Do you struggle to get your dog's attention without a cookie (or toy!) in your hand? Are you tired of your dog only responding to a cue when you reach into your pocket?
Maybe at trials you're holding onto a few pieces of food after you set the treats down, just so you can shove that last piece of food into their mouth right before you step foot in the ring!
You’re frustrated! You feel like you’ve put a lot of time and effort into training the skills your dog needs to be successful, but training still feels very transactional and you're struggling to make it into the ring and keep your dog's focus when the food is gone.
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!
You’ve seen other students whose dogs seem to choose work over self-rewarding. It looks so easy! Maybe you’ve even thought, “my dog could never do that.”
But with a little help, you can get there… because it’s not magic— it’s training.
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 (food and/or toys!)
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 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.
If you want to teach your dog to work without rewards on your body, this is the class for you! Mark your calendar — registration opens on the 22nd!
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. Toys may be substituted for the food bowl if the dog can give up the toy without conflict.
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/they) 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)
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
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
Simple work with rewards at a distance
Think harder! Sending the dog out near the reward location
Adding more work before the reward
Adding more work before the reward with flow and stations (obedience)
Week 4:
Sequencing behaviors with the reward at a distance
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.
Earlier this week we talked about using at least two markers to tell the dog where to get their reward from. One cue such as "yes" can tell the dog to come to your hand in order to get the reward, and another cue such as "dish" the dog they have permission to grab the reward from a container on the ground. This week, we want to start testing the dog's understanding of the two different cues.
This is a verbal discrimination exercise where the dog really has to listen to what you are saying. This foundation is crucial before you start adding in "work" before the dish in a later week.
Bonus benefit in that marker cue discrimination is a really nice way to introduce your dog to the idea of verbal cues in general! Think of how your dog's ability to understand where their reward is (and leave other rewards alone) will help their ability to process down vs stand vs sit, etc!
Mixing up Marker Cues- Stationary
This step you likely have already done! The dog is waiting patiently in front of you, possibly on a platform, and you are cuing a reward from your hand OR the reward from the dish.
This works best if you deliver the food from your hand "room service style", ie the dog waits patiently while the reward is brought directly to their mouth.
As your dog advances, you will add in nice pauses where your hands go to a neutral, or "home base" position between each reward from your hand. This home base is typically hands straight down at your sides, or behind your back. A position where the dog doesn't know whether you are going to feed them again or whether you are going to cue the dish!
You get nice bonus points if you can have all the rewards in your pocket! This makes it less obvious to the dog that they could get a reward from your hand, as well as making it more likely you will verbally mark BEFORE moving your hand to get the treat!
At minimum, hold your treats behind your back so the dog can't stare at them.
In this example with Splash I'm making it even easier by having the dish in my hand and mixing up my yes vs dish cue. I want to see Splash easily looking at me after each reward from my hand and not staring at the dish on the ground.
Freya is working on a similar setup here in waiting for her zen bowl cue. I am not yet ready to have my hands in that nice home base position and pause! Primarily this is an example of trying to shove the reward in her mouth before she makes a mistake and show her that "cookies" is the only cue to go to the dish, my mouth click or "yes" means I will feed her from my hand:
And here is an example of the final goal where Ginny waits calmly (on a platform) after I cue "yes" to feed her from my hand and only goes for the dish on my "cookies" cue. She does show some hesitancy here to go on my dish cue for a few reps and I immediately praise her after giving my cue. As long as the praise comes AFTER the marker cue it's ok!! In this specific case I think Ginny was hesitant due to how close the dish was to me. She actually did better when I moved it further up, closer to her.
Mixing up Marker Cues- Movement!
This step is quite a bit tougher as now the dog will learn to have a default return to you and not go their dish even when coming from motion. We are going to ask them to move by the dish and come to our hand
Just like before, we may need to start with a foot target in front of us to help give the dog a very obvious place to return to after a cookie toss and prevent the visiting of the dish without a cue!
Set your dish down one one side of you, wait for focus, and cue a cookie toss a treat in the opposite direction. The goal for these first tosses is for you to easily be able to help the dog stop as they return to you/the platform before they reach the dish. Shove a treat in their face as needed!
Here Kiwi is working on listening to her cues out of motion. I have a foot target to help her and foolishly thought that would be enough! I quickly reach in to feed her with a treat to help her wait.
Here with Arlo I have the dish off to the side and the rear foot target setup so he comes near that first before getting to the dish. He is very eager at the start and I just barely redirect him with food in my hand. He also is a bit hesitant to go to the dish on cue and I need to praise him after the dish cue to help his confidence! But he is starting to get to the next stage of automatically pausing as he returns to his target without help from me on some of the reps!
Pauses!:
Make sure you progress until the dog can return from a cookie toss and choose to wait in front of you, with focus, until given their next cue! In the earlier section, you were helping them wait by quickly rewarding them before they made a mistake. But your goal is to delay the reward cue until you see the dog choosing to stop on their own! Remember hands at your side or behind your back in that "home base" position too!
You may still be using a foot target for this help in the beginning sessions.
Here Arlo is further along from the last video and has a great pause as he steps on a front foot target. He does struggle when I move the dish to the other side, even when I still toss in the direction opposite the dish.
Here Pistol is working on this with her mom! She's doing some fun pattern cookie tosses and then stops and waits for Pistol to look at her before cuing the dish. The dish is up high to make it easier for her, and on her dish cue it's picked up and lowered for Pistol to eat from. In this video hands are often in the "I have cookies!" pose, making sure you're not obvious about what you're going to cue next is that next goal for this team.
Mayhem is working on the discrimination of all 3 cues. she's doing a great job of leaving the dish, but is thinking about it a lot. I only release her to the dish twice in this 1 minute of work! If she didn't know her "cookies" cue very well yet, I would want to release more frequently to the dish than I did here so that she would have more opportunities to understand what the rules are around the dish.
And here Kiwi is working on this skill without her platform. That "first rep" is hard and I make a comment about rolling my eyes at her as clearly needed my help in redirecting her with a cookie toss! But overall, she does well in coming to me and pausing on her own. At 15sec she makes an error and I attempt to redirect her but am too slow! Because she's a pushy girl, I do a mild punisher of a verbal "hey" and having her do a downstay while I load the dish again. With many dogs you don't need to add that piece in, and if I'm honest with myself Kiwi didn't need that either, not that it bothered her!
Toys
If you're focusing on using toys in this class, this lecture is still helpful! You will want to look at 2 different areas of marker cue discrimination depending on your goals
1. Can the dog take food from your hand (or tossed) even with their toy on the ground. This is extremely difficult for some dogs. It's one I've worked on constantly with Loot. I will work on this from the start with most dogs and just be persistent about continuing to offer food and make food play fun until they take it as I ignore the toy (assuming the dog really values toys more than food!)
With Loot I did not like what I was seeing in trying to switch from toys to food as his food drive was getting worse, not better with it. So I kept toys and food in completely separate sessions until he was over a year. It's ok if you decide this goal is not a priority right now!
2. Can the dog leave a toy on the ground to take a toy from your hand? (Ex: A "strike" cue vs a "toy" cue.) Again this may not be necessary for your goals. I found this really helpful with my latest puppies in being able to train with 2 toys. This made it easier to practice leaving a toy on the ground to work as they knew I could still have a toy in my hand, and eventually in my pocket. It became a way of making some exercises easier if I could sometimes reinforce from my hand and not actually send back to the toy on the ground!
But it's also ok if you decide that when working with toys you only have 1 available at all times. This second goal may also not be a priority for you!
Here Loot is working on some marker cue discrimination with the 2nd goal in mind. His ability to use 2 toys and understand when to take a toy from my hand and when to send to the toy on the ground. I mix up "chase" vs "toy" and a "strike" cue as well and you can see a clear understanding of him even before I move my hands. I'm also really happy with his ability to bring back the toy to me after a toss and ignore the toy still on the ground
And here Anna & Fia do a great job on the 1st goal of working on mixing up food marker cues with her toy marker cue!
Overview:
1. Marker cues- Stationary: With the dog standing/sitting in front of you, mix up a marker cues for delivering a treat to them with their dish cue. The goal is the dog starts paying attention to what your words are and doesn't assume the dish just because your mouth opened!
2. Marker cues- movement: Now we will mix up our rewards with cookie tosses, rewards from your hand, and the dish cue. You will likely need a foot target to help the dog make good choices! Start by tossing AWAY from the dish and get ready to help the dog as they return by shoving a treat in their face to feed and/or another cookie toss away from the dish.
3. Movement with pauses: Same game, but see if the dog can choose to pause on their own as they return from a cookie toss. You can still use a foot target in the early stages! Only cue the dish when the dog is paused and looking at you.
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: December 1, 2025Registration starts: November 22, 2025Registration ends: December 15, 2025
Instructor: Laura Waudby
