Do you struggle to get your dog's attention without a cookie in your hand? Are you tried of your dog only responding to a cue until you reach into your pocket?
Or perhaps you've dreamed of being able to pre-place the reward on the ground in your training without your dog running straight to it. Imagine being able to set their toy (or food bowl!) ]at the end of the weaves to reward their independent send!
This foundation level class is perfect for you.
In this class, we will help your dog develop the ability to work and focus even when there is no reward on your body. We will build up your dog's ability to work no matter where the reward is located and without any type of lid to prevent stealing!
We want our dogs to willingly leave the reward and confidently know they will get it later! The goal is an eager dog with a clear head.
Throughout the class, we will cover a variety of topics, including
Choosing to ignore distractions
Developing a marker cue for rewards off our body
Leaving the reward to work at a distance
Introduction to increasing the duration of work between rewards
Keeping focus and staying on task even when the work takes you near the reward location. (Heeling, recalls, "sends" in agility and obedience...)
Dogs of any age and experience level are welcome, although I recommend that they are at least 6 months old. Whether you're looking to build a stronger bond with your dog or improve their performance in obedience or agility, this class is designed to help you achieve your goals.
Here is a compilation video of some students from the October 2019 class!:
Teaching Approach
Lectures are released at the start of each week with more lectures than most students will be expected to complete within the 6 weeks of class. Students new to this topic will primarily be working on lectures from the first 3 weeks of class.
The lectures are broken down by each skill. I have written objectives and then written instructions for each step followed by multiple video examples for each step. The videos are usually between 30sec to 2min long and are taken from training sessions of a variety of dogs and breeds. I do not use voiceover or subtitles in the video. At the end of each lecture is a homework summary with the steps quickly summarized in order.
The handler will need to bend down to the floor to pick up a food bowl multiple times in a session for many of the skills. A food robot can be used in the place of a food bowl if that is physically easier for the handler.
This class will have a Teacher's Assistant (TA) available in the Facebook study group to help the bronze and silver students! Directions for joining that Facebook group will be in the classroom after you register.
Laura Waudby (she/her) trains and competes in obedience, rally, and agility. She was halfway to her OTCH with her UDX corgi, Lance, before his uexpected early retirement. She also has championship titles in USDAA and UKI. By day...(Click here for full bio and to view Laura's upcoming courses)
Exact release schedule will be determined by the gold students but roughly follows this setup. The majority of the lectures will be released in weeks 1-3 for more experienced dogs to move slightly faster. Dogs new to the concept of rewards at a distance will likely spend the full session on the lectures in the first 3 weeks of class.
Week 1:
Beginning uncued/automatic leave its
Teaching different reward marker cues
Leaving the reward to get the reward (beginning sends)
Training with food off our body- starting zen bowl cues
Dealing with failures
Using toys as a reward
Discriminating between reward markers
Week 2:
Building motivation for the zen bowl
Adding work before the reward off our body
Sends away from Zen Bowls
Beginning attention walking
Moving by distractions
Mixing up reward cues during work
Room service delivery with rewards at a distance
Week 3:
Building distance from the reward location
Think harder! Sending the dog out near the reward location
Sequencing multiple behaviors before rewarding
Leaving people with food
Week 4:
Sequencing behaviors with the reward at a distance
Will you feed me? Leaving the reward with a helper
Leaving the reward past a threshold/ ring gate/ out of sight
Recall away from reward
Moving towards the reward
Week 5:
Moving towards the reward in movement-based behaviors (agility, recalls)
Duration of work: multiple setups and transitions (obedience)
There are no prerequisites for this class! This is a foundation class appropriate for even young (6+ months) dogs. Young dogs without many established behaviors can set a great foundation for choosing to work with rewards at a distance, but will spend more time on choosing to leave the reward vs the duration of work without a reward.
To work on all exercises, teams should have the start of a "send" to a mat or target from 5 feet away, at least 3 solid behaviors on just a verbal cue, and good focus with minor distractions. The majority of teams will NOT make it through all the lectures in just 6 weeks.
Advanced teams who are already trialing should still expect to go back to the foundation exercises presented in the class.
Most exercises can be done in a small space such as a living room. For advanced versions of exercises, teams may benefit from having enough space to set up a jump (for agility students), and/or a ring entrance (for all sports). Advanced students may progress to doing small agility sequences or heeling the last 2 weeks of class.
Equipment needed:
- rewards! Toys can be used for most exercises if the team prefers it to food and the dog already has a basic understanding of how to bring it back to the handler and willingly release it.
- a target the dog knows how to send to such as a mat, crate, or platform (if the dog does not yet know a send away, a lecture will introduce how to teach this topic).
- zen bowl (a reward container the dog can eat out of such as a special food bowl or Tupperware container.
Optional: a helper. Having another person play the role as a distractor will be used in 2 of the lectures. Working teams can skip the exercise if they don't have access to a helper.
Previously on our send work, we asked the dog if he can leave the location of his reward container to do his task. The reward might have been on the ground nearby, but it was closer to you than the target.
Now we are going to see if the dog can choose to work even if it means moving TOWARDS the reward container. This takes a greater level of impulse control to stay in thinking mode and not revert back to mobbing the cookie container as he gets close. The goal of this exercise is to get the dog comfortable with exercises that may take them closer to where their reward is.
Place your cookie jar located even with the chosen target, but still a few feet off to the side. Send your dog just five feet or less at first! Your initial start position should have the dog sending directly near the target with the dish off to to the side.
As your dog gets more comfortable with the exercise, work on moving your start angle so that the dog will go to their target with the reward container a few feet PAST the target so that the dog is really having to choose between listening to your cue or mobbing the reward! You can have the reward container even 10 feet past the target if the dog needs the help of distance!
Start with the dish by your feet and gradually move it around the clock until it gets to that 12:00 position, in line with your target just further past it.
Here Grace is working on going to her perch with the Zen Bowl off to my side and then out in front of the target. I'm standing near the perch so she's coming from a cookie toss. At first, Grace is a little excited but then does a great job of focusing on me.
In the next step I'm no longer standing to the side of the target but at the start position with the dog. Now the dog knows I'm further away from the dish and there is more of a true independent send as well.
Here Uma is working on sending to her mat while I am moving back to sending her towards the mat. She fails! So I go back to easier reps at the side. Note that Uma does not respond well to the "cookies" cue and that is because as a service dog in training and it's not a reward strategy we officially teach. She does however need to learn the skill of sending towards "distractions" versus a reward.)
And here Paddy has struggled with not eating the food from his dish so Mom does a nice job in raising up the dish and gradually lowering it. She noticed that he's still giving glances to the dish so she will be careful not to progress too quickly with this and may need to get more distance from the dish to the cone as it gets to the ground.
Rewarding from your hand before sending to the dish can help some dogs better be able to focus as the reward gets placed further back.
Here I use a similar concept of having a toy in my hand as well as the toy on the ground. Loot struggles at first even though he's done a lot of it before. After being sometimes rewarded from the toy in my hand instead of the ground toy he is able to send to the target with the toy behind him
Be careful not to push too fast on this exercise! Some dogs will be good about not rushing up to the reward container, but may lack confidence in sending out. They will be conflicted! Praise your dog for trying so hard to make the right choice, and make the exercise easier for them by having the reward container located further away. We want happy, confident dogs!
Generalizing
Continue to practice sends to other targets where the dog has to move towards the reward. Examples may be going around a cone, sending to a tunnel, sending out of a room, etc.
Anytime the behavior involves coming back to you after doing the behavior (like a retrieve, cone/jump send) it can be trickier as the dog has two parts to finish! You may need to cue a hand touch or do "agility handling" to have the dog go around your body before going to the dish. At this stage you don't want the dog to get the reward on their return path without first focusing on you.
Here Loot is working on going to a cone with his dish in different spots. I use that agility handling to have him go around my body on most reps until I'm pretty sure he's not going to anticipate
Here Ginny is working on a broad jump with her zen bowl out. My goal was to be able to move the zen bowl around the clock until I can get it so she's jumping towards the dish. This was harder than anticipated!
Another session with Ginny and a toy for agility work. This is slightly moving into a later section as I'm having her do more than 1 behavior before the reward. But I include it here as it shows some errors where she runs around a jump in her attempt not to make a mistake! I also show using a "pity cookie" from my hand to reward her effort when she maks a mistake, and sending to the reward on the ground for the good reps!
Here Marina works on doing a retrieve with her dish nearby! Note she's starting to anticipate on the release "thank you" cue. I would have her either say "cookie!" as soon as her hands are on the dumbbell so that it marks the hold behavior and implies the release, or cue the dumbbell release with "thank you" then pause, get focus, and release with "cookies" to the dish.
And here Loot is working on the cone send with his TOY past it. I try to help him by cuing him to go through my legs as I work the toy closer to that 12:00 position. Then I try to add in a 2nd cone and that blew his brain with the added speed/work going into the difficult part. I made this too hard and while I did get smart and move the toy back to that 2:00 angle, I should have moved it further away as well.
Overview
1. Send the dog to the target with the dish off to the side (3-10ft!) from their target.
2. Gradually have your start position move so that the dog is sending towards the target but their reward container is located beyond the target, on roughly the same send path as their target. The dog should arrive at the target, focus on you, and then you can release them to head towards the dish.
3. Generalize to other types of sends!
Anytime the dog is sending to a jump/cone, make sure the dog is focusing on you before cuing the reward. At this stage that will mean having the dog do a hand touch or extra handling so the dog isn't assuming the reward!
A sampling of what prior students have said about this course ...
Can't say enough good things about this class!!!!!! The lectures clearly communicated the information, with the videos providing good examples of what was being discussed. Laura was extremely supportive. She was able to give good feedback in a very positive manner. Her caring and enthusiasm came through, creating an atmosphere of encouragement that led handlers and dogs to success after success. Out of all the FDSA classes I have taken, this is one of the top ones! Nicole
Laura provides so much information I find myself taking notes as I read her lectures!Also, information is clearly written and easy to follow.
This was another terrific experience for me and my dog. The class materials, the pace, and Laura’s keen eye were all excellent. I would highly recommend this class to anyone who participates in dog sports. The material applies to so many of the things we do with our dogs! The videos were extremely helpful and ranged from beginning skills to more advance. Seeing the baby in the videos was an added bonus! I would most definitely take another class with Laura. Thanks!!!
This was one of those "missing pieces" courses that helped fill in the blanks for me! My 3yo golden has been raised fenzi style... Has all the foundation skills, marker words, and bits of personal play, etc. But this is the first time I have been able to build duration, add distractions and combine personal play and work effectively. I totally loved this class!
I absolutely cannot say enough good things about Laura! She has the most positive and creative ways to deal with the issues that each individual team presents-- I wish this class had been available before I went into the ring with my dog! We could have been way more prepared and made far fewer mistakes!
Registration
Next session starts: April 1, 2024Registration starts: March 22, 2024Registration ends: April 15, 2024
Registration opens at 11:00am Pacific Time.
The instructor will be participating in the FDSA in-person training camp in Oregon from October 6-8 and will not be available to answer class forums. Class will be extended to compensate and will end on November 13, 2023.
Instructor: Laura Waudby
