AG110: Intro to Agility - Handling Basics

Rewarding The Line:

Why do I want you to reward the line? Is it THAT important to reward the line? You probably ask yourself "Why can I not just reward out of my hand?"

In order to run agility and stay ahead of the dog, you need to build commitment to the obstacles you are sending to. 

As we raised our puppies, many of us did a lot of retrained recalls, getting our puppies to run to us AS FAST AS POSSIBLE!! That is the goal right? To run to the handler AS FAST AS POSSIBLE.

As we start their agility training, suddenly, things need to change. Do we want them to run AS FAST AS POSSIBLE? Yes! But....do we need them to always run TO THE HANDLER? No...you want the dog to commit instantly to the obstacle and ALLOW you to move away while they complete the obstacle.

This is where rewarding the line is the goal.

What does rewarding the line do?

• It refocuses the dog to the PATH between the obstacles, not RUNNING DIRECTLY TO THE HANDLER. So your dog will start sending to obstacles faster, AND allow you to move away.
• It desensitizes the dogs to your motion, motion is the #1 issue I see in dogs that do not want to commit. They will LOOK like they are going to take a jump, but then as the handler moves, they will abort taking the jump and come to the handler. This is MOTION SENSITIVITY.
• Motion Sensitiity shows up in many areas: Dogs not committing to obstacles, dogs dropping bars because they are looking at the HANDLER's MOTION and not the obstacle, dogs that blow contacts, startlines, tables etc because the handler is moving. ALL these issues are due to a dogs reaction to motion. 
• By rewarding the line, we are working on these issues while teaching the handling skills we need.

NOW: This ONLY WORKS IF YOU PAIR YOUR MOTION AWAY with the toy drop. So if you just drop the toy on the dog's path and stand still YOU WILL NOT GET ANY BENEFITS.  REWARD DROP MUST BE PAIRED WITH MOTION AWAY.

Do I care what you reward on the line with? NO :) I do not! I do not believe that you HAVE TO HAVE both food and toy drive, you can develop it, you can train it, but in order to do agility...it is not a REQUIREMENT BY ME. USE WHAT IS REWARDING FOR YOUR DOG.

• If your dog loves toys, great! But always make sure you interactwith the toy once the dog has it. 
• If your dog loves food, I just ask that you have it in something, as I posted in the discussion group, a Lotus ball, is a great treat delivery system for food. You would just put treats in it and BARELY close it, to show your dog how to open it. Food motivated dogs LOVE these things! You can also use bait bags, etc. YOU can drop VERY VISIBLE FOOD on the ground...I don't like to do this as I train on grass and dirt all the time, but string cheese is very visible. I prefer having it in a food dispensing toy.

Rewarding the line is all I do with my dogs in training when I am doing handling exercises. I get commitment faster, I get dogs that I can leave so much earlier after I cue, and I get dogs that can do their job even with me running full speed away!

The earlier the commitment, the earlier I can leave, the earlier I can give information. For high drive dogs it is a necessity so you can get to places on the course. For medium or lower drive, they get to chase you, which many dogs love!

I hope this helps explain my thought processes behind rewarding the line!