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Preparing for Obedience, Part Two

Collars and Treats and Parking Lots, oh my!

By Kimberly J EganPublished 2 years ago 7 min read
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Joy graduating from Hammond Obedience Training in 2013.

Getting Back to Basics

As I stated in a previous article, it is my belief that every dog should have some very basic obedience training. Even for a dog that is "just" a pet, like Joy, can enjoy life more fully when they are able to ride quietly in a crate, walk quietly on a leash, and demonstrate their ability to be good companions even away from home. Even mixed breed dogs can show off their accomplishments with their Canine Good Citizen (AKC), Socialized Pet Obedience Training (UKC), Canine Good Neighbour (Canadian KC), and the Good Citizen dog scheme (UK). While the registries obviously would like these to become gateway events to more advanced training, they also serve a stand-alone purpose: to teach humans and dogs to interact better with the non-dog owning public.

More On Equipment

Right now, we're preparing Widget for Rally obedience. Unlike traditional obedience, he needs no specialized equipment to complete behaviors, such as dumbbells or scent objects. Eventually, we'll have to have a set of Rally obedience signs, but that's more for course design and less for actual training. As long as I know what the signs say and the behaviors they describe, I can train the skills. For the purpose of basic training, however, I will need the collar, leash, and clicker described in the previous article, as well as the following items:

  • Two Hula-type hoops (heeling)
  • Four traffic-style cones (heeling, weaving, moving away from handler)
  • A raised bed of some kind (moving away from handler, place stays)
  • A sturdy cardboard box or a bowl (moving away, pivots, core exercises)
  • A PVC "front-finish" frame (precision sits during recalls)

Not every dog needs all of these items for basic training, but some Rally skills require that a dog have good bodily control while they circle, weave, or pivot. Most of these items are readily accessible online or locally, for reasonable prices, so we won't be spending a fortune getting him started.

First Training Session

Our first training session took place in the hospital parking lot. There is a large area in the back lot that is mostly free of traffic during mid-morning. I set up a wire crate and water bucket in the back of my vehicle and parked to provide Widget some shade. It was sunny, still relatively cool, with just a light breeze. I was armed with a fresh bag of Canine CarryOuts, beef and bacon flavor. It was a bit of a low value treat, but my main goal was just to introduce him to the idea of training in a new place, without any serious training motivation in mind. I also used a muted clicker, instead of the StarMark clicker that I prefer. Sometimes it's better to err on the side of caution and I was hoping to avoid introducing any new stress. I broke several treats into eight pieces each (the advantage of having toy-sized dogs!) and got started.

I reintroduced Widget to the clicker while he was still in the back of the car. I said his name, "clicked" when he looked at me, and gave him a tiny piece of "cookie." After I had used about half the cookies in my hand, I took him out of the crate and put him on the ground. It was harder to get him to look up at me without him also popping up to jump on my leg, but he was definitely paying attention to me. I finished the cookies in my hand with practicing a few on-leash recalls--walking forward until he turned his head away, then backing up quickly and calling his name. Each time he came close enough for me to touch without me first drawing him in, he got a click and a treat. It was now time for his first "official" training session.

Loose Leash Walking with Attention

Widget has been good at loose leash walking for a while. He has, however, been allowed to go at his own pace and look around or sniff things at leisure. If you've seen other pictures of him, he is wearing a flat buckle collar. That's his cue for being allowed to walk around as he desires. For this training session, he was wearing a chain slip collar. As previously noted, the chain collar is only for audible corrections only. A dog already walking on a loose leash doesn't need corrections.

I started by stepping forward with my left foot. I will always do so when heeling. It will become a signal to the dog that he must walk in position when I do so. (Stepping forward with my right foot will eventually become a signal that he must remain in place. Widget doesn't understand these things yet, but obedience training is all about consistency.) He stayed pretty close to my left side, simply because he was in an unfamiliar place, and got many clicks and cookies for it. I am not a fan of the "focused" heeling position, in which competitive dogs crane their heads and neck around to stare into the handler's face during the entire heeling pattern. Because Widget is currently an anxious dog, however, I want him to look at me, instead of all the distractions around us. To this aim, I occasionally made a small "kissy" sound, encouraging him to turn his head to look at me, especially when people were passing by. He received a click and a cookie whether he was looking at my face or not.

This first session was very short--just 10 minutes. He might look pretty grown up, but he's still just a puppy with a puppy's attention span. A couple of 10-minute sessions each training day are plenty to start. When he started looking in my general direction on his own, I decided to call it a session. I clicked him a final time and gave him all the treats I had left in my hand.

You can see the expression of concentration on his face in the picture below: his head is turned, his ears are back, listening to me, but no "laced back" as if he were afraid. He's squinting just a bit, due to the sun being in his eyes.

The leash falls into the shape of a hook, with the leash attaching to the moving ring in front of the dog's left shoulder. This position is the proper one for using a slip collar for obedience training.

Gaiting Review

I still plan for Widget to be a show dog, eventually. My retired dog show judge friend, Dan, said that once Widget loses his gangly teenager form and fills out, he will be a terrific conformation dog. With words of encouragement like that--I can't quit on him! After a short break to let him cool down and get a drink of water, we changed leash for lead and spent a second 10-minute session working on gaiting and stacking (command word: "feet"). Once again, he got a significant number of cookies for relatively small successes. By the time we finished, he was standing more upright when stacking than he had at the beginning.

As you can see in the photo below, something distracted him long enough to get a good picture of show collar placement. In truth, this collar is placed a bit low. It should be up a bit higher, right behind his ears. The ring is precisely where it should be, placed underneath his right ear. While some experienced conformation dogs can go on a loose leash, the show lead on a young dog is often held taut, as in this picture, without the collar being tight. This positioning holds his head upright but does not choke the dog. Widget is clearly comfortable, although he is watchful of the approaching pair of walkers.

A Note About "Cookies"

To my dogs, anything good to eat is a "cookie." They have hotdog cookies, cheese stick cookies, raw carrot cookies, venison cookies, and dog cookie cookies. For training purposes, we start with "low value" treats. A low value cookie might be Canine Carryouts, hotdogs, or mozzarella cheese sticks, any or all cut into tiny bits. These cookies are great for training at home, where the safety quotient is high, and the distraction quotient is low. Low value cookies are used when there are many small rewards to be had. They are used particularly when clicker training, shaping behaviors.

These cookies are followed up with "medium-value" treats. For Widget, these would be bits of chicken or frozen Bil-Jac. These treats are used for when a dog needs his attention drawn away from minor distractions or when training new behaviors in a familiar location away from home. They can also be used at the end of a very productive training session for a jackpot reward. Every dog has their own preferences. It may take some time to find low, medium and high value treats for each dog being trained.

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About the Creator

Kimberly J Egan

Welcome to LoupGarou/Conri Terriers and Not 1040 Farm! I try to write about what I know best: my dogs and my homestead. I currently have dogs, cats, dairy goats, quail, and chickens--and in 2025--rabbits! Come take a look into my life!

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