Listo’s dogwalk training from the beginning

We’re going to  continue from where I left off in December.  In the beginning stages I am still training the dogwalk in two different segments.  One is confidence with the 3 different sections and the other is the target training.

With the 3 sections I continue to have my dog run up a plank, run across a plank and run down a plank.  This is all done at a low height.  Because my dog has been introduced to the clicker I will now start to use it to mark other desired behaviours.  I will click and treat a quick stride (not a walk) that has him maintain the entire length of the top section of the dogwalk and also a stride that includes a touch into the yellow zones.  Always remembering to feed low.

The second part is the target training.  Once my dog has been introduced to the target I will make sure that he understands the behaviour by waiting for my dog to offer it twice when a click is withheld.  I add a command when my dog shows this understanding.  At this point I will begin to toss the reward somewhere away from the target so that he offers to go back to it from different directions and distance.  Once this is happening consistently I will begin to add this behaviour to the planks.

Stay tuned for next time as I put the two behaviours together.  If you are following certain threads but maybe can’t find it, be sure to use the “search” function of the website!