SHAPING POLITE WALKING with a HIGH RATE OF REINFORCEMENT

LEARNING OBJECTIVES FOR SHAPING POLITE WALKING:

• Establishing that both ends of the leash understand what a loose leash FEELS like. The leash snap hanging down becomes a conditioned cue for the dog that we are now walking on a loose leash.

• Learning to pay attention to the leash (J-shape and leash snap hanging down) and developing the handler's role in keeping slack in the leash during the stages of training the dog.

• Understanding the need for good mechanical skills so as to give the dog a high rate of reinforcement.

• Using a high rate of reinforcement to both teach the dog the required skill and to keep the dog having fun while learning.

• Learning to work in baby steps towards a training goal.

• Learning to handle one's leash with soft hands -- almost transparent as far as the dog is concerned. The leash is nothing but an accessory required by our culture. To that end, training loose-leash walking with 100% positive reinforcement means making the leash "invisible" in its impact on the dog.

The first three steps:
1. Set Up for Success -- clicker, leash and treat handling.
2. Standing with a Loose Leash -- do this for one full minute.
3. Slow Drift About -- do at least 25 click/treats before moving on to the next step. If you see that your dog has any difficulty, then repeat this step until your dog looks as ready for something new as Jack does in the video.

Make these three steps your warm-up to every Polite Walking training session. Revisiting these steps with a high rate of reinforcement further conditions the dog to the *feel* of a slack leash -- and the handler too!

It's important that your rate of reinforcement be very high -- click/treat continuously if the leash is continuously in the J-shape. Hold several treats in your hand so that you can get a treat to the dog quickly after the click. It's important that your treat hand remain still until after the click. These mechanical skills should be practiced without the dog in the picture until they are second nature. If you cannot hold several treats in your hand, use a food tube with lickable food to present for a quick lick as the treat. For a small dog, use a long-handled wooden spoon with something lickable on it for a quick lick as his treat.

Practice that type of treat delivery first without the dog.

By starting your Polite Walking training with the dog facing you, he has no need to pull -- and, of course, you will start this in a location that has the least number of tempting distractions! Notice how quiet the trainer is with Jack. She is quiet so that he can concentrate only on the information from the click.




PART 2:
In this part we continue to build the handler's mechanical skills. We begin to vary the rate of reinforcement for the dog -- raising it as criteria become harder, lowering it once the dog is adept at the new criterion.

Each of these steps requires more effort on the part of the dog. That means the rate of reinforcement will be lower for him. When you can see your dog eagerly performing the task without sniffing, wandering, becoming unfocused, then move on to the next step.

Whenever you start your Polite Walking training in a new location, warm-up with the steps from Part 1, then move to One Step Back, then Two Steps Back, then Three Steps Back. That will re-acquaint your dog with the shaping process for this task and get him a good rate of reinforcement that is then gradually thinned out based on his success at each step.

Be sure to stop to treat. Being able to eat a treat and keep on walking is a higher level skill. At this level, we want it to be as easy and doable for the dog as possible. Stopping to treat also means that the dog never gets enough momentum to pull ahead of you suddenly.

Step 4: One Step Back
Step 5: Two Steps Back
Step 6: Three Steps Back

Step 7: Pivot to Face Forward -- practice this pivot without your dog until it is second nature. Remember good mechanical skills -- treat with your left hand if your dog will be walking on your left. Deliver the treat to the spot where you want the dog's head to be. Be smooth, clear and consistent in your treat delivery and your dog will learn to be right there, in the pocket, for every step you take.

Step 8: Alternating Single Steps Back with Pivots -- pivots take some time to do. To keep the dog in the game, be sure to alternate Pivots with Single Steps Back. That will keep his reinforcement rate high with an "affordable" drop at each pivot.




PART 3:

Step 9: Pivot, One Step Forward .
The journey of one thousand miles begins with one step. Practice that one step forward many, many times so that the dog, right from the moment you step off, is never ahead of your body. Make your movements fast and snappy, click and get the treat right to the "sweet spot" immediately. Remember, if you can't hold treats in your hand, a food tube of canned dog food works wonders. Be sure to stop to treat!

Step 10: Human Mechanics for Connect the Dots
Connect the Dots is a game from Karen Pryor that starts of with a high rate of reinforcement and lots and lots of "first steps" of walking. The human half of the team needs to have clear, consistent, mechanical skills. Again, practice those without the dog until you have them down pat!

The cones are targets for the human. As you approach a cone, click while you are in motion and stop to treat -- right at the spot where you want the dog's head to be. Be sure to step off quickly -- just before your dog finishes eating his treat. Give your "Let's Go!" cue to let him know it's action time again!

Step 11: Connect the Dots with a High Rate of Reinforcement

Step 12: Connect the Dots -- Start to Decrease the Rate of Reinforcement
Once you are successful with a row of targets (dots), remove 2 or 3 to create bigger spaces. This will cause a drop in the dog's rate of reinforcement. He should be ready for this now!

Due to our desire to finish videoing Jack, we went a bit too far with him in this session. You can see his attention start to wander, his nose drop to the ground, he looks around.

Continue making bigger spaces adding your removed cones to the end of the line. Work in short sessions leaving the dog wanting more.

Step 13: Ready for Real Walking
When you are ready to go "cone-less", check to see that your dog can eat and walk at the same time. Keep up a nice rate of reinforcement when doing training walks and start to lessen the rate by going for more and more steps before you click then treat. Remember to keep your mechanical skills in place -- leash in the right hand held at your navel, treats in your left hand delivered to the right spot.

CREDITS:
Lily, the Poodle Puppy
Jack, the German Shepherd Dog
Trainer: Lynn Martin, KPA CTP
Producer and Director: Helix Fairweather, KPA CTP
Special Thanks To: Sue Ailsby, Shirley Chong, Karen Pryor

Spoon Heeling

Loose Leash Walking

Blue Working

Lynnda took video of me working Blue. She also provided the notes under the videos to explain what I was working on with Ms. Blue.

Here is Robin working to desensitize Blue, her GSD, to the small & medium two dogs lying quietly in the ring to the camera’s right. Robin is doing Look At That with Blue as well as moving to add more distance between Blue & the dogs.

Here is Robin working to desensitize Blue, her GSD, to the small & medium two dogs lying quietly in the ring to the camera’s right. Robin is doing Look At That with Blue as well as moving to add more distance between Blue & the dogs. Robin is probably giving Blue a bit too much leash; if the leash was shorter, Blue might have had more opportunities for reinforcment.

Here we are having Robin demonstrate the choose-to-heel exercise, clicking the dog the moment it drives towards heel position, with the handler to deliver the tidbit in heel position. Think Click for Action, Reward for Position -- as clicker master Bob Bailey often says.

These two Teaching Heeling videos are for Minnesota 4-H dog project leaders & trainers. The kids in 4-H have to pass an obedience test that emphasizes heeling [like most obedience competition] before they can do agility with the dog.

Robin or Blue have never done this exercise this way (and it is only the third time Blue has ever been to that building).

A boy and his dog

Both the dobe and the boy are both just under 2 years old.

Cookie Turns as taught by Nancy Patton

Actually with the drawings I sent, the foot work is mostly for training the dog to read your signals, and for you to get an idea. There is no way you'd want to do it quite like drawn in actual competition.

Remember these are for training only.

We even said little things to the dog as we did them.

First there is a way to hold the leash. It's always tight with the dog snugged up to your leg/hip so that part of your body acts as a fulcrum for the dog to turn on.

The leash - at the dog's neck height, is run behind both your legs/hips (with a Papillon it's much more difficult - but I did it - you have to duck walk/waddle), gathered up, or allowed to drag behind you, as you want to hold the leash in your right hand at your pants seam - do NOT move this hand, it keeps the dog snug into your leg, you do NOT need to pull on it - just hold it tight.

I use String Cheese for treats in my left hand - holding it in a way that has the dogs head in exactly the position (just not distance from me) that I would like for him to heel - it can be heads up heeling (you really shouldn't want your dog to wrap, rather have the head up and tilted), or the head can be held level as the dog normally carries it - that's your and the dog's choice.

The clicker is held in the right hand along with the leash, you will click for any rear end movement on the left turn which should be the one you start training. The right and about are easy. Do the LEFT first.

I get in position - not the dog, I know what I want - the dog doesn't so I just don't go there.

With the perfect sized dog you can tuck your left elbow into your waist and hold the left hand with the cheese out and where you want the dogs head to be. AKC and UKC both tell you what that is - you pick it exactly and that's where you help your dog be when you get into position.

I let the dog nibble on the cheese as I move forward a step or two - you can decide how many steps you want to take before you actually start the turn.

At first the dog learns to turn with right foot cues for all 3 turns. By the time you're ready for actual ring competition he should be able to turn with either foot cues so you can turn promptly when you hear the judge give the command. It is NOT necessary to turn with the next step, still you're want to become proficient before competing.

Remember we're starting with the left turn, you get in position, snugging your dog up to your leg/hip, holding your left hand in the correct position for the dog to be in correct heel position (with my Labs that meant I was just holding my bent arm out in mid air - that's hard) (with the sheltie I could tuck my elbow into my waist - that's easy) (with the Papillon, the leash was around my lower legs about at the ankle, my knees bent, duck walking with my hand holding the cheese way down low - hurts your back).

So here is what I said and did with my dogs, each word means I'm moving a foot and they are slow small steps- I'm helping the dog learn how to move his body on cue/command, to keep it under control.

LEFT TURN

Left

Right

Left

Angle Right "Cookie" (right foot step) - which is the word I use for this turn to left and to keep the dog in heel position. angle right (the toe of the right foot makes a "slight" angle at the big toe of the left foot -left foot is facing straight ahead.

Cross Over - Left foot (it's kind of a ballet move I think) the left foot goes completely across the right foot so you're standing strangely and you will have to move the right foot out of the dogs way or he might step on your shoe and remove it from your foot.

Balance - Right -balance - the balance is the movement of the right foot getting out of the way.

I click at any movement of the rear, you do NOT have to look to know the dog moves his rear, you can feel it though the leash. If that's hard for you, then get someone to click for you, do NOT NOT NOT look back. You want the dog staying in heel position, your turning your head and shoulder back to look will push him out of position.

If necessary to get the dog to move his rear you may have to take another step or three. Be sure to have your left foot/let forward when you treat.

I only do 4 of these turns at a time, regardless of how well the dog and I do.

This is working on muscle memory.

RIGHT TURN

The words for the right turns, are

Left

Right

Left

Angle Right - the right foot angles slightly to the right for the cue (it's a bit more then for the left turn but in the OPPOSITE direction).

Left Come around - Be careful with your left foot when doing this, some of us (me) have the tendency to swing our left heel out, which causes the dog to move out of the way. Click and feed the dog by your left pants seam.

Your hand/arm still being in the same position as before, with the leash wrapped around your legs/hips should have him in the correct place. Yeah!

ABOUT TURN

There a couple of basic ways for you to do the foot work to help the dog understand what you want, both consist of keeping your feet close together and under your hips (no big steps).

The most common way to to make T's with your feet, plant the left foot the right foot swings in front of the left toes until the instep is more or less touching those left toes.

Do a 180 turn with your left foot (keep the right foot planted for this) until the heel of the left foot is at the instep of the right foot.

Take a small step forward with the right foot.

The other way has a nice little saying Nancy Patton taught us.

It's toe toe rotate go!

Left foot short step forward and plant (that's the first toe above)
Right toes go to the left toes (second toe above)
Rotate your left foot on the heel so it's 180 degrees turned
Go -- is bringing your right foot forward (short step)

some basic things that help the dogs understand turns. When doing straight line heeling you are taking nice steps that fit you and the dog - so you look pretty moving together.

Plan on shortening one stride when you hear the judge give the turn cue, in training it will be your left stride (this is telling the dog something is going to happen, but he doesn't know what it is yet). The next step, which is the right foot will tell the dog what you're going to do, the right foot, with this method gives the turn cue.

When coming out of a turn the first step is always shorter, it helps the dog maintain his position, the next step is your regular heeling stride.

When teaching these turns do them slowly, you need to work on what you're doing also, don't get upset if they are not quite right, you will smooth it out.

These are excellent cues for agility also.

Something people don't realize is how much their shoulders (and of course their heads as they are attached to the neck to the shoulders) turn with just a simple right foot movement. So don't try to over do these turns, always work on them being as subtle as possible, not blatant.

When changing pace while heeling it's important to look at different spots before you, slows means look closer to you, normal would be out a bit where you usually heel, fast would be out farther. For halts, use the shorter stride as the first cue to the dog, the next step to let him know what you're going to do. Up sits are wonderful for this.

Putting all the pieces together is easy if you want to compete, the dog and you know the principals, now you just get smooth and beautiful as you move along (stiffly as is required).

--
Jody B
Jersey Village, TX