Lorrie [00:00:08]:
Welcome to the Maximum Fun Agility podcast. I'm Lorrie Reynolds, owner of Maximum Fun Dog Sports. We help your agility team build your relationship, communication, confidence, and fun in training so that you can joyfully succeed on any course. In this episode, we'll talk about the various ways you can reward your dog so that he can be more confident working away from you. Rewarding your agility dog while he is away from you makes him more likely to work at a distance. I had a student come to my seminar that was having trouble keeping her dog out to work. As she started the third or fourth exercise, I was impressed by her fancy footwork while she used her arms to keep her balance and avoid stepping on her dog, who had run straight at her yet again after completing three obstacles. Once she was stable, she reached down and gave him a treat.
Lorrie [00:01:03]:
Joanne's main complaint was that her dog couldn't stay out along a line of obstacles. He would do two or three obstacles and then run back to her, frequently causing her to have to maneuver to avoid him. She thought he needed better distance training. As I watched them run the first few exercises, I knew that distance wasn't the issue. I asked her how she usually rewarded him, and she replied that they either played tug or she gave him treats. I asked if she ever threw a toy ahead of him, and she told me that she was taught that more interactive play like tug was a better reward. Joanne's dog was running back to her in anticipation of the reward. He had learned that the only place he was rewarded with play or food was in front of her, So he had no motivation to continue on a line.
Lorrie [00:01:59]:
A key concept for working at a distance with your agility dog is rewarding your dog while he is away from you during training. One of the biggest mistakes I see handlers making is sending their dogs out to work 20 or 30 feet away, but consistently rewarding only from their hands, whether with a toy or food. If you always reward your dog when he is close to you, he has no motivation to move away and continue to work at a distance. He will always be checking to see if it is time for a reward yet or running in to grab the treat or toy after just a few obstacles. Here are five ways you can reward your agility dog at a distance to encourage him to work away. The first method is to throw a toy. If you have a dog who is eager to work for toys, it is easy to reward at a distance. You can either throw the toy directly to your dog if he is in a stationary position, like the bottom of a stopped contact, or you can throw it ahead of your dog to encourage him to stay out on the path.
Lorrie [00:03:06]:
When he gets the toy, you can meet him halfway to play tug or throw it again. The second way to reward is to toss treats to your dog while he is at a distance. It takes a little more skill to toss small treats compared to toys, but it can be done. The same principles apply. You can throw directly to the dog if she is in a stationary position, or throw ahead of the dog when you want her to continue to move after the last obstacle in the sequence. Make sure that you are using treats that are visible on the grass, turf, or mats. I don't really recommend throwing treats if you're working in a dirt arena since they're harder to find, easy to cover with dirt, and many dogs don't like to get the dirt in their mouths. The third method is to use a sealed container or a pre placed toy.
Lorrie [00:04:01]:
You can place a sealed container or pouch type toy at the end of your distance exercise to give your dog something to drive toward. If you use this method with treats in a container, the most important thing to remember is to open the container and then step away and let your dog get the treat rather than rewarding from your hand. The purpose of rewarding away is to decouple the reward from you being present, so your dog doesn't always run back to you for a reward. Your dog needs to have enough self control to do the exercise before going to the reward. Work easy, single obstacles first, making things harder by putting the toy closer to the dog and sending him to the obstacle, and then start adding the difficulty of sequencing and distance, but not at the same time. Once they reliably understand that the sequence comes first before the reward, then you can start working with a dead toy at the end of the distance exercise. Method number four is to train with a partner. If you're working at greater distances, sometimes it can be useful to have a training partner ready to toss a treat or toy when your dog completes the sequence.
Lorrie [00:05:18]:
They should try to avoid making themselves part of the environmental cues, so avoid standing on the landing side of the final jump or at the bottom of the contact. It is also vitally important that they reward away from themselves, tossing a treat or toy as the dog is completing the exercise, so your dog doesn't start running directly to them whenever they are on the course. The fifth way to reward at a distance is to send your dog to a mark bucket or other target. A mark bucket is just a rubber feed pan turned upside down that your dog has learned to put both of his front feet on. If you take some time during your foundation training to build a lot of value into a mark bucket or target, you can use it to provide your dog with a destination and then move close enough to toss a toy or treat to him after he gets there. Mark buckets and targets are especially useful for exercises like moving forward in a straight line. You can maintain your position at the beginning of the sequence, send the dog to the mark bucket, and then move forward to reward once the dog is there. As far as the seminar student we introduced at the beginning, Joanne emailed me a few weeks later.
Lorrie [00:06:35]:
She said, "I just wanted to let you know that it's working. I haven't come close to tripping over him at all this week, and he is starting to move forward and watch for me to throw his tug toy to him at the end. This has been a game changer for us!" Finding ways to reward your dog at a distance to encourage him to work further away and not come in after just a few obstacles is essential if you want to have an independent dog who can move ahead or laterally on his own. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Maximum Fun Agility podcast. If you want to build a successful agility team where runs with your partner feel flowing and in sync, join us in The Agility Playground. The Agility Playground is a low cost membership that meets you where you are on your dog agility journey and helps you propel your team to new heights. You can check out The Agility Playground and join our community at www.maximumfundogs.com.
Lorrie [00:07:38]:
See you next time.
