Retriever Foundations – Part 2

The Retrieve as a Behaviour Chain

The retrieve, whether a sighted retrieve or retrieves, or a blind or unseen retrieve consists of a number of discrete behaviours linked to one another in a fairly predictable way.  On the assumption that you are in line for a single marked retrieve, breaking down the entire behaviour into its component parts will probably look something like this:

• Warming up your dog.
• Walking into line on lead.
• Removing the lead
• Getting into position in the line
• Placing the dog in a sit (or stand) on your left (or right) hand side.
• Checking the position of the gun or guns
• Checking the position of the dog before indicating to the line judge that you are ready.
• Marking the fall – both you and your dog
• Sending the dog
• Locating the dummy and picking it up
• Returning to you with the dummy
• Delivering the dummy to hand
• Returning to heel if the delivery was made facing you.
• Replacing the lead
• Thanking the judge
• Walking out of the line.
• Cooling down the dog.

You can see from this that there is a definite pattern of behaviours – some of which will be worked on individually, and some of which are a clearly defined group of behaviours.  If these patterns become habitual for both you and your dog, as a team you will approach all retrieves and combinations with confidence.  Another phrase for these “patterns” is “skill sets”.

The first thing we will do is work on individual behaviours.  We will then combine them into mini-chains, and then finally put all the mini chains together into the finished retrieve.  When training a behaviour chain it is best to start at the end of the chain and work forwards.  The reason for this is that each link in the chain reinforces the link before.  In this case the delivery would reinforce the return would reinforce the pickup would reinforce the send and so on.  It stands to reason that the stronger the delivery is the stronger each link in the chain preceding the delivery would become.  It is easier for a human to learn a poem from the end than from the beginning for this very reason.

The Delivery

Once we know that our dog will mark and retrieve a thrown dummy with enthusiasm, we will only be throwing marked retrieves occasionally.  Because we are working on links in the retrieve behaviour chain, we are going to start with the last link.  That is, the delivery to hand.  We are going to teach our dogs to hold the dummy in his or her mouth until we ask for it.

There are a number of ways to do this, but the one I prefer is to shape the dog to take the dummy out of my hands and hold it.  I like the dog to take it out of my hands, because then I can control how he takes it in his mouth.  By holding both ends of the dummy he is obliged to take it in the centre – this will eliminate any picking up at the ends or by the rope.  In fact, for this exercise I prefer to use a dummy without a throw rope.  Once he has the dummy in his mouth, I will mark the hold with a click or a marker word and a treat.  The problem that most people find when rewarding the delivery with food is that the dog drops the dummy to take the food.  This is often the result of the food being offered too early in the process.  The food must only appear once the dummy is in the trainer’s hands.  Holding both ends of the dummy will also make it more difficult for the trainer to offer food before the dog releases it.  Initially the hold will only be very brief – half a second, but as the dog becomes more confident about what is required, the duration of the hold can gradually be increased until the dog is ready to take the responsibility of holding the dummy by himself at which time you can let go one hand and then the other and ask for a longer hold before reaching out to take the dummy back.  At this stage you can start adding the “Give” or “Drop” cue.  Again, be very careful not to make any movement such as reaching for the food until the dummy is firmly in your hand.

The next step in the process is to get your dog to pick it up off the floor and to do this you simply hold it closer and closer to the ground so that he has to bend down to take it from your hands.  You can eventually place it on the ground so that he has to lift it off the ground to put it in your hands.  At this stage you can add your “Fetch” cue as he picks it up.

To start adding some distance, you can now, as you take the dummy from him with the “Give” cue, and after marking with either the clicker or a word, toss the food treat away from you so that he has to move away from you to get it.  (Make sure that he sees where you have tossed it).  While he is eating it place the dummy further away from you so that he fetches it on his way back to you.  Repeat the process moving the dummy further and further away from you for him to retrieve.  Your criteria for him coming close to deliver the dummy and holding on to it until you say the “Give” word must remain consistent.

Once he has the concept of holding on to the dummy until you say “Give” you can start incorporating holding the dummy into your obedience exercises.  Get him to heel for short distances with the dummy in his mouth; sit with the dummy in his mouth; stay with the dummy in his mouth while you walk away from him and come to you with the dummy in his mouth when you call him.

It is a good idea that while you are working on this exercise you stop all other retrieving.  Continue with your obedience exercises, but no marks or other retrieving work until your dog is consistently picking up the dummy on cue and delivering it when you say “Give”.

Skill Sets

Some of the skill sets or patterns that you can be working on with your dog while going through the delivery to hand drills are:

• Recall to front and finish.  I like this to be automatic so that when you get back to doing marking drills in the field your dog will always deliver the dummy in front, and will always return to heel after delivery.  It has to be repeated so many times that both you and your dog do not even think about it.  When you are faced with working out strategies for multiple retrieves in the future the last thing you will want to be worried about is your dog’s line manners.  The other advantage of bringing your dog to heel after he has delivered is that he will not be inclined to jump up after the bird of dummy when the judge takes it from you.  He is also in position so that you can attach the lead and leave the line without a fuss.
• Finding heel position.  This should be so instilled in your dog that he will position himself perfectly at heel every time you readjust your position to set him up for a blind, or a memory mark.  There is nothing worse than seeing a handler fiddling around with his dog in the line to get him into heel before sending him for a blind.  The dog should be able to find heel position whether you turn clockwise or anti-clockwise.  There are a number of ways of teaching this, but I prefer to teach the clockwise turn with luring, and the anti-clockwise turn (turning into the dog) with a pivot exercise.

The Clockwise Turn (Pivot to the right):

Reward your dog a couple of times for being in this position – pay attention to the quality of the sit, and check to see that your dog’s spine is lined up in the direction you are facing.  Now take a treat in your left hand, hold it about 5 or 6 cm from your dog’s nose and pivot to your right, luring the dog around with the treat in your hand, through 180°.  At the completion of the turn, ask your dog to sit and give him the treat.  Repeat this a couple of times with the food lure, then without food in your hand but still holding your hand in the same position in front of his nose, repeat again, rewarding with food out of your pocket for the sit.

Once your dog is finding the heel position through 180° you can reduce the angle to 90° and then through 45° until the dog is responding to small movements of your body and feet.

The Anti-Clockwise Turn (Pivot to the left):

This is more difficult than the clockwise pivot because to do this efficiently, the dog has to learn to move his back feet to turn and not his front feet.  Dogs are not particularly aware of what their back legs are doing most of the time, and tend always to lead with their front.  You can teach a dog to move his back legs and keep his front feet still by teaching him perch work.  This is fairly time-consuming but if you can find the time to practice it the dogs really enjoy it and the side-benefit is that it strengthens the muscles supporting the knee joint.

If you are not keen to try the perch work, then the best way to get a dog to pivot to the left is to use a subtle body block together with a lure.  With your dog in the heel position and holding a treat about two or three cm in front and slightly to the left of his nose , turn to your left by stepping across his body with your right foot and finishing a quarter turn from where you started. To get the treat and avoid bumping against your leg which is across his chest, he will have to move into the new heel position.  As soon as he has found the position, mark and reward him.

Part 1

RETRIEVER FOUNDATIONS

YARD WORK – PART 1

 

FOCUS, ATTENTION PAYING AND FOLLOW-ME

It is extremely important for your dog to be focussed on you. If this focus on you is not present and strong, your dog will be less likely to cope with all the distractions of other dogs and strange environments, etc. At home encourage this attention-paying by putting one of your dog’s meals into your pocket and simply go about your normal activities. Each time the dog looks at you – feed him some of the food in your pocket; each time the dog sits and looks at you, feed him. There are no commands – all you want from your dog is attention and for him/her to follow you, and to sit when you stop. This is the foundation behaviour for ALL obedience.

Getting the Behaviour

Stand still and wait for orientation. Orientation does not mean eye contact or anything specific in the beginning – ear twitch or small movements towards you can be clicked. Rate of reinforcement must be very high to start with to avoid the dog disengaging. If there is too much time between each click and treat, the dog will tend to get distracted more easily. It is very important that no coercion is used for this exercise – no leash jerks or calling the dog’s name. Either tie the leash to your belt, or drop it and stand on the handle.

This behaviour must be a default behaviour – in other words, no cue. This is a separate exercise from the name recognition game.

Once the dog is focussing on you, start backing away from the dog. The dog will follow. Make sure you continue facing the dog. At this stage of the exercise, any movement by the dog towards the handler is clicked with the treat being delivered by hand. It is important to keep moving as you may be inclined to stop and click the dog for sitting. This is not what the exercise is about.  At least once a week, take your dog to a place other than the home environment such as a shopping centre or a park or an open area and play the focus game here. It is important that your dog learns to pay attention in spite of distractions.

HEELING

This exercise follows on automatically from the attention and follow exercise. After about 5 minutes of the Focus exercise, and at a point where your dog is focussed on you, simply do an about turn to your right and continue moving forward. Your dog will now be on your left. Carry on clicking and treating for movement with you and position at your left knee. Focus on a spot directly ahead and move in a straight line towards that point for about 20 steps – clicking and treating for movement and position. Do only this for the first week, gradually tapering off the clicks and treats as the behaviour becomes more solid. You can also, at this stage start asking for sit when you stop. Don’t forget to click and treat your dog for compliance.

When asking for the sit at heel when you stop, be careful to say “Sit” just before you actually stop.  If you wait until you stop before you say sit, the dog’s forward momentum will carry him past you before he complies.  He will then be sitting ahead of you, and not in the heel position which is what you require.  With repetition, he will learn to pick up the cues from your speed and leg movements and you can drop the verbal cue.

As your dog has more of an understanding of what is required you can start adding about turns and right and left turns, remembering to watch your dog all the time so that you can click and treat for attention during the changes of direction.

Start with these exercises in your garden or some other non-distracting environment and then take them “on the road”.

When taking the heeling exercise on the road, you need to lower your criteria and raise your rate of reinforcement until your dog desensitizes to the distractions.  Also, do not try and walk all the way around the park, or around the block in one go.  Rather do 10 steps of heeling and then either let your dog off lead to run, or allow him to sniff.  Then do another 10 steps.  Gradually extend the distance to 15 steps, then 20 steps, and so on.

REMEMBER, THAT HEELING SHOULD BE FUN. KEEP THE EXPERIENCE EXCITING FOR YOUR DOG WITH NO CORRECTIONS AND STACKS OF REWARDS. TO QUOTE THE TOP EUROPEAN AGILITY TRAINER SILVIA TRKMAN “HEELING IS JUST ANOTHER TRICK”.

SIT AND STAY

 The first criterion for this exercise is that your dog sits each and every time you ask for it. Not just when your dog feels like it – not just when you are waving food around in his face – not just when you are feeding him his dinner – but always, no arguments, no cajoling,- every time.

If your dog is not popping his rear down when he hears the word “Sit”, you need to go back and practise, practise, practise. Not just at home, but when you take your dog for a walk, in your kitchen, before you go out of the gate, before you put his lead on. Repeat, repeat, repeat until it becomes a HABIT! Remember that once your dog has learnt the meaning of the word “Sit” it is no longer necessary to use the clicker to mark the behaviour. The word has taken over the function of the clicker. What is the function of the clicker? It is, in part, a predictor of the reward. The word “Sit” has now become the predictor of possibly a reward like a treat, going outside and/or fetching the retrieve.

Now we are going to extend the sit into a sit/stay, so it is necessary to bring out the clicker again so that we can “talk” to our dog and explain (via the clicker) what it is we want. We want our dog to sit and stay there until we release him or her from the stay. The way we do this is simply to delay the click.

The 3 D’s

• Duration (Time)
• Distance (Movement away from your dog)
• Distraction (Anything that will tempt your dog to break his stay).

Because we want to set things up for your dog to succeed, we can’t train him on all the three D’s at the same time. So we start with the easiest – Duration. We address the other two D’s later on.

Duration

• Say “Sit” – dog sits – (wait 2 seconds) – click and treat.
• Say “Sit” – dog sits – (wait 2 ½ seconds) – click and treat.
• Say “Sit” – dog sits – (wait 3 ½ seconds) – click and treat.

….. And so on, until you have reached 10 seconds. Do not move away at this stage, just stand next to or in front of your dog until your dog can maintain the sit for 10 seconds. Remember, the dog is waiting for the click to tell him that he has done the right thing. What the click is telling him is to wait…. The next D we will be working on is Distraction to prepare your dog for being steady to shot and throw.

SUMMARY

ATTENTION-PAYING AND FOLLOW-ME

1. Click and Treat for orientation and/or eye contact.  High Rate of Reinforcement.
2. No coercion is used for this exercise – no leash jerks or calling the dog’s name.
3. No cue – default behaviour.
4. Back away – dog follows.  C&T movement with you.
5. Extend duration, and then
6. Add distractions.

HEELING

Brief Attention-Paying and Follow exercise to get dog focussed.

1. Heel for about 20 steps in a straight line.  High rate of reinforcement (every 2^nd or 3^rd step).
2. Gradually extend to 5 steps between C&T, then 8 steps, then 10 steps.
3. Ask for sit when you stop.  For example, walk 10 steps, stop and ask for a sit (C&T the sit) walk another 10 steps, stop and ask for a sit, and so on…

SIT AND STAY

Ensure that your “Sit” is fluent.  To test this, you should be getting at least 10 to 13 sits in the space of 30 seconds.

1. Gradually extend duration until the sit is held for 10 seconds both in the heel position, and in the front position.

 YOUR TRAINING PLAN

 If you are to take your training seriously, and more important to make progress with the skills you are teaching your dog, it is very important to do some planning before you actually get out there and have to stand around wasting time for 5 minutes while you think of what you’re going to do.  The other problem with not keeping records, is that without knowing what your dog achieved with your last training session (and don’t think you’ll remember, because you won’t!), you are not in a position to raise criteria and will probably get stuck doing all the things that your dog can already do, resulting in apathy from your dog, and boredom from you, as well as absolutely no progress forward.

At the very least, make a list of your goals, and keep a running check on your progress.  A simple form of goal setting with a checklist could be as illustrated:

OBEDIENCE GOALS
Exercise	Criteria	Assessment
FOCUS	Will pay attention and follow me for 5 seconds before the reward.  Goal is 8 out of 10 correct reps.	YES!
		Almost
		HELP!
	Will pay attention and follow me for 10 seconds before the reward.  Goal is 8 out of 10 correct reps.	YES!
		Almost
		HELP!
SIT	Will sit on cue 10 times in 30 seconds.	YES!
		Almost
		HELP!
SIT/STAY	Will sit at heel for 5 seconds before released.  Goal is 8 out of 10 correct reps.	YES!
		Almost
		HELP!
	Will sit at heel for 10 seconds before released.  Goal is 8 out of 10 reps.	YES!
		Almost
		HELP!
HEELING	Will walk at heel for 20 paces in a straight line.  Can C&T the sit.	YES!
		Almost
		HELP!
	Will walk at heel for 10 paces and sit when I stop.  Can C&T the sit.	YES!
		Almost
		HELP!
	Will walk at heel for 30 paces with at least 2 automatic sits.  Can C&T the sit.	YES!
		Almost
		HELP!

This is just an example for you to use.  You can break down the progressions into even smaller steps if you like.

RETRIEVER FOUNDATIONS

FIELD WORK – PART 1

THE SINGLE MARKED RETRIEVE

 When you start a pup–or inexperienced adult for that matter–remember that retrieve desire must precede “marking practice.” You must build a pup’s enthusiasm for simple retrieving by way of games. Start building good habits such as coming back to you with the retrieve (all part of the game) and holding the retrieve article without mouthing or mishandling the retrieve “toy”. Also, put as much effort into building your obedience skills as you do with your retrieving exercises. 

 Training for the “Spot on the Ground”

 If you are fortunate enough to have a natural marker, your dog will understand the concept of marking the destination of the bird or dummy as a “spot on the ground” and will lock on to that spot all the way from your side to the location. He is marking with his eyes.

The weak marker or the dog that has not learnt to use his eyes, will head out to the area of fall, immediately drop his nose to the ground and start hunting the area. Because it has not occurred to him to use his eyes to locate the bird, he often will hunt right past the bird and never see it. Unfortunately the nose-down marker tends to lose track of where to hunt and often ends up well away from the “zone” he first identified.

What we are going to do is make it possible for our young dogs to learn to use their eyes. We will…

• Use, wherever possible, dummies that can easily be identified – white or light-coloured dummies – not orange.
• Start your marking exercises in an area with light cover so that your dog can easily see the retrieve object.
• Avoid throwing long distance marks – rather start close and build the distance gradually.
• Try to avoid throwing marks that frequently require the thrower’s help to get your dog to the dummy or bird.

The ability to mark is a natural instinct among quality retrievers. All that is necessary is to enhance the gifts proper genetics has provided. This is not done by throwing repetitive, meaningless marks – all this does is promote unsteadiness and independence. In your pup’s very early days its natural retrieving “drive” is woken by tossing “fun” retrieves, but as soon as we know that pup will retrieve enthusiastically, these relatively uncontrolled retrieves must cease if we are to have a great marker. Once the dog is steady and is embarking on the more intense training, these “fun” or “happy” marks can be used to relax the dog or for a reward.

Remember these important points:

The right field. Use a field with short grass such as a park or soccer field. This should be clean with no distracting objects such as food wrappers, etc.

The right retrieve object. Use only prominent retrieve objects that the pup can readily see from a distance as he approaches. Clean white dummies are preferred for the very first marks. Don’t throw anything that the dog will have trouble seeing in the air or on the ground.

The right wind. Early marks should be thrown down wind. You want to make sure that the pup doesn’t use his nose to guide him to the fall.

Visual continuity. The pup must be able to see the dummy lying on the ground for the entire time he runs out to it.

Your thrower

It’s important that your thrower have a good throwing arm. There are real advantages to a long throw that lands well away from where the thrower stands, especially for beginning markers. Before you send your thrower out to throw for the puppy, coach him on when and how to help if the pup gets lost or tries to return without the dummy. Techniques for helping young pups include: re-attracting the lost pup with sound and throwing a second dummy while he’s looking at the thrower; attracting the pup with sound and motion so as to help direct him to find the one already thrown; or slipping in another bird or dummy while the pup is not looking and placing it in a location where the pup will easily find it.

Remember, if your marks are set up correctly the need for thrower help will be rare or nonexistent at this early stage. If you find your puppy is frequently needing thrower help, you need to simplify your marks.

Position the thrower to minimize his influence on the marking “picture”

For a young puppy’s very first retrieves that are thrown by someone else (not your own hand thrown retrieves), the distance from the dog to the fall should be less than the distance from the fall to the thrower.

This geometry helps establish the puppy’s habit of looking at the fall and not the thrower after the dummy is on the ground. It also helps the pup naturally return to you with the dummy, rather than go visit the thrower.

As you gradually lengthen the marks, you cannot maintain this geometry, of course. So now, to keep the pup’s focus on nothing but the fall as he runs out to get it, try to position the thrower where, although he will still be visible, he will be somewhat out of the picture as the pup runs toward the mark. For example, place him on the other side of a path or cover strip from where the fall lands. When this is not possible, use square (“flat”) throws, because they visually separate the thrower from the fall better than angle back throws.

As soon as your pup has learnt to track the dummy as it moves through the air to a spot on the ground, you can position the thrower behind a tree or shrub, so that he is not such an obvious part of the picture.

Another possible problem that you might encounter is that your pup does not maintain focus on the dummy before being sent to retrieve, but switches to either watch the thrower, or you.  Because you want to test your dog’s steadiness as well, you will be inclined to delay sending your pup for a second or two; this delay often causes your pup to switch his focus from the fall to the thrower.  If you send him when he is watching the thrower you are in danger of creating a habit that will be difficult to break later on, and might become problematic when you are marking off a retired gun.  What I suggest you do in a case like this is NOT delay sending your pup.  Rather send him as soon as the dummy hits the ground.  This way he will maintain focus on the fall rather than on the thrower.  You can then gradually extend the time you delay sending him.

However, having said all this about marking it is still very important to your training plan to remember that a retrieve is a complex behaviour consisting of a number of finite behaviours linked together to form a chain.  Also, with any training of complex behaviours, the best place to start is at the end of the chain.  The end of a retrieve behaviour chain is the delivery.  So this is where you would start.  We will discuss how to start at the end at our next lesson.

Foundations

I have had a couple of requests for my training manuals, which are, at the moment, a work in progress.  I plan to make the manual available towards the middle of next year, but until then I am posting the notes which accompany my Retriever  Foundation Course.  This is not a Training Manual or a book on training retrievers, but it might give some guidance to someone who is keen to start training his or her retriever for field work, but does not want to use force or coercion or intimidation.

I will publish the notes in four parts at weekly intervals and would welcome any comments.