Author: Daisy Peel
This E-book is a compilation of articles that Daisy Peel wrote for Clean Run magazine about incorporating the Treat & Train (formerly known as the Manners Minder) into your agility training.
The Treat & Train can serve double-duty in your agility training. It’s a target—something visible that the dog can gravitate to (much like tunnels, jumps, weaves, and contacts are visible targets). And, it’s also a source of potential reinforcement. The idea of the Treat & Train being a source of potential reinforcement is a powerful one; if you were to use an open bowl of food as your target and source of reinforcement, it would be highly motivating, but your dog would be able to get the reinforcement regardless of his behavior on the way; whereas you have control over when the Treat & Train dispenses food.
There are many times on a course where you need do not want your handling to overly influence your dog’s performance because you want him to complete a task on his own. In most of these cases, delivering reinforcement appropriately means delivering it in front of the dog in such a way to encourage the dog to move away from you, or look away from you. The Treat & Train can be set precisely where you intend reinforcement to occur. The dog knows it is there, but he also knows that reinforcement is not a guarantee; he still has to do something to make the machine dispense. He knows that looking at you is unlikely to get a reinforcement, as you have no toys and no cookies on your person—just the remote.
In these lessons, you will learn how to use the Treat & Train to
- Teach a moving foot target
- Teach your dog to move away from you to take tunnels and chutes
- Proof your weave pole performance
- Proof your stopped contact performance
- Work on distance skills
Format: E-Book
This E-Book in only available as a PDF file. A PDF file can be read with Adobe Reader on your computer or laptop, and can also be transferred to various reading devices from your computer.
