FE405 Thriving Under Pressure

Week One

• Identifying pressure
• Think like a dog!! (or a human for that matter….)
• Determining if it’s a pressure error
• Developing a hierarchy of pressure for your individual dog
  • Barrier
  • Person
  • Environment
  • Moving towards pressure
  • Backing into Pressure
  • Pressure moves towards dog
• Release of Pressure is Most Salient Reward
• Mechanics of Release and Reward
• Release BEFORE error
• Creating a super strong mat behavior
• Breaking it down – only one form of pressure at a time
• Pressure On/Pressure off – heeling/moving towards pressure

Week Two

• Touch It game
• Teaching tricks in heel position
• Teaching Tricks In Stand, Down, Sit
• Teaching offering in heel position
• Teaching offering in stand, down, sit
• Run Towards Mat
  • Establish criteria
  • Release
  • Feed on Mat
• Back to Mat in Stand, Down, Sit

Week Three

• Running Into pressure: quick release
• Teaching tricks/offering in motion
• Pressure on/off stationary position
  • Stand, Down, Sit
• Touch it Game Approaching pressure
• Backing into pressure: quick release

Week 4

• Backing into pressure: feed at pressure point
• Running into Pressure: Feed at pressure point
• Tricks or offering to overcome pressure
  • Stationary
  • In motion
• Fronts with judge pressure game

Week 5

• Incorporation Into Exercises:
• Backing into judge
• Backing under judge
• Stand for Exam
• Heeling
• Recall
• DOR

Week 6

• Incorporating into exercises continued:
• Signals
• Directed Jumping
• Command Discrimination
• Broad Jump
• Retrieves
• Articles

Think like a dog!! (or a human for that matter….). When we are training, we tend to be goal oriented. We forget to read our dogs. We don’t think how we and the environment are affecting them, their state of mind, their comfort level, their ability to learn and perform. We forget to look at their face and body language. They are always talking to us, we just don’t always listen. If you put yourself in their paws, it actually starts to make sense. How would you feel if you were walking down the street with a friend, they told you to wait a minute while they walked away. Then a complete stranger walks up to you and goes to touch you. What?????!!!!!!! AWKWARD!! Personally, I’d be out of there!! Or you and a friend or significant other are walking down the street together. Your friend/partner says, “whatever you do, don’t look away from me”. Meanwhile, you can sense and hear that someone is following you. Sometimes they are right behind you, sometimes next to you, sometimes in front. You can feel the starting at you. WHAT THE HECK??? Why???? Go AWAY!!!! And yet, we ask our dogs to deal with these, and many more challenges all the time. And we want them to maintain perfect focus, ignore all distractions and execute complex chains. Think like a dog, and you will have more empathy and a better understanding of what the dog is experiencing. It’s our obligation to teach our dog how to deal with pressure in a way that creates positive feelings, instead of adding pressure to pressure.

Release of Pressure is Most Salient Reward. Many of us (me included) have been conditioned that the second we mark we must get the food in the dog’s mouth. That’s not true. The timing of the mark is critical. After that, you have time to get the reward to the dog. With pressure work, the MOST IMPORTANT piece of the reward is releasing the pressure!! Think about it…your dog perceives the pressure as aversive…if you leave them under pressure while rushing to feed them, you are adding pressure to pressure. Releasing the pressure is the most valuable reward for them! It takes some practice, but you can do it. Mark, release pressure, THEN reward.