OB365: Open Obedience Fun - Putting the Pieces Together

Pieces in the Middle. Once people put all the pieces of an exercise together, they tend to always practice the exercise. Over and over. Except that’s boring to the dog. And the pieces in the middle of the chain get weak. And those are the important pieces. They are the primary parts of the exercises. We need to reward them…. A lot.  We need to keep those pieces fun and motivating. We want the dogs to think the pieces in the middle are super fun tricks. That’s why I break all the exercises into pieces...and work on the pieces forever…throughout the entirety of a dog’s career. Resist the temptation to always practice the full chain. That’s the old way of training. This way is tons more fun for our dogs.

Tricks & Offering When Leaving And When You Turn Around. For my regular students, THIS IS NEW! We are going to ask the dogs for specific tricks…or to offer (pick the one your dog prefers)…as we leave them!! You can use a mat or platform to help anchor the dog. You must start up close…just a couple of steps. Yes, the dog will likely move initially. No big deal. Just put them back. They will figure it out. Remember, it’s just a silly pet trick! Stay there, do the trick, you get reinforced. Once they are fluent, you can start adding distance. This will take a while. Work on this throughout the six-week course. It has multiple uses:  It keeps them actively engaged while you are walking away. You can ensure they are focused when you turn around. I always make sure they are actively engaged before cuing them for the actual exercise. If they are not, I ask for tricks or offering. Very quickly they are back in the game. I use this with the BJ, CD, SSGL and DOR!  

Stand Stay Get Your Leash (“SSGL”): Lots of teams flunk this! Why? It’s not trained enough.  It seems simple and silly. But it has many challenges. It’s at the end of a long chain. Many dogs are mentally tired. Other dogs know they are getting near the end and want to get out of the ring to their reinforcer. As you go to the setup point, the judge moves with you. Often the judge is actually converging on the dog. And the judge is nearby during the exercise. That puts a lot of pressure on the dogs. There is an enormous amount of dead time. Plenty of time for the dog to get distracted and/or stressed. Often in training when we return to the dog, it’s because the dog made a mistake! Some dogs worry as we return. This is an exercise. It needs to be trained. Routinely. It’s definitely not the most fun exercise. Which makes it even more important to train routinely!  

The Precue is super important for this exercise. Make sure it does NOT look like any other precue! It can easily be confused with Heeling, Signals, Figure 8, Moving Stand, CD…. A clear precue is a huge help. In training, I head to the setup point. I give the precue. Then I say the judge’s words, and mine. Hesitate for a few seconds, then give the cue.  You will see on your dog’s face when they clearly understand what’s coming! I work on this a lot.  Multiple reps within a training session.  Yes, JUST this piece, with the wait, and take two steps. That’s it for now. Make this fluent.