Training Monkey pt. 4

Week 1 Day 4 – Distance, Duration, and Distraction

Monkey was doing well at staying with me yesterday, so today I’m increasing my expectations. Instead of the triangle pattern, today I’ve got him working squares against my longeing ring. The square pattern keeps him closer to edge of the ring flirting with Prey and Defense distractions for a longer duration, providing less relief in the center with Ellie. Initially, I had planned on working in a clockwise pattern, but as soon as I got out to the first stationary point in my pattern, I recognized that I would do much better to shape Heel by moving counter-clockwise.

Another way that I’m increasing my expectations for Monkey is by reducing the distance I’ll allow him to move away from me before he receives a check or a correction. By tying off my longe at 10′, I’ve reduced the amount of slack that Monkey has before reaching the end of the line, and by holding the check loop at 5′, he’ll receive a check much sooner. Note however, that Monkey still has the same amount of time (5′ worth) between when he feels the check and when the correction arrives.

The last change to my handling is that I’m now making turns back toward the center of the ring when Monkey only has his 2 front feet over the boundary line. I want him to start processing a bit more for the edge of the ring so that I can make better use of it to shape Heel and Place (wrong-side Heel). About halfway through the session, I realize that he’s not making the connection between crossing the line and having to go back to the center of the ring, so I increase my speed of travel back toward the center to help him recognize the relationship.

Using Distance, Duration, and Distraction in dog training is how we increase Difficulty to challenge a dog’s understanding of an exercise. As soon as a dog shows understanding, it’s important to increase your expectations quickly to avoid goldbricking. Particularly with a breed as smart as Border Collie, false positive obedience is a major hazard, so even though Monkey’s only been working at this stuff for 4 days, I’m already asking him to make choices in the face of competing motivators so we can move at a pace that prevents him from becoming bored and starting to look for an out.