Flying Poodles

In which Dancer shows her true brilliance

Over the weekend, Dancer and I spent two days at a seminar with Susan Perry. Susan is one of the best instructors I know, very observant, and with a huge bag of tricks. She very gently and very firmly pointed out to me that I had no idea what my criteria were for Dancer’s contact behavior and that consequently Dancer had no idea either. Of course she was right.

I mulled that over Sunday evening, and at lesson yesterday I started at the end of the dogwalk, put Dancer in position, lured her shamelessly, and clicked/treated. She does understand that she’s supposed to touch her nose to a target plate (yogurt lid), but that was it when we started.

It took a few tries but she got the idea that she was to stand still, stretch forward, and touch the plate with her nose. That earned her a nice shower of treats on the plate and a chance to go practice front crosses.

After she’d run for a while, we came back to the dogwalk and put her in position again. She got it immediately this time, without luring, and we got repeated nose touches in perfect position.

Then… she pushed the plate aside and touched her nose where the plate had been. Now, in any target plate training, there’s always a step where you pick up the plate and see if the dog will touch where it was… but normally the human initiates that step. Needless to say, I emptied my pockets of treats as she touched the spot over and over again, with her body in perfect position.

Then we quit and partied with her favorite toy for a while. Susan suggested I put the toy on a leash–and she loves that, because she can pull away and then charge me… and then pull away… It’s perfect for a rowdy poodle.