Bandit and Rascal were in one of my very first Foundations for Agility class. These two and their owners stuck with it and two years later are still learning new things and advancing their skills in an advanced agility competition class.

Bandit is a total natural at agility. She’s smart, has great attention and gives her handler a run for the money every time she’s out on the course.

Rascal is one of those “heart” dogs to me. For some reason, a dog will come along and just nestle itself into my heart. Maybe it’s the cowlick on the top of her head. Or her delicate approach to new things. She just absolutely charms me every time I see her.

(What’s funny – is that she looks like the wire-haired, JRT version of my little Gus. They’re going to get to meet next week – so hopefully they’ll be friends.)

And one last shot. One of those OOF and not quite perfect, but kind of cool action shots of Bandit tearing out of the weave poles.

(He has the cutest ticking developing on his belly.)

This exercise will be really helpful when you practice it at home with your own dog. For photographers who are spending just a few hours with a new dogs, I think you could still make use of this exercise. A few slow treat sessions, that only take two or three minutes each, will at least get the dog intrigued by what you’re doing. The other solution is to deliver treats from a flat palm, so that the dog has to pick the treat off of your flat hand instead of grabbing it off your fingertips. (Retriever pups are notorious for this! My Ellie was a pretty serious grabber and it wasn’t until she was about two years old that all of the white marks on my fingernails finally disappeared!)

(I’ll try to record a video of this exercise at our puppy class Wednesday evening and then come back and post it here.)

Slow Treat!

This method of giving your dog a treat can be done while the dog is any stationary position. You’ll probably find it easiest to work on this while your dog is in a sit, but eventually you’ll want your dog to accept his treats nicely while in any position.

The goal is to teach our dogs that when they remain in position, the treat will come to them. If the dog moves towards the treat, the treat slowly moves away out of their reach. The slow treat game is a variation on Doggie Zen.

Steps:

1. With your dog in position, take one treat and slowly start to move the treat towards your dog’s mouth.
2. As long as your dog is not moving towards the treat, continue to move the treat closer.
3. If your dog starts to move towards the hand with the treat, slowly move the treat away. As soon as your dog stops moving towards your hand, change direction and move the treat back towards the dog.

The picture that we’re trying to build for the dog is that by remaining still, he can draw the treats toward him. Leaning, moving or jumping out of position pushes the treat away.

What this teaches your dog:
Self-control
To not grab for treats
His behavior controls the results

Hints and Tips
At first, don’t worry about using the clicker while playing this game. We’re less concerned with the position that your dog is in during the initial stages of this game. The most important thing is that the dog holds his position while the treat is delivered. Because our dog’s are learning that the click marks good behavior and the delivery of reinforcement, we don’t want to confuse them with the slow treat game (where we may be pulling the treat away. We don’t want the dog to associate the click with the taking away of the treat).

Once your dog is accomplished at always taking his treats nicely, this becomes the rule for taking treats. Maintain this criteria during all other training sessions for stationary behaviors.

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