Whatever Happened to Play?

Does positive training really mean we’re playing?

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We’ve all heard the adage “Dogs learn faster through play”. It’s been the slogan of positive reinforcement trainers for years, but I wonder how many of us have truly taken a critical look at our training practices and evaluated whether our dogs are really “playing”? Rather, have we become complacent, secure in the comfort provided by a carelessly handed cookie or nonchalantly dropped toy? I mean we aren’t using negatives and punishers right? So our dogs must be having fun.

Let me tell you a secret….I have been critically evaluating my training practices…and I’ve found them lacking. As a result, I’ve been systematically, and intentionally building motion (and by extension, play) into my foundations and skills exercises. The results have been phenomenal, and have only served to reinforce that I’m on the right track. But let me tell you a little bit more about the what and the why before I get into the results.

I want to be clear, what I’m doing is by no means new to the Agility world, trainers have been using motion as a proxy for play for quite some time. But it is new to me, and it has resulted in a systemic shift in the way I teach, and the way I train. You see, most dogs find motion reinforcing. It stimulates a chase response, and even your non-herding breeds will often get excited by motion (think about that running squirrel). By adding motion to our training practices, we can tap into this reinforcement history, using it to our benefits and reaping the rewards of engaging our dogs in play.

But perhaps this all is still too theoretical, so let’s take a look at an example: jump offering.

You know the exercise, the one that’s supposed to build independence and value for a jump? I’m not sure how your jump offering looks, but mine involved a whole lot of the handler standing dead still, offering no cues or motion, in an attempt to shape the dog into independently going through a standard or wrapping a wing. From there, the exercise would progress to adding distance, and then eventually motion. But largely, there was a lot of standing still. And the results were sadly predictable…a few good reps, then increasing amounts of loss of focus, stress behaviors, and the really smart dogs would start wondering what they were doing wrong and offering different behaviors. All of this despite reinforcing the dog after every repetition.

Now I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t seem like the picture of a dog who is playing, and it’s for sure not the picture I want to create in my foundation training. I want to see my dog excited, engaged, focused, and driving with all their little might, then reveling in the joy of the reward with me. So what if we flip this exercise around? What if instead of adding motion at the end, we start with motion? Now my exercise starts with a collar grab. I focus my dog forward and rev them up, getting them ready ready to leap out of my grasp and tear towards the wing. I build anticipation for the release, with my dogs building more and more pressure into the collar. Then on release I race with them towards the wing. I’ll strategically show the toy to help lure them through the standard (if needed), then immediately race away from the wing, engaging my dog in a game of chase before they receive their reward (tugging, or food). There’s much cheering in this picture. Much motion. And the end result is a dog who races back over, lines themselves up, and shoves their collar into my hand to start the next round.

This is the picture I want to create in my foundation training. The dog learns to focus forward, and we’re building drive. The dog also learns how to use their body and how to power out of turns. And perhaps best of all, the dog is learning that they can be successful in the presence of motion.

Through a strategic and intentional application of this concept to foundational exercises I’ve seen huge benefits in not just my own dogs, but in my students’ dogs as well. Dogs who came to me with “issues focusing”, or “too much handler focus” start looking for the next obstacle, committing early, and truly driving to that obstacle. These exercises have done wonders for “twitchy” dogs who drop their commitment because we make the act of committing to the obstacle exciting and fun!

Now there are two provisos with this training philosophy. The first relates to one of the basic tenants of Agility training: we can make any activity harder by adding motion. “Aha!” you say, “that means we shouldn’t do it”. Well no. It just means we need to be thoughtful and considerate in how we do it. It means we need to break any exercise down into much smaller pieces; pieces so small that we know our dog will be successful in spite of the added motion. If we truly want our dogs playing, we need to keep the reinforcement rate high, so I expect to be able to do these exercises at a 95% success rate WITH handler motion. Let that sink in, and re-evaluate where you think you need to start at. If your dog is wrong on the first try you need to break the exercise down even more.

The second proviso relates to a handler’s physical ability / mobility. If you have a mobility limitation, it doesn’t mean you can’t reap the benefits of training with motion, rather that you need to be more creative about how to implement it. If you’ve got a training partner, its an easy matter to have them race away with the reward after you’ve cued the jump. Training alone? Toss a cookie behind your pup to give yourself a chance to get ahead. Now you can show more motion driving towards the wing, and then once your dog takes the jump, toss the cookie in the direction you would have run.

I’m changing the picture; throwing away boring old static Grace, and introducing exciting chasing Grace. And for dog’s sake, drop the sit stay. There’s a time and a place for that, but it ain’t here. Oh and one last thing….get that reinforcer off your body!