The Dog Agility "Soup Nazi"

I feel like the dog agility equivalent to the "Soup Nazi" from one of Seinfeld's funniest episodes:  "No treats for you!"

This has been another week of successful training without food in the ring.  During our practices, classes and run-throughs, I have been sticking to my pre-trial routine and treating Jefferson prior to our runs and none during the performance of the course.  He gets his cookies after we have completed the run; I have verbally praised him and patted him for up to 15 seconds; I place his leash back on him; and we exit together and go get the cookies.  He seems to be responsive to this new, cookie-free training.  

We did replicate a breakdown of sorts during Sunday’s run-throughs.  He ignored the weave poles and ran past them (they were obstacle #2), refused to perform a “down” on the table, and sniffed around the field for a bit.  Again, this indicates he was stressed.  I was glad to take note of his behavior because I was not a bit stressed like I would be at a trial.  In fact, I was enjoying the day and talking with friends so there is no way he could have “picked up on a stress vibe” from me because I did not have one!  Jefferson’s observed stress behavior further pointed to the issue of food in the ring as a big obstacle to our trial performances.  I think that to him, he is “stressed” because he wants to know where the food is when he performs all the obstacles for mom:  a difference between practice and the real deal at a trial.

As I continue to work on and reinforce the absence of food in the ring, I would also like to begin to add toys and play as a reward for agility behavior.  Even though Jefferson just turned three last month, he is one crazy, playful pup around the house.  From the moment I come in from work until bedtime, we play tug, fetch, chase and other games around the house.  And when he wakes up the next morning, he jumps out of bed and races to grab one of his toys to begin playing with me before I even can crawl out from under the covers.  It seems to me that I want this same enthusiasm (and same crazy dog!) on the agility field.  So, I am training him the proper “tug” method from reading Susan Garrett and other trainer’s materials and working on “tugging” in other environments.  This will be exciting to add to our agility repertoire! 

We have an evening/night trial next weekend and I could not be more thrilled to put all our recent training to the test.  Stuart Mah warned me that I will have to “eat” a few trial entries to establish a new pattern with Jefferson but that is okay with me.  It takes the pressure off of me to “Q” but rather lets me assess how well the teacher and student are doing in playing the fun game of agility!

"Who dares to teach must never cease to learn."
~John Cotton Dana