Day 117 Directionals · Dog Training Community

Day 117 Directionals

Kizmet has a pretty good trials sendaway/redirect and the training/tests for USAR are built around the FEMA work where they move between platforms. In real life and in Advanced operational tests on a rubble pile however there are no markers or platforms and I often have to stay in one place. Getting a dog to move back/forward/left/right is then more of a challenge. So today tested where we are at in an open field. Left/Right not bad when needing to move further back directly away it gets tricky. Then tried on small piles (wood not rubble) and better but will need to build more distance (video), Have tried fading markers to small ones and using dropped toys/small bowls. Anything having small rewards out there can cause sniffing/hunting behaviour (especially in a spaniel) which is not ideal as leads to circling/quartering rather than clean go outs. Rewards all from me can lead to forward creep and a reluctance to go far out. So today was back to the ball thrower to deliver the ball out there when complete. Seems to still be the best compromise but will keep thinking how to communicate directionals without platforms, markers or lasers to guide them. A strong understanding of some sort of a keep going signal would be useful but not something I have trained before. More thinking required.

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