Category: Performance Events ¤ Author: Shirley Chong ¤ Title: Using Matches as Training ¤ Barbara Smith said: We attended our first fun match last week-end (sub-novice) and it mostly looked like my boy (10 month Akita) didn't have a clue what he was supposed to do. (I felt like explaining to the judge that he really could do these perfectly at home and in class) I was hoping to use the Fun Match as a training experience, but I didn't feel like I had a lot to work with. I took my clicker and some of his favorite treats, and didn't give him breakfast, and planned to get in some practice on the side lines before our turn, but he was WAY to distracted to pay much attention. What do you do when he isn't interested in treats? Am I expecting too much too soon? Should I try for baby steps in this very distracting situation, or try slightly more distractions introduced more slowly? Okay, first of all, I know what I am about to say is contrary to what most of the experienced show people say. Some dogs do better with breakfast in them. Some dogs do better with a LARGER than usual breakfast in them. Some dogs tell me that they'd do better with a weeks' worth of meals in them, but let's not get carried away with the concept! Yes, I could have 300 pound Belgians if I'd just feed them as much as they wanted... So my first suggestion is for you to experiment at the next fun match by giving your Akita boy a regular breakfast. Any time a dog that normally eats treats stops eating, the usual reason is that they are too stressed to eat (which I see as being a stronger, more fear-related sort of state than simple distraction). I would suggest going to fun matches and hanging around outside the rings until your boy is relaxed there. I'd click any behaviour that fits "settling down" including sits, downs, face relaxing, ears relaxing, forehead smoothing out, eyes getting softer and rounder, etc. When you have him relaxed in one place, move a couple feet, watch him get tense again (you changed criteria), and click him into relaxation again. If you keep working at it, the tension is like a bump in the path--the more you click at it, the smoother the path gets until the bump is gone. Now--what if you hang around outside the ring and he's perfectly relaxed from the very beginning? Then I'd say look at yourself. Are you tense or nervous at the idea of going into the ring? That emotional state changes your body language and throws off all the cues he was using to understand what you mean. Many dogs work off of the handler's complete selection of body language (including but not limited to breathing patterns, shoulder set, hip swing, facial expression, hand position, etc). You can fix this by working at it in two different directions: you learn to relax AND you consciously work on eliminating as many body language cues as you can in training. How do you eliminate body language cues in training? By showing the dog all sorts of extraneous motions and showing the dog that they mean nothing. For example: on the recall, leave the dog on a stay and skip away instead of walking. He may well break the stay! That's okay, fix it. Work on it until he understands that skipping doesn't mean anything. Then leave him on a stay and do a gorilla-walk away (walk bent way over, trying to brush the ground with your hands, swaying back and forth). Again--he may well break the stay. Fix it and work on it until he ignores gorilla-walking. Then leave him on a stay and do an exaggerated scissors walk away from him (scissoring is when you cross your legs over as you walk, so that your right foot lands to the left of your body and your left foot lands to the right of your body). If he breaks the stay, fix it. Then waltz away from him--you guessed it, fix it! Do as many unusual ways of moving away from him until he understands that it doesn't matter how you move, he will be reinforced for staying. Now that he ignores the way you walk away, work on the recall command itself. Stand facing him and do the shimmy. Don't be surprised if he breaks. Work on it. Then stand facing him and do a few pirouettes. Don't be surprised if he breaks. Work on it. Then stand facing him and shrug your shoulders very exaggeratedly. Work on it. Then stand facing him and suck in a big breath--and just hold it. Keep doing different things until he understands that only the WORD is the cue. Then work on the front. Always leave your body square to his (so that he can target your body accurately) but do things like flop your head to the side, shake your head back and forth, wiggle the fingers on both hands, pretend to have the hiccups, etc. For every single exercise, throw in as many weird body motions, breathing patterns, facial expressions, etc, until he has learned that no matter what your body language says, it's the voice or hand gesture that counts. M. Shirley Chong The Well Mannered Dog