FF115: Control Games for All the Sports

The food bowl game is not only a great way to teach our dogs location specific markers, but it teaches the concept of working around distractions. The food bowl can act as a low-level distraction to help teach the pattern games that we will then use in our work around our decoy. For example, before I ask my dog to heel around a decoy, I will make sure that my dog can heel around a bowl of food first. 

As our dog progresses in their ability to work with their handler around the food bowl distraction, we can then start to increase the level of distraction by placing a toy on the ground instead of the food bowl. Gradaully increasing the value of that toy all the while keeping the pattern and the game the same. 

To teach this, we’ll be using the Food Bowl Game.  With your dog on leash and your hand in their collar, put a couple of treats in the bowl. Wait for your dog to offer focus (does not necessarily need to be eye contact, just look towards you instead of the bowl). Mark, move away from the bowl and reward. Let go of the collar and only use the leash to prevent access to the bowl. Continue to mark and reward from your hand for offered focus. Then, using a different marker or a release word, allow your dog access to the bowl. It's very important to pause after giving the verbal before offering any additional cues. In the video below, I say "take", pause and then gesture towards the bowl if Brilliant doesn't go to it herself. Ideally, she doesn't need that additional help as then she would understand "take" means to eat from the bowl. The reaction to "take" and the impulse control of offering focus away from the bowl are the important parts of this exercise.

Once your dog has understanding of the perch stay and the food bowl game, combine them into one game. With your dog on the perch, place a food bowl on the ground in front of them. Mark and reward delivering the food to your dog (“good”), and then releasing to the food bowl (“take”). If your dog moves for the food bowl early, simply pick up the bowl and allow the dog to offer to go back to the perch.