Stand up as the dog leaves your side. When he returns with the glove, praise, and take the glove with a “Thank You” command. Repeat several times, each time turning to face a different direction before throwing the glove. By turning before each throw, you are telling your dog that although the scenery and direction may change, the importance of looking where you are pointing does not. Don’t make a big deal of the turns; these are not the pivots required in the formal exercise.
2) When the dog is consistently looking at a thrown glove, you can start placing the glove rather than throwing it. Put the dog on a Flexi; he should be kept on a Flexi as long as possible in teaching and training this exercise.
Your left arm comes down into the signal alongside your dog’s head.
Tell the dog to sit and wait, then walk straight ahead to drop the glove. When you return to heel, give another verbal reminder to “Wait,” then bend over and bring your left arm down into the signal. When your dog looks at the glove, pause a second, then send him. Place the glove first 5, then 10, 15, and 20 feet distant. Reward the dog with a treat each time he returns with the glove.
According to the AKC OBEDIENCE REGULATIONS, “The handler may bend his body and knees to the extent necessary in giving the direction to the dog, after which the handler will stand erect in a natural position with his arms at his sides.” To give the signal, bend your body – without letting either knee touch the floor – and extend your left arm forward, level with your dog’s eyes. Your head, body, arm, hand, knees and feet should all be “pointing” to the glove the dog is to retrieve. The verbal command to “Take It” (which must be loud enough to be audible to the judge) should not be given until your arm is fully extended.
The most difficult part of this exercise for Tootsie, my smallest Papillon, was my “bending down to give direction” part. I think it is hard for a lot of small dogs. It took many repetitions of bending down and standing back up again (my knees hurt just thinking about it) before Toots felt confident that I wouldn’t bend down and fall over… on her, of course.
Barbara
3) When you see that the dog is “taking a line” (looking in the signaled direction), you can begin practicing with two gloves about 10 feet apart. With the dog sitting at heel, throw the first glove about five feet to your left and the second about five feet to your right. Informally turn to the first glove thrown and send the dog. When he returns, take the glove and reward. Throw the retrieved glove back out, position the dog for the second glove, and send him to retrieve it. With success, gradually increase the distance between the gloves and your distance from them.
When the dog is comfortably retrieving two gloves placed 30 feet apart, you can get creative. To help cement the idea of direction in his mind, send the dog for glove number one twice, then turn and send him for number three. Or place number three, throw out number one, then turn and send for number three. Keep this step structured, but keep it fun. Don’t get bogged down in formality.
4) Add glove number two. From this day on, the sight picture of where the gloves are in relation to each other – about 15 feet apart – should not vary.
When you first add glove number two, do not send the dog for it. Glove two is there as a visual distraction only. When the dog is comfortable with its presence, and does not try to retrieve it when sent for glove one or three, you can begin alternately sending him for two. Always have the dog face the glove he is to retrieve; if he shows any confusion, help him out by moving closer to the line of gloves and emphasizing direction.
5) Teach the pivots separately. When they are perfect, add them to the exercise. A good pivot is crucial to the success of the Directed Retrieve. Where and how you place your feet to turn to the gloves must be consistent. The alignment of your feet and body is as much a part of giving direction as is the signal you give with your arm.
Teach yourself the footwork first without your dog. Place the gloves 15 feet from each other so you have something to turn toward, then stand 20 feet back from the center glove. With chalk, draw a circle around your feet, allowing only a couple of inches in front of your toes and back of your heels. Your objective is to remain in this circle while turning; at the end of each turn, your feet must be pointing to the glove the dog is to retrieve.
Stand with your back to the gloves. In turning to face glove number one, your feet will move three times; your left foot moves first. A turn to glove number two is an about turn in place; your feet will move four times, with your right foot moving first. The turn to glove number three can be made to the right or the left; your feet will move five times in turning to the right, with your left foot moving first. A left turn to glove three is three steps, with your left foot moving first.
Your choice of a right or left turn for glove three depends upon which turn your dog is better able to execute. Teach the dog both turns in practice, then choose the one the two of you do best and stick with it.
While pivoting, move your feet close to the ground but don’t shuffle. Turn slowly enough to be smooth; a fast turn isn’t going to earn bonus points. Turn your entire body in sync with your feet.
Turn for glove one
Turn for glove two
Right turn for glove three
Left turn for glove three
When you can execute pivots perfectly by yourself, you can teach them to the dog. With the collar on the dead ring and no slack in the leash, give the dog the command to turn. Use a treat to lure him into a wrap around you. Draw the dog’s attention to the rhythm of the turn by counting your steps out loud; give the sit command on your final step.
Glove one: “One. Two. Sit.”
Glove two: “One. Two. Three. Sit.”
Glove three to the right: “One. Two. Three. Four. Sit.”
Glove three to the left: “One. Two. Sit.”
To teach the dog the glove three turn to the left, the dog must learn to back up. You can use the leash basket or the dowel to help the dog learn how to move his rear sideways. Start teaching this turn with the dog in a slightly lagged heel position so that initially he has less distance to back up.
Since “Heel” informs the dog that the two of you are going to move straight ahead, use different commands for each of the turns. For example, “Turn” for glove one, “Zipper, Turn” for glove two, “Get Around” for the glove three turn to the right, or “Get Back” for the glove three turn to the left. Using a different command for each turn will also help cue the dog as to which glove he is to retrieve.
Just like the sit in the finish, the dog’s head should be beneath your left hand when he sits at the end of the turn. Remember to bend your knees and come straight down with the treat in your left hand to reward the dog for “sitting under the treat.”
REFINEMENTS
In early training, if you think the dog will not get the right glove because of a poor turn, break the exercise off and try the turn again; avoid putting the dog in a situation where you know he is likely to make a mistake. A dog who is stopped and corrected for running to the wrong glove is not going to realize Oh, silly me! I was given a signal for glove two, and here I am going after glove one! What he is going to assume with a correction is that he was not supposed to have retrieved at all. Don’t mess with your dog’s mind – help him out.
When the dog is really solid on this exercise, and truly understands the concept of taking a direction, you can practice sending him after a poorly performed turn. Do not repeat the exercise, however, until you have polished the pivot and your dog is again capable of a good turn.
I was showing Zack in a dirt horse arena. Things were going well until the Directed Retrieve. We turned to glove one and Zack took the line well and galloped away. To my horror (and the delight of the spectators), Zack scooped up a big piece of horse manure and proceeded to retrieve it! I laughed and broke off the exercise. My friends later said that I should have let him front with his prize and then have him deliver it to hand!
Gerianne
Be sure that y
our dog will pick up a glove on grass, concrete, matting, dirt, or whatever surface you might find at a match or a trial. If you show in rings made of baby gates, practice gloves one and three in corners made of gates. If you show outdoors, you must teach the dog to do a blind retrieve. Start by hiding in the grass part of the glove to be retrieved; continue to hide more and more of the glove until the dog will confidently go on faith alone in the direction you indicate.
You can also teach a blind retrieve on matting. Start by hiding part of the glove under the mat; after each successful practice hide a little more, until eventually just an inch of glove is sticking out from beneath the mat. You can also use a brown glove as the glove the dog is to retrieve; it will not be as visible on matting as the other two white gloves.
The Directed Retrieve can be a real challenge for a small dog. Don’t lose your patience if your dog has difficulty with it. Try instead to visualize this exercise from your dog’s perspective – literally! – just a few inches off the floor.
“Your energy and your goals are best served when you focus on things within your potential control. Your thoughts are within your control. Your thoughts direct your focus, beliefs, and performance. Think about failure and you become anxious. Think about errors and they are yours. Think about your strengths and you feel strong. Think that you can and you will.”
Terry Orlick, PhD
IN PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE
Chapter 16
SCENT DISCRIMINATION
Two methods for the price of one! Just as in how to teach the go out, the authors could not agree, and were not willing to compromise, on how to teach Scent Discrimination. So here is another two-part chapter: Scent According to Gerianne followed by Scent According to Barbara. You can try them both (one at a time, please), starting with the method that most closely matches the temperament and learning style of your dog. Before and after our “differences,” there is general instruction on which we agree.
Any dog can use his nose to sniff out something he wants to find. He knows how to scent; all he needs to learn is discrimination. And contrary to popular opinion, it is not hard to teach. Utilizing everything the dog has already been taught, there is really only one new idea you need to get across: Find the only article that smells like me.
The easiest and least stressful way to teach your dog the concept of discrimination is to use a tie-down board or mat. The mat relieves you of the responsibility of telling the dog when he has made a mistake. Trainers who dislike the tie-down method claim it takes longer to work through the teaching sequence because the dog has to be weaned from the mat. These trainers probably haven’t worked with dogs that are extremely sensitive. To a “soft” dog, a negative experience can be something as innocuous as his handler’s disappointment. The tie-down method is self-correcting; personalities and emotions don’t become involved. For the small dog, who also has to deal with more physical complications in this exercise than the average-sized dog, the tie-down method is definitely the way to go.
Before starting any scent work, be sure that your dog’s teeth are in perfect condition. The pain suffered when a metal article comes in contact with a diseased tooth is a “correction” that could swear your dog off scent work forever.
You must also be sure that your dog will retrieve the scent articles. If he is less than enthusiastic, resolve this situation first. Work through the entire teaching sequence for the retrieve using a leather and then a metal article. Later, if problems develop with the exercise, you will be able to tell if the dog is unable to use his nose or unwilling to use his mouth.
Scent article secured at both ends to the mat
There are three levels of difficulty to be worked through while teaching the Scent Discrimination exercise:
1) Articles are unscented and tied to the mat. The only scented article is the handler’s. The dog compares the handler’s scent to the absence of scent.
2) Articles that are tied to the mat are scented by someone else. The dog compares his handler’s scent with someone else’s scent.
3) All the articles are off the mat; there is no self-correction for the dog.
You can use a pegboard or a piece of rubber mat or carpeting about two feet square for a tie-down. Tie the articles firmly using monofilament fishing line, securing each article at each end.
ARTICLE CARE
Buy your articles well in advance of the time you plan to start teaching scent. New leather articles will have to be repeatedly washed and aired out until they no longer have a strong smell of their own.
As stated in the “Equipment” chapter, single bar articles are best; they have a shape with which the dog is familiar. When you order your set of articles, get seven of each kind. If you go to a three-show weekend, you will have extra articles each day to replace the ones used.
Because there will always be only one article that smells like you, when your dog finds it – even if it is the first one he sniffs – he does not need to sniff any further. Keeping scent this simple for the dog, however, complicates things for the handler: You must not have your scent on any article other than the one your dog is to retrieve. Contaminated articles (the ones you have used) must be washed in warm soapy water and air-dried overnight before being returned to the set. Articles can also be sanitized in the dishwasher; don’t use the dishwasher’s “Hot Dry” setting, however, and don’t wash leather with anything else in the dishwasher at the same time. Leather articles that have been really soaked will need at least 12 hours in front of a fan to dry.
When you are having other people scent your articles, you will need to let the entire set air out for several hours – preferably overnight – between each use. You will also have to treat as “scented” each article the dog retrieves incorrectly. He might have scented something on the article that smelled like you (the dog always gets the benefit of the doubt), plus he carried it back in his mouth so now it smells like him! If you immediately return it to the set, chances are excellent it will be the one he will retrieve again.
Because my Papillons have very good noses, I am fanatical about keeping my scent articles “clean.” One morning I left my articles to air out on the driveway where I had been practicing. They had been out there unattended for a couple of hours when I happened to look out my kitchen window just in time to see my neighbor’s dog (who escaped his back yard only once in his entire life, and that was for this opportunity) lift his leg and pee all over my scent articles! If I hadn’t seen him, I never would have been able to figure out what had happened to my dog’s nose.
There are a lot of morals to this story….
Barbara
There is another approach to teaching scent, one where you need not be as concerned about scent contamination. With this approach, you want your dog to check all the articles and bring back the one with the hottest scent, the one that smells the most like you. While with “hot” scent you don’t have to be as careful with the articles, there are two better reasons for teaching “only” scent. First, the dog will retrieve the correct article as soon as he finds it; he won’t keep checking other articles for comparison, becoming frustrated and confused in the process. Second, the dog will keep working until he does find the right article and not settle when stressed for “close enough.”
SCENT ACCORDING TO GERIANNE
Your dog’s article work should start early in his training, shortly after he has learned a reliable dumbbell retrieve. Using “Take It” and “Hold,” familiarize the dog with a leather and a metal article. Next, work on the retrieve, utilizing a force retrieve (see Chapter 11) if necessary. When the dog will do a fast 10 foot retrieve of a placed article, you are ready to start the scent training.
To teach the dog to scent, use the traditional method of tying down the unscented articles to a piece of rubber matting. Do not put any scent other than your own on the article the dog is to find. (Give the dog six weeks. After that time, if the dog is not using his nose, try scenting the article with a hot dog. The hot dog sce
nt can be phased out later.)
First, tightly tie down one metal article to the mat. Let the mat with the article air out overnight. With the dog on leash about six feet from the mat, throw a scented metal article onto the mat and immediately send the dog with the commands, “Take It! Find It!” The dog has only one choice to make; praise him highly when he returns with the article. Quickly phase out the toss and the “Take It,” and send the dog to a placed article with just the command “Find It.”
Every four to five days tie down another metal article, until the dog is working five unscented tied-down articles with one loose scented article. At first the dog will probably just pull on the articles to see which one comes free; after awhile it will dawn on him that the loose article is the one that smells “right.” During the teaching phase, practice two to four scenting retrieves in two practice sessions per day.
Start decreasing your praise while you increase the distance to the mat. Keep the dog on a Flexi, and let him make his decision and start back with the article before you verbally reinforce his choice. To avoid teaching “sight discrimination,” each time you place an article give the mat a little turn.
After working through the teaching sequence with the metal articles, stop working with metal and repeat the sequence with the leather articles. When the dog has worked up to five tied-down leather, take everything off the mat and start over again by tying down two leather and two metal articles. Work up to a full set, alternately sending the dog for metal and leather.
As your dog gains confidence in scenting a full set, begin having other people scent the tied-down articles. Up to this point, the dog has been finding your scent among non-scented articles; now you are asking him to differentiate your scent from someone else’s.
Competitive Obedience Training for the Small Dog Page 15