Eye Contact

"Know when to hold ‘em and know when to shut ‘ em"

It’s funny – most dogs love eye contact! They really do…even as small puppies, MOST dogs tend to want to engage you with their eyes. Understanding how to utilize eye contact in your training can give you a competitive edge over someone who casually passes over understanding this portion of attention.

To give you an idea of my own personal experience with “eye contact abuse” I will let you know about an experience I recently had in Utility. I am debuting a new Utility dog, she is green and it’s been a while since I have shown in Utility – 2006 was the last time, if that helps paint that picture a little better. Things were going well the first go out was fine, no biggie. The second go out, call it nerves or what have you, when I gave my dog the signal to take the bar jump, she took off running…TOWARDS ME! It was in this very instance I realized a very valuable and possibly costly mistake. Rather than do my normal Q to the jump (head tilt and then arm signal) I simply stared straight at my dog. I changed her understanding of the exercise and from her experience I only look at her on RECALLS, so a recall she started to do.

Thankfully this story has a happy ending. Luckily, I realized this error while there was still time to salvage the run and I quickly closed my eyes. With my eyes shut, Brandy realized immediately this was not the Q for the recall and my very bright little sheltie promptly turned and went over the bar jump.

There are certainly going to be times when you need to “Kill” eye contact, like in the scenario above, and times when you need to pour it on (Fronts and Finishes). The difference in straight fronts and finishes can be simply where you put your face. I tell my students, “LOOK WHERE YOU WANT THE DOG” and that’s where he will be. Many handlers sway back and forth trying to get the dog in front, many of them spit various amounts of disgusting things not made for human consumption, many follow the dog in and inadvertently allow the dog to guide the head position causing the handler to maintain eye contact during crooked fronts. Remember, earlier I said, “dogs love eye contact” so this is the same as a reward and if you give it while in certain positions the dog can begin to build value to it, so be careful to only build value to the exact position you want. For a finish – you need to “break” front eye contact and give it back when the dog has reached the next position you want to build value to (heel position).

Try this the next time you work your dog. Leave them on a “Novice Recall”, call them to front, but turn your head so your face is facing far right and then the far left. See where your dog lands. Rather than tell them to finish, simply turn your head the direction you normally finish your dog. See what happens there. I know the answer – but I will let you read that book, so I don’t spoil the ending!

Killing Forward Motion

If you have ever been to an Obedience Trial you have seen dogs do the “Death Walk” back from an article pile. This “Walk of Shame” is costly as far as points are concerned, generally starting at 3 points and moving upward. It is never difficult to figure out that at some point the dog has been corrected, but the culprit here is KILLING FORWARD MOTION IN TRAINING.

I recently had a private training session with a woman working on her OTCH. The biggest chunk of points the dog was losing was on articles because the dog always “Death Walks” back from the pile. I had her send the dog and I advised that regardless if the dog picked up the wrong article or not, we were not going to go to her (which had been her answer to the dog bringing back a wrong article). We would simply allow the dog to bring the incorrect article in and have the dog try again. By the third wrong article, the dog finally realized she was not being rewarded, but was also comfortable enough to get back to work, find the right article and RUN in. So many times we, as trainers, forget what we need to be successful and that is ATTITUDE. I have a saying – NEVER SACRIFICE SPEED FOR PRECISION.

If you are getting 10 points off your score in Utility B – kiss winning goodbye and at this point was the over correcting necessary or helpful? When you correct your dog by stopping the forward movement to you, in any scenario, you are essentially KILLING FORWARD MOTION. I have seen dogs be corrected for chewing the article in front of their handler AFTER bringing the article all the way in and then they suddenly begin to stop half way back from the pile. Why? By the handler correcting in front and forgetting to reward the effort the dog was making in this long complex behavior chain the trainer was inadvertently KILLING FORWARD MOTION.

Scenario #2: Directed Jumping. Every time the dog takes a wrong jump in practice the handler yells “NO” and runs up keeping the dog from jumping at all. The next time the handler signals the dog to jump (even if the dog winces towards to the correct jump) he doesn’t move. Why? This happened because the handler had previously KILLED FORWARD MOTION in the dog. Dogs need to be decisive in Obedience, especially in Utility. A decision will always be better than no decision at all. So wouldn’t it have been easier to allow the dog (who was obviously trying) to take the wrong jump and simply not reward? He tried to be right, but made a mistake. Let’s try again and maybe you will be successful next time. Obedience Trainers tend to be reactive and either attempt to keep the dog from EVER failing or correct the dog when they are making wrong choices rather than correcting when the dog is giving a lack of effort. When you correct effort you correct a dog that is trying and you will create a false lack of effort as illustrated in the scenario above.

Scenario #3: In Novice, the handler has really been working fronts and finishes. The dog comes in front and the handler feels it would be better to constantly guide the dog by sticking their foot or leg out. The dog runs into it. In the ring the dog stops and sits just out of reach of the handler. In our quest for perfection, fronts and finishes almost feel like the dog from Nintendo’s popular duck hunt game. You miss and the dog pops out of the bushes laughing hysterically at you. In Obedience he just laughs and takes your placements. To avoid the forward motion killer mentioned above, always reward when the dog is trying. If a dog runs in and sits smartly, but not necessarily straight, would you say he was trying? Should he get a reward for the effort he gave? My students and I reward fronts all the time, even the “not so pretty” ones. A dog comes in and sits crooked. We allow the dog to make the decision to sit and if it is crooked the dog is given a “C” reward (I use Cheerios) that is quickly tossed between my legs. You want to quickly get the dog out of the front position so as not to build any type of value to the crooked front. Set up for another recall and try again. If you reward the forward motion you never have to worry about the dog not giving you effort in the ring.

If you change your mindset that mistakes are ignored and the correct behavior or behavior chain is to be rewarded heavily you will begin to see more of what you need in obedience which is Attitude and less walking. I hope this has shed some light on the Forward Motion Killers. Remember there are probably 400 different scenarios that could have been used, but I chose these since they are the ones I see most often. Be mindful of these killers and you will go much, much farther, much, much faster.

Until Next Time!

Remember, life is stressful, training your dog should not be!