Let Them Eat Cookies!

Let Them Eat Cookies! by Patty Ruzzo and Jenny Gattis

There is a colossal amount to learn and assimilate about training competition dogs with positive reinforcement. Exchanging food for behavior is at the heart of it. For the purpose of this article, we have decided to address the three most commonly asked questions about food training.

What about the dog who does not like cookies and will not eat during Obedience sessions?

Food drive and a willingness to work for food is present when compulsion is absent from the training program. Relaxed dogs will eat, (most) stressed dogs will not.

The quickest and easiest way to turn finicky into famished is to use really, really good treats to reward obedience whenever and wherever you observe it, be it during training sessions or in life. Cubed roast beef, chicken, beafheart, liver, cheddar cheese, cheese tortellini, liver brownies and pizza crust would all be considered high magnitude reinforcers. For best results, bring three different kinds of treats to training sessions that will be of long duration, and switch from good to better to best as the session progresses. Also, hand feeding every meal for one week will absolutely increase the dog's willingness to swap behavior for food.

Dogs will not continue to work for food they are teased with and never receive. Be generous! It makes much more of an impression on the dog if you reward him with many tiny pieces of food, one right after the other, praising all the while with "Excellent!" "Splendid!" "Beautiful!" "Perfect!" or "Nice Job!" than if you give a single cookie and a "Good." Pair excitement, praise, touch and obedience training with delicious, desirable food.

How do I get my dog to ignore distractions and pay attention to me in the ring?

Dogs who ignore distractions and pay attention in competition have interesting, creative energized trainers who are ultra attentive to them.

The dog show environment is a difficult and stressful place to achieve reliable attention. To do so requires the dog (and handler) to block out all extraneous movement, noise, objects, smells, people and animals. Trainers often think only in terms of Obedience exercises, so the tendency is to reward eye contact only during training sessions. Opportunities to reinforce (strengthen) attentive behavior during everyday life are being missed. Pay attention to your dog and he will respond in kind.

A dog's age needs to be taken into account when determining how much focused attention can be reasonably expected. The mature dog (3 years and up) has some life experience under his collar, and is a cool dude in comparison to the socially and emotionally naive adolescent.

Teaching a dog to pay attention is fairly simple.

1. Reinforce an attentive behavior offered, whenever and wherever you observe it.
2. Be quick, generous, variable and unpredictable with a variety of wonderful rewards.
3. Repeat steps one and two throughout the dog's career.

Reinforcers might include cookies, toys, petting, play, or opportunities to pursue such doggie activities as sniffing the ground, running with other dogs, and even access to leg lifting for boy dogs.

Make watching you a game, not a chore. If the complaint is the dog leaves you during training sessions to go sniff the ground whenever he is not under command, the answer is a simple one. Be more interesting than a few crumbs on the floor. However long it takes, wait for the dog to look at you, and when he does, notice and appreciate. Smile, clap, do a dance, say YES! and feed him.

How about the dog who looks away from the trainer during the signal exercise? Again, wait until the dog makes eye contact, then reinforce that particular behavior. Run to where the dog is and feed him. Throw light colored, visible pieces of food to him and behind him, and release him to it. Place light colored food or a favorite toy on the floor behind the dog as you practice signals, and tell him "O.K. Get It!" when he performs all or part of the signal exercise with his eyes and mind on you, not on the reward. If after all that, the dog still looks away long enough to miss your signal cue, go feed his cookies to another dog! Some say their dog does not care about food in the presence of other dogs. The solution - use better food! When the degree of environmental difficulty is greatest, we bring out our very best treats. Liverwurst, bacon, crab cakes, Italian meatballs or teriyaki beef or chicken will get the job done where a ho-hum (yawn) dry dog biscuit will not.

When and how do I wean my dog off the food to get him ready for the ring?

Training obedience exercises with positive reinforcement is all about being generous, not cheap. Obedience exercises are made up of a series of unnatural, non-instinctive behaviors which are not inherently fun to repeat over and over again. Unlike herding, hunting, tracking or lure-coursing, competition obedience is not in and of itself reinforcing. So we pay the dog to work. We pay him to learn and we pay him to continue to do his job well. We reward him so generously that he comes to actually enjoy the work, and the time we spend together practicing obedience becomes precious to him.

We never stop giving the food, smiles, praise, touch, toys or applause. What we do instead is become variable and unpredictable with a wide variety of reinforcers. We feed lots of treats as we increase environmental difficulty. As we raise criteria, we raise rewards. When friends help us "proof " the dog, we remain the good guy who keeps the cookies coming. We continue to use food rewards during practice ran-thru's with a friend playing judge, and at all match shows.

True, we are not allowed to carry food into the obedience ring, but that does not mean we are without reinforcers in there. Often overlooked is the actual physical presence of the trainer, and the fact that we are allowed to smile at our dog, and calmly praise and pet him before and after every exercise. In fact, a handler who has the same body posture, breathing pattern, stride length, verbal tones and expectations in competition as they do in practice is essentially reinforcing his/her dog in the ring!

It is not a matter of "getting rid" of the food rewards. Once behavior is learned, being quick, generous, variable and unpredictable with all our reinforcers is the name of the game. For instance, sometimes we have the food on our person. but do not give it to the dog, we use praise, petting and play instead. Other times, the cookies are kept on a table or chair, away from the immediate training area, and when the dog does as we ask, we race over together to get the food.

Got a problem? Put a cookie on it!

We are generous with primary reinforcement (food) throughout the teaching phase, and we keep treating through the many, many, many repetitions it takes to achieve muscle memory of the task. We use food in each new and different environment until the behavior has been generalized, and we use even better food (and more of it) when distractions are abundant.

In the ring, it is relationship that takes over when the cookies are gone, and it is previous reinforcement history, clear cues and consistent handling that cause the dog to do his best when it counts the most.

Focus, Food, and Fun Philosophies

Focus, Food, and Fun Philosophies by Patty Ruzzo

• Ever forward, slowly.
• Reinforce means strengthen.
• Behavior that is reinforced (while it is occuring) will increase in intensity, frequency, and duration.
• Be quick, generous, variable and unpredictable with reinforcement.
• Food is a powerful reinforcer. Be generous! Pair delicious food with smiles, compliments, touch, applause, and appreciation.
• Dogs learn by association--Pair all things wonderful with Obedience.
• To maximize results use a variety of high-magnitude, delicious treats. ie small pieces of (cooked) roast beef, pork, chicken or turkey, cubes of cheddar cheese, toast or leftover pizza, and cheese tortellini and homemade liver, turkey or salmon brownies. How about peanut butter to reinforce stays, or several small pieces of bacon. Yum! Yum!
• Continuous use of reinforcement, lasting 7-17 seconds, while the dog is in an Obedience position, really makes an impact.
• Soft textured food (rather than crispy) works best. Faster to swallow and no crumbs falling to the floor.
• Cookie viewing is not reinforcing to the dog. Give him/her the cookie!
• In the sport of competition Obedience, there is a process (training) and a product (showing). Enjoy both.
• Be a handler who is clear, concise, and consistent.
• Got a problem? Put a cookie on it!

handling for teamwork

Handling For Teamwork by Patty Ruzzo

• Clear, concise, consistent handling is reinforcing to your dog.
• Body Posture, facial expression, verbal tones, energy level, positive expectations and clear, recognizable signal and verbal cues all play a part.
• Attention starts with the handler. Trainers who are totally focused on their canine partner will receive reciprocal attention from that dog.
• Handler sets him/herself up first and checks own body position for straight alignment before expecting perfection from the dog.
• Handlers feet in line and pointed forward, shoulders over hips.
• Soft focus on floor in front of handler. See dog in peripheral vision.
• Walk, think, focus on straight lines.
• Give verbal and/or signal cues before commencing heeling, pivoting, and stays.
• Shorten stride length on all turns, halts, and curves of the figure 8.
• Double track (not single track) when doing left and right turns, the slow pace, and on both curves of the figure 8.
• Take responsibility! The dog is exactly where you put him.

a puppy interlude.

since everyone else is getting puppies except for me, instead you get to get a pictorial of berlins first hour home since i want to relive it. she was so teeny tiny then (ok she still is!!!!).

first, we have good taste - berlin eats her star of david.


berlin plays tuggie with rah rah. rah was absolutely convinced i got the puppy for him. i guess i kinda did? i mean, they are like BFF.

roo roo smacks uncle tyler on the schnoz :) no fear, puppygirl! she says no uncle tyty, you cant make babies with me.




three men and a little baby. :) this is life - tyler was laying down, rah going after his ball, and mercury about to have a little freako zoom session. and roo in the middle.

that, my friends, was berlins first hour home :)

second CDX leg...

ah, so the harrisburg update!

i wish we were updating with a new CDX, but twas not meant to be :)

left bright and early thurs am - up at 5:30, out of the house by 6:30 - i wasn't sure how much traffic we were going to hit, and its a 2.5 hour drive out there without traffic, so i didnt want to risk missing too much of my class.

ironically, OA was the biggest class of the show both days and we ran well past every other class, so that wasn't a concern at all, especially since i was the last dog in the class!

got to the show and they raised parking fees to 8 bucks!!!! OUCH!!! !i parked my truck 1123123123 miles away, loaded up the crate dolly, and moved the crates, my training bags, the chair, etc into the building, then came back for the dogs. pottied them and hung out and watched the end of utility and such - anne (of rah's girlfriend dune's fame) and betsy (and dealer) placed in both utility and open both days - dealer only needs 14 more points for his OTCH - not bad for a dog that just finished his UD last month and has only been OTCH-hunting for 4 weekends, i think ;)

started the class and watched - high rate of attrition, half the class NQ'd before sits and downs.

got to me, finally. i was warming rah up and he was very distracted by drool on the floor (wtf??) but we got ready to go in the ring. set him up and walked in, i backhanded the leash and set up for heeling. he dropped his head when the judge was talking (NEED TO WORK ON THIS) but we were off - and he nailed the first halt so i was happy for that (we had been practicing outside).

the heeling pattern was a tough one on us - forward, halt, forward - left turn, fast, normal left turn, slow, normal, about, right turn, about turn, halt. it was the first part that was hard for a forgey dog, but he nailed it!

fig 8 was ok - one of the stewards was saying something to me as i set up but i just ignored her and focused on rah. i think there might hav ebeen a crooked sit, but i just kept on trucking.

got over to DOR and he did it well - slightly crooked on the front, but he was fast and furious!

ROF - zoomed out, and when he came in --- he was THINKING about sitting but opted to sit REALLY FAR away and then play keep away with the db so i reached with all i had to get it out of his mouth. judge jokes "good thing you didn't trim your fingernails today!"

get to ROH - and i think i blew it here. i dont recall how close i was set up in the ring, but i dont think far enough - rah goes out, but when he comes back he doesnt have a chance to collect himself so he runs into me, and just stands there. judge gives him no chance to fix his front, i take the db, give him the finish signal but he's lost at this point so i goet NO FRONT AND NO FINISH.

go to broad jump and in my mind he NAILED it - perfect front!!!!!

sits and downs were meticulous!!! phew.
LEG NUMBER TWO!!!!!

we ended up with a 187 and third place - considering i lost SIX POINTS on the no front and finish (ouch), that would have put us in first place. rah outheeled every other dog in the class, and all his other individuals were better than every other dog or tied with them.

so it really was the ROH that killed us. oh well, it was still a leg!!!!!

went back to the hotel, checked in, pottied the dogs, and hung out watching tv and sleeping while they chewed on the bones i got them and the toys - they were exhausted. i got the internets working later that night and played around while the dogs slept.

friday morning - checked out, packed up the car, and went back to the show... again ours was the last class running. rah was CRAZAY. CRAZAY. CRA-ZAY.

the judge had an odd way of doing things, and the stewards sucked. they were late on EVERYTHING.
i got rah in the ring, but had to go the entire length of the ring to get to the heeling set up point. he dropped his head but he was with me - but i want more connection. he set up promptly so that was nice. started the heeling and i could tell we were in trouble - it was the exact "power struggle" feeling i had for his second CD leg (a theme?) - where we were a train wreck and it was just him overpowering me and pushing me all over the place - and he also heeled in front of me looking backwards :)

got to the fig 8 and he did that nicely (i was afraid for some major interference but it didnt happen, thankfully).

drop - looked wonderful, front was straight. im not sure what i lost points for here, so i want terry to look at my signal and see if *im* the one losing the points.

ROF - threw the db and we're sitting there watching and rah is twitching and im not breathing and im wondering why the hell she isn't sending him?? thankfully he held it and i send him when told to and he brings it back - but he brings it back to front and doesn't sit.

then we get to the high - and i toss it, and again the judge is quiet. and rah is sitting there... and he cant contain himself any longer and he just goes...

NQ! just says sorry. he missed his front again, and he cut the broad jump majorly.

he held his out of sights just fine though again!

so, no CDX. i gotta work on these fronts... im racking my brain here...

an almost trifecta...

Well, mixed bag at the trial today.

First, I thought it was 30 minutes away - but it was really an hour and 15 minutes. BAD BAD BAD.
not a good way to start of f:)

They ran the trial 2-3-1 and of course, guess who the last dog in the entire show is in level 1? of course - RAH!

Rah's level 2 run was first - it wasn't a bad course, and we were motoring, he was ON - and I had some concerns in the beginning about the jump placement but the judge said just don't be on top of it. Then I get to the corner - its a recall, right finish, forward, right turn straight into the jump... and I ended up too far directly in front of the jump and I didn't realize how close we were - I tried to send Rah over while at the same time running to the right to get AWAY from the jump (this needs to be a send - you can't run next to the jump with the dog, you have to be 6 feet away and the dog needs to leave you)... and Rah never saw the jump. At all - he jumped the sign and the cone, instead - almost but not quite? I called him back, he saw the jump and took it (reverse doesn't count!) and then I resent him over (third times a charm) and we continued - and it would have been a perfect run.

I think it was a few things - first, 4 of the 6 BIG dogs in the trial missed the jump - Rah, a greyhound, a lab and a golden retriever. NONE of the small dogs missed it. It was also not the regular obedience bar jump, but instead just a white agility PVC jump. I honestly don't think he ever saw the jump, period - there was no black/white standing out when he looked, and it was white PVC - same as the ring gates ahead of him. I think for the dogs jumping the bigger jump heights, the bar of the jump must have been in line with the ring gates maybe? Also, because of the prior signs, I ended up way too close and too far to the left for the jump. I tried sending him to my right, but my body was going to my left to try to get 6 feet from the jump, and clearly that's just ODD.

oh well.

I slept through most of level 3 (or tried to), had lunch, played with the dogs outside on the grass (it was 65!!!) and Berlin's run was first. She was good, pretty up in the ring. First station was a call front, forward right - the station ended up being right in front of the front doors to the building and Berlin and a bunch of other dogs stared at the doors and the people coming in and out 5 feet away - I told her to leave it and she looked back up and me and finished it up (good girl!). Then we got to the married stations -- a sit-walk around dog, a sit-down-sit, and a left pivot. You can share sits with all of these, so I did. Berlin is funny because for some reason the ONLY time she ever does a straight curl is when I tell her to down from a sit. EVERY other time, she sphynx's -- and it means that when she comes back into the sit, she's slightly crooked. Today, it was a little more crooked, and silly me instead of fixing it before trying the pivot, I just went on with my bad self and her pivot SUCKED (as did my footwork). the rest went just fine, and she rocked her bonus (lateral fronts). 207!

Rah's run - same course, level 1- he was last. He was on, he was perfect, 210. Not much can be said because I didn't feel anything wrong - he bumped me a bit on the inside spiral the first time, but he he responded to my verbal cue to back up.

Then, of course - Rah is last in the class - but Berlin is in a run off!!!!!!! three dogs tied with 209's, and three of us tied with 207's! so I throw him in the crate and get her out and get her going - she's jumping, barking, tugging, I start working some positions with her and get her into the ring and she was great.

She won the run off for 4th place to finish her RL1 (woohoo!), and Rah won the 1B class with his perfect score.

The judge came up to me afterwards before the pinning of the classes and commented on Rah - she said he's such a joy to watch because he's a machine in the ring, he just works his heart out and he's doing it with such joy, she says if I find another one like him let her know because she wants one! That's how I knew Rah had taken the class :)

Anyway, Berlin finished her title but Rah did not - but I'm sorta not sad for a very silly reason - the ARCHX and RL2X ribbons were TINY! like, regular ribbons, not the long, spectacular, glorified ribbons of a CH title that they usually are! So, I'm happy we didn't finish there...

now to find more trials. And to start working more on the moving stand so I can enter him in damned level 3 again and start working on his EX!!!!

I promised Roo she wouldn't have to show again for awhile...

the wrap up

so the classes -

the agility class first - started with of course a review of last week - and im ok to start naming berlins target and sending her to it, and she showed me how to reward at the target since berlin was so OCD with targeting that she would run out and back to me as soon as she touched it/got the click.

worked front crosses straight and with a turn, and then started rear crosses. berlin is rough turning to the left for some reason, but is great to the right. will have to work on that - im teaching her to spin as well, should help with that. showed our wraps and our front crosses around the stanchion and she was great with it -- then we started some contact obstacle work. for starters, its taking the board and working front feet on it - berlin got that in two clicks, so we aimed for all feet on there - by next class i should have her on the box, doing stationaries on it.

we also have homework to work on teaching them to back up, something i never bothered to teach her. rah had learned how to back up in heel at one point (though he's since forgotten) - but he backs up in front of me. so today at work got the clicker out and in 5 clicks she's backing up - she's so wickedly smart with that clicker.

open with rah - heeling killed me. rah's heeling is forgey mcforgerston again, and im killing myself. it was left boxes for me nonstop and he's still all over me. heads up doesnt mean up my ass! need to work on that, work HARD. worked individuals - put the "bite your butt" game into the broad jump and he was like WHOA, worked the drop with some heavy distraction - so heavy in fact, that karin threw a db and hit him while i left him in the wait and he just sat there and held that wait (WHAT A GOOD BOY).

during the ROH i threw the db and it was too close to the jump, so i platzed him and went out to get the db (practicing for screwed up throws in the ring) - apparently when i was out there i dropped my clicker as well. so i opted to leave it out there for distraction, and sent him for the db on the second throw. then, being lazy, i sent him after the clicker - and of course, being the good boy, he retrieved it. what good is an obedience dog if they cant retrieve .

not much else in that class - moving to thursday. dogs were tired and clean since i had to bathe them after their jaunt in the lake during their hike.

berlins class was first. we played some games working on left and right finishes and getting fast snappy starts into the positions. also worked some heeling - she was good for the most part, but she gets tired fast when shes tired (wow what a statement)- we had the metronome going and it helped when we heeled in smaller groups, playing first and going straight into fast short stretches of power heeling.

then we went to mega-fig8's - 4-5 posts and we had to go around them all and cirlce them all. she still lags a big on the outer post - i verbally psyched her up and she did really well for it - but i want to work that more on that. maybe give her some sort of other body cue its coming.

did a quick recall and she was awesomely straight on the front, woohoo! i didnt do stays with her, i opted to do rah instead, because we had things going on behind him and need to practice for next week.

rahs open class - heeling - terry says to start double leashing him again because he's just becoming a butthead. played individual games again, and worked attention games with the db and handing it off to people, having the judge come up and take it, hand it back, and walk around us while they are retrieving it and holding it in front. rah was good for it, even though my judge was lydia and she was standing on top of him. rest of class uneventful.

utility - started with go outs - rah did awesome go outs again - we had toys all over the floor. if he looked down at them, i told him to leave it, focus back on me, and remark the go out spot. he went straight out and did 6-7 turn and sits - at one point, he hit his butt on the stanchion but still sat - on the next one he didnt want to go all the way out, but i just popped him out there and the next time he did go out. and MIRACLE OF MIRACLES he did two directed jumps perfectly WITH the go outs!!! woohoo!

did circle of gloves while others worked go outs - i just tossed gloves and heeled him around them to work on his attention while his beloved glovies were on the floor, reinforcing that despite the fact that he knows he needs to retrieve them he still needs to look at me. i just sent him for random ones, but his marking was spot on and he retrieved well.

signals - the stand is killing us because he's moving his front feet - we put a bar out and i worked hard on reminding him of his moving feet, and we seemed to make some progress. i may try to rename this and capture it while doing some opposition work... i havent decided. his actual signals once we got to them were nice - i need to stop calling him to me though. didnt work moving stand because of his stand issue.

articles - did 4 , with heavy distraction. he got 3 of the 4 - two were easy picks, he got them right off some how, barely had to work the pile. on the first leather, he was working the pile really well and there was a band and he looked up, and then when he looked down he just grabbed the one under him, like he forgot what he was doing. the second leather article we did he worked the entire pile and found it. even with a large monkey stick (3 feet long1) 4 inches from the pile!!!!

i think thats it. i need to figure out some show schedules for the upcoming months. i also need to start thinking about what i am going to be showing in at nationals...


which reminds me - tonight i want to work on those front exercises that neversaynever had on her blog...
and work berlins right cirlces.