Start Buttons 

Goal of the Exercise

One of the goals of this class is to teach the dog to accept an exam done by another person. 

Some dogs get nervous.  Even if the dog likes and is comfortable with greeting others in everyday situations, the context of being formally approached when they are "working" feels very different.  The dog even sees the judge giving orders to their human and having an aura of authority!

Other dogs get excited and then conflicted!  They think everyone is their best friend and they just know how much they want to greet the judge.  But the dog also knows that this context is a little weird. They see that this judge isn't approaching in the normal ways of human culture.  Perhaps the dog thinks that they should wiggle harder to appease and relax this judge!  Or maybe the dog is torn between their responsibility to work with their owner and between not wanting to be rude to the judge!

In both cases of the nervous dog and the excited dog, the result is that the dog has a high likelihood of being stressed during the exam exercise.  

We want to break down this step and teach the dog how to use a start button to request the helper approach- knowing that it has nothing to do with actual interaction with the judge. The quick touches (and fiddling with the wicket!) are just another distraction they've prepared for.

This is a different approach than just teaching the dog to stay "no matter what!"  I want the dog to know that a person will be approaching, and also know it's not about being "pet."  The touch is formal and the dog who loves to greet learns quickly this is not a hello from another person!  This releases that conflict from both the hyper greeter and the dog who says "yuck" with strangers touching them. 

The start button will be a specific behavior you teach the dog to do.  If the dog starts the behavior they are telling you to begin, they got this!.  If they stop doing the behavior, you will respond by stopping the exercise and may need to bring it back to an easier level of difficulty. Even if you have the wiggle butt dog versus the nervous dog, your dog's consent is still a very important part of the exercise!

FDSA classes expose students to different versions of start buttons under various names. The "stages of engagement" from Denise are a form of consent cues.  I refer to teaching a "Ready to Work" routine in some of my trial prep classes. Other instructors refer to similar ideas as a "Consent Cue."  All bring the idea of the dog opting into starting work in general or a specific behavior.  

In this class, we will be talking about a start button, for a specific behavior, not working in general.  And since the final goal is the dog remaining in a stand position while a judge approaches for the exam, we want to use a behavior that easily lets us work towards that goal.  Start buttons that work well in this class are:

• Chin rest or duration nose target
• Offering getting onto a platform or other foot target
• "Box game" work of keeping their head in a box
• Staring at a cookie
• Sustained eye contact

I strongly prefer the chin rest/sticky nose touch during the training stage as it's very black and white on whether the dog is doing it or not.  I can see and even feel how confident the dog is by how hard they're pressing into my hand, and the moment they lift their head up I know.  

Some behaviors like eye contact or staring at a cookie are more grey and we may not know whether we should abort a rep for a tiny eye flick or just take it as feedback.

And some behaviors may be too "cheap" for the dog and they are willing to do it even when not fully comfortable with the exercise, or actually focused on us.  I want a start button that is slightly fragile so that it can give me more honest feedback of how the dog is doing and force us to go at a slower pace!  Stepping onto a foot target or staring at a cookie may be too cheap of a behavior and may mask how the dog is doing.   

My ultimate consent cue for a trial will be sustained eye contact. As I work towards the full trial picture I will need to be away from the dog (6ft in novice obedience).  In practice I continue to use eye contact as a start button to get the judge to approach, and break off if the dog looks away.  And in a trial, my goal is that the dog continues that eye contact to me!  

Chin Rest Examples

Here is an example of Wren working on being measured. She comes to step on her foot target easily, but can't quite do her chin rest. I do a cookie toss and try three times before ending the session.  Nothing bad happens, I give her some cookies and will go back to an easier step next session!

Here Vito gives an example of using a sustained nose target as a consent cue for me touching him.  He doesn't have a problem with me touching his back after he gets over the initial surprise reaction of my moving of my other hand.

And for those who want to watch a longer video, here is the extended session with Vito.  The first 8sec are the same.  But then I move to touching his paws.  Vito has very sensitive feet and has some anxieties around the handling of them. You can see that when I start to touch his feet he is able to do his nose touch but moves his feet.  What this tells me is that he is confident enough to do his nose touch, but he's not quite comfortable so he's hoping I will still stop.  Where it gets interesting is that after two attempts with a foot touch Vito starts staring at the cookie pile and does not offer me his nose target.  He is clearly telling me that he is not comfortable continuing and wants a break.  Where there's a break in the video I had Vito chase some cookies before restarting.  When I resume I do a brief touch on the front of his leg instead of the back of his leg where he's more worried about a pickup.

Box Feeding Example

I am including box feeding in my idea for a start button as an experiment.  Box feeding, also known as "The Box" or "Dopamine Box" was popularized by Pat Stuart and has been used for a variety of uses.  This class is not about box feeding, but if your dog already knows the skill of keeping their head down in the box and has duration of at least 5sec between treats, then you can decide if you want to use it as a start button for exam work.  

I have not used this technique to teach exam work through all the stages. However it is one (of many!) things I'm working on with Ginny to help her fear of being touched by other people.  

This session with Ginny is ok in terms of the "approach" work, but a bit messy in terms of being able to have clean start and end reps.  And that's mainly because her understanding of the box game wasn't quite ready for the added level of difficulty of being approached.  The box was not yet acting as a "start button" as I didn't quite get clean stillness = helper approaches, head lift=helper backs off type work.  I worked more on general duration before trying again!

And this session with Ginny a few weeks later is a huge improvement with her understanding of duration and being able to bring that into the exam setup! 

Opt Out Station

The opposite idea of a start button is an opt-out station!  This is a place the dog can go to that will automatically mean treats will be delivered for free!  A common opt-out station is a snuffle mat, but anything from a cot to their crate can work!

The goal of an opt-out station is to make it even easier for our dog to communicate with us on how hard something is.  Having a start button to opt in has one level of consent, but if it's the only way a dog can earn cookies then it doesn't give us honest feedback.

If you watched the video with Wren doing her chin rest for the measuring prep, you will see that I handle her delay in doing the chin rest as an "opt out" and reward her with a free cookie.

This class will not be using an opt-out station in the lectures because it's not something I have personally used (although that will likely be changing for Ravioli as I can see he will benefit immensely from one!). I've had a few students utilize one for their exam training of sensitive dogs and think it's a fabulous idea.

If you use an opt-out, make sure you teach it with behaviors the dog knows well so you can get a true baseline of their habits.

Many dogs will initially run to their station at every cookie toss to get some free snacks, but you will see this start to happen less and less and turn into a sign that the dog really does need a break!

Here is a great example with Austin & Zephyr.  They have a chin rest start button, and a snuffle mat opt out station. This station wasn't completely new, but it's one of the 1st times being paired with the exam work. You can see that Austin cues the snuffle anytime Zephyr hesitates or goes in that direction. Lots of breaks needed!  But then some nice work on being able to do the chin rest.  They progress to raising the brush but not touching her.

Overview

This lecture does not have an action piece.  Its purpose is to get you thinking about what type of support your dog may need when we start diving into testing their ability to stay put under distractions. 

In training, I want a start button that is somewhat fragile and not "cheap" for them to do when things are hard!

In a trial, or for your dog's official measurement, you might need to rely on eye contact (obedience) or staring at a cookie (conformation and agility measurements).  But in training sessions, you can start with a more concrete measurement such as a chin rest!