BH290: Control Unleashed in the Big Wide World

Using Chair Game to build a Home Base for Exploration, by Julie Daniels

Every rep of Chair Game begins and ends at the chair, which becomes your Home Base for this game of exploring the environment. It's a movement game, it's a start button game, it's a game of looking around and processing the environment. There are a lot of moving parts to the Chair Game pattern!

This is our foundation Chair Game. I'm reviewing this with you because I really want you to do it my way. I add a handler action to the game as soon as you put down each treat on a target. I want you to turn your feet to point toward the chair. In this video, the Chair is a white plastic stool. It just needs to be a raised target that your dog can reach. If your dog is very small then use a chair with a cookie bowl tucked partway underneath it. Big and small dogs alike use the chair as a visual Home Base. Big dogs eat home base cookies from the chair itself and small dogs eat their home base cookies out of the bowl under the chair.

Here's a refresher video where I'm coaching my student to turn her feet toward the chair as soon as she puts a treat on a target. I'm using TAGteach methodology to "tag" my student for the correct action of "feet pointing to chair." As I explained in my foundation CU class, I want this action because it reminds the dog that the next move will be back to Home Base. The dogs see other targets and they see the environment, but the handler's position cues them that they will turn around and go back to the chair. That pattern is comforting in such a busy game. Every time they approach something it's temporary; they'll be leaving soon to go back to their Home Base. Here's the foundation pattern:

Kazi Chair Game in outdoor pen with classmate working outside the fence

After your dog has the concept of Chair Game as a Home Base game, there is much you can do to expand your dog's exploration or activity in the training area. In this next video there are a couple of examples. Chilli the BMD is ready to work outside the fenced area. We've added a jump between his chair and his target to make agility part of his pattern. Inside the fenced area, Dash the BC is working on observing the activity without stressing or reacting.

In Chair Game the handler and dog return to home base together. You'll hear me remind Dash's mom about that. This is a start button game. We want the dog to look at the distraction and then look at the handler's face when they want to go back to the chair for another cookie. The dog does not get cookies from hand. There are two different chair styles here. Chilli's mom will stand beside him at the chair and Dash's mom goes behind the chair, which is also how she uses the chair in GMAB. But the dogs are getting their cookies from the chair, not from the handler's hand. The dog has a relationship with their chair and it becomes a safety zone. There is just enough independence in this game to help your dog feel empowered about exploring a new space or observing a new distraction close up. As soon as they've had enough they ask to go back to the chair for a Home Base cookie. It's really 'comfort food!'

Dash watches Chilli from parallel Chair Game stations

I hope you appreciate in this video that Dash is able to look and watch Chilli's activity without losing his mind or his confidence. He has a double barrier to help him feel protected and he has his mom with him. When he wants to go back to the chair he has to remember to use his start button and they return to Home Base together. From there he can use his start button to say when he's ready to go out towards the other dog again. The start button is a big part of this game.

Notice also that I do not have the two dogs working side by side. They are working in parallel, but they are offset from each other to tone down the distraction level a bit. Chilli is ready to be outside the fence but we added a leash for good measure. The antecedent arrangements considered the skills and the needs of both dogs. Chair Game is a very good choice for introducing dogs to the distraction of other dogs in motion, but you do need to make an individualized plan.

How to wean from a full fence? I use X-pens to make a line between the two dogs. Expandable gates are wonderful. I also have a row of birch trees in another training area, and I add an X-pen to the tree line. I have also draped a tarp over this fence to create a visual barrier. And when I want to create a partial visual block but not a full block, I can use the chair itself for that purpose. Then when the dogs are ready I turn the chair sideways to allow for full observation after the pattern is established. We always begin the pattern before we start making things more difficult! We insert challenges into a pattern while the dogs are already pleasantly engaged and feeling relaxed.

This next video and the last picture tell the story of how I helped my students gradually let their dogs see each other. They each took a turn playing Chair Game in the pen with the other dog Down and Chill on a station at a workable distance from the pen. I worked the game with the chair away from the fence and then turned the game around so the chair was against the fence. But I used a solid chair that the dogs could not see through. They already know what the other is doing. When they were fine with the chair against the fence I made the call to turn the chair sideways, and the result is the final picture of the lecture.

Kazi playing Chair Game Superbowls with chair blocking view of Dash

And after the dogs are cool with it all? We can progress Chair Game to look like this:

This picture looks like a BIG WIN to me! This is what we want to see, the dog at her Home Base chair, feeling safe and looking around, processing a formerly scary scene with her tail relaxed and her face soft and curious. We are on our way!

Notice the expandable gate and the lattice jump wing? Those are very useful partial visual blocks. We all have different props if we look around. We need to help our CU dogs see distractions in a muted way. This is a good week for searching them out! You'll need to be able to soften a view so you don't overload your dog with the social scene.

How do you think you can make use of Chair Game with your dog at this time? What is your goal for the future? Let's talk about this one!

Julie Daniels

Deerfield, New Hampshire