Have a rock solid stay in all sorts of settings off of the dock? Now you're ready to start introducing the various aspects of your routine on the dock. Again, start small. Can your dog hold position when you walk away a few steps away? Half the length of the dock? The full length of the dock? When you're holding his toy? What about holding position when you stop and turn toward them? This pause and turn is often the cue many dogs see *right before* you give them their release cue, so many dogs creep or break here. Treat each of these aspects of your routine as a new distraction and train through them as needed.
If your dog creeps or breaks, use that information! Next time, try breaking your action that triggered the self-release into smaller pieces - walking a shorter distance and adding a step or two at a time instead of 5', turning around 1/4 way instead of all the way, holding the toy still in your hand instead of swinging it, etc.
A note about rewards for staying: The most powerful reward you have is releasing the dog to jump, so use it wisely. If you *always* reward with a jump you further emphasize the pattern of "place dog - handler walks way - handler releases dog to jump" which will add to the anticipation.
It is wise to keep your dog guessing, especially in this setting where anticipation of release can cause so many issues. I often will walk back to Kestrel or Aeri to reward a stay - with a toy or food, whichever the dog prefers and you have handy - so that they learn that the pattern sometimes changes and their best bet is to remain in place vs. trying to anticipate what happens next.
Once your dog is at least 90% reliable with the full stay on the dock, you can start introducing consequences for breaking or creeping. Your dog wants to jump, so taking that away usually is the only consequence you need, but how you apply that can vary.
The simplest option is re-placing the dog and trying again. If you do this, keep an eye on your dog as you walk away - a quick re-place is more effective than one that happens after the dog has already run half way down the dock.
A more severe response would be removing the dog from the dock completely for breaking or creeping. You can do this immediately after the first break/creep or institute a "3 strikes rule" that allows for 2 re-places on the dock before removing them completely. Having another dog jump before you try again can also be useful here.
Once you decide on what you'll do if your dog breaks or creeps, be sure to enact the consequence *every* time - if you occasionally give into the pressure of competition or impatience you will find that your dog is more likely to "test" your rules about stays while on the dock. This is due to the power that random reinforcement has - the slight possibility of a reward will encourage your dog to gamble that the next stay is one that they can break or creep on and still get their reward!
In summary, keep the following in mind:
Things *to* do
- Be aware of your routine on the dock: how you place your dog, how you walk away, what you do with the toy, etc. and work on teaching your dog that they are not release cues, too. Dogs are keen observers and often detect patterns we don't even realize we're creating, thus adding to their anticipation.
- Be consistent in your response to breaking or creeping. Dogs thrive on predictability and patterns and you don't want to create a canine gambling problem!
- Have patience when training the stay and when responding to breaks and creeping. Getting frustrated won't do anything to help you or your dog and can create negative associations with the dock.
- Practice, practice, practice! The more variety in practice the better!
- Never allow your dog to continue down the dock after breaking or creeping. Running and jumping after a self-release will reinforce that behavior.
- Don't expect your dog to hold a stay in a situation with more distraction, distance, or duration than you've been successful with in practice.
No comments:
Post a Comment