Category: Advanced Stuff ¤
  Author: Shirley Chong ¤
   Title: Charging Up That Hamburger! ¤

<teeheehee> Do I look like the kinda person who would teach you to
mentally torture your dog? YOU BETCHA! I'm a clicker trainer because
it's a socially acceptable way for me to express my most fiendishly
sadist inclinations. <just kidding!>
   Okay, how does he know that the hamburger you're eating is his? It
requires a little investment in hamburgers (remember to order them
without onions--Wendys or Burger Kin are actually more reliably
cooperative about this than some of the other chains, I find). Plan a
few sessions in places that he does NOT find distracting. Do a few
things that he knows well and whip out a hamburger after a really good
repetition. Do the sorts of things you want him to do in distracting
situations. Invest in several hamburgers to really charge up his
expectations. <mwahahahahahahaha>
   Then... comes the day when you go somewhere distracting. Walk towards
the distraction and when he starts his brain out-of-body (mentally gone)
experience, back slowly away. When his brain is re-seated in his head
and he turns to check in with you, whip out the hamburger--and take a
few good bites. Remember to eat as if it is the most deeeee-lish-us
treat you've ever had. Mmmm-mmmm! Walk towards the distraction a few
more steps and when you sense you are on the very edge of his
out-of-body brain flight zone, stop, have him do one of the things
you've given him hamburger for before. Has to be really simple and easy,
something that he has a VERY high chance of succeeding at. If he
doesn't, back up slowly, then ask for it again. When you finally reach
the distance where he can succeed for you, BINGO! He gets the hamburger.
   As a side note: you're better off playing around on the edge of his
brain out-of-body zone than tossing him into the middle of situation
where he fails repeatedly. 
   You are also more likely to keep his attention if you focus on rapid
changes in your training sessions. For instance, if you are working on
heeling, really break it up by taking only two or three steps of
straightaway between halts, turns or changes of pace. Rather than having
a sort of gracefully flowing session, with soft, easy transitions from
one thing to another, make them abrupt, fast, tricky. If you've ever
ridden hunter/jumpers, it's the difference between a hunter course and
an open jumper course.

M. Shirley Chong
The Well Mannered Dog
Iowa City Iowa
eithne@avalon.net