OB320 Obedience Starter Games
Obility games including heeling games and skills from all skill building series, with a increased emphasis on balancing drive with control. You do not need all of the skills from the skill building series to participate. Obility 1 is strongly recommended as a prerequisite, however current agility dogs with a strong obedience background can go directly into this class without Obility 1.
Course Details
This class is a "prequel" to the popular OB330 Obedience Games class (now in self study). This is not a skills class but designed to present many short, fun, and fast paced games for beginner competition obedience training. We will use the skills you already have and give you ways to practice that are fun and fast moving!
This course will cover games that will prepare you for future work when teaching the formal obedience skills such as retrieves, fronts, setups, recalls, stands, jumping, go outs, and more! It will also cover how to handle errors before they happen and why establishing some guidelines will build consistent and clear communication with our canine partners.
Each week 5 daily games will be rolled out with the objective to spend just a few minutes a day focused on a short fun “obedience based” training session. Planning for these short sessions will help with relationship, engagement, recalls, you name it! It doesn’t take long to play with purpose every day! Addiionally, each week will have a BONUS game!
By adding “game training” with less predictability and formality, we build relationship and transfer reinforcement to the act of playing!
Teaching Approach
This class offers written lectures, no verbal lectures, and videos of varying lengths. It is rare that relevant speaking takes place within a video; they are designed to be watched and follow the ideas presented in the lecture. Lecture videos may run from 30s to 3 minutes long, with the average between 1-2 minutes. The lectures are designed to help a student understand the purpose of the game and how it might vary by dog. Care is taken to keep lectures short. Each week 6 short daily games are rolled out. Pre-lectures are available before the class starts to prep for some of the games. A 1 minute unlimited homework video option is available, along with the standard 6 minutes option per week. This class will work best for students who learn by reading text lectures, watching videos and who like having structured lesson plans.
This class will have a Teacher's Assistant (TA) available in the Facebook study group to help the bronze and silver students! Directions for joining that Facebook group will be in the classroom after you register.
Syllabus
The following weekly games are broken down into small increments and intended to be played for just a few minutes a day.
Pre-games:
- Food toss - toss forward and toss behind
- Leg Thrus (Fronts)
- Release cue
Week 1:
- Mark, Chase, Race
- Hand Touches
- Going Lateral
- Handler Scent #1
- Focused Food Drops
- BONUS: Turning MINE! Into Ours (dealing with toy possession)
Week 2:
- Cone Flys!
- Playing with Platforms
- Creating Secondary Reinforcers / Are you Ready?
- Tighten that Turn! (270 degree retrieve games)
- Signals/Stays Distance Prop #1
- BONUS: Turning Errors into Lemonade
Week 3:
- Reinforcing Heel Zone
- Spin (heel & in between)
- Releasing Fronts
- Handler Scent #2
- Can You Stand It? (Stationary)
- BONUS: Value for Jumps
Week 4:
- Can You Take It? (Retrieving toys on recalls)
- Finding heel
- Reverse Fly/Send
- Sustained Front Touches
- Examining Pressure - Novice Sit/Stand For Exam Prep
- Bonus: Signals/Stays Distance Prop #2
Week 5:
- Looking Good! (Marking for Go-Outs)
- Glove Toss and Holds
- Setup Games
- Treat Transport
- Handler Scent #3
- BONUS: Make Some Noise!
Week 6:
- Take it! (Marking for Directed Retrieve)
- Divided Attention
- Returning Stays
- Angled Retrieves
- Pick 3 Rotation
- BONUS: Directing Jumps
Prerequisites & Supplies
Sample Lecture
Can You Take It
This is a really fun game that I started playing with my current young dog. The idea of the game is to build value for taking a toy/glove as they are coming toward you. This will carry over to the dumbbell/glove retrieve and help to work on stay and impulse control skills too!
When I first tried this with a toy, my thoughtful boy went right over the toy and came to me. I realized I needed to build more value/drive for taking the toy/retrieve item so I broke it down into smaller steps. This is also a valuable agility game in that we are treating the toy as an obstacle to take on their path. It's useful for sending your dog away with a toy reward at the end of a sequence.
This would also be a great time to use one of your Stay props (platform, box, mat)!
For dogs who are not big tuggers, you can release them to a tossed treat after they pick up the toy. The release ("get it") is permission to drop the retrieve item and contrary to what you might think, it's totally ok for them to drop the item when given permission to get their reward! The treat toss keeps the dogs moving, adds confidence (fun!) and speeds up their return by removing the pressure of coming to our front.
Break the game down as follows:
- Engage in some tug with the toy before starting.
- Put your dog in a wait (sit or stand). Back up holding the toy and drag it along the ground and cue for your dog to take it.
- Play lots of interactive tugging before doing the next step. We don't want to frequently take the toy away.
- Put your dog in a wait. Back away and drop toy. Release dog to take it as soon as or right after you drop it. Continue to back away or turn and run to encourage a chase.
- Play lots of interactive tugging before doing the next step.
- Put your dog in a wait. Back away and drop toy. Keep backing up and when you stop, release your dog to take it when you are not moving. After you dog is moving, back away or turn and run to encourage a chase.
Advanced: Repeat with your utility glove.
Notes:
- My "take it" cue is one of my release cues, along with "break", "ok", "come", "find it", etc.
- You can turn and run and have your dog come to your side to remove frontal pressure.
Instructor
Julie Symons
Faculty
Julie Symons (she/her) has been involved in dog sports for over 30 years. Starting with her mix, Dreyfus, in flyball, she went on to train and compete in conformation, agility, obedience, herding and tracking with her first Belgian tervuren, Rival. Rival was the first CH OTCH MACH Belgian...