he should be moving at a consistent pace, or speeding up as he goes. If you notice your dog slowing down as he approaches the contact, this is a red flag that he isn’t too clear about what he’s supposed to be doing.