Training the Utility Go-Out With Motivation
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Someone recently wrote and asked me how to train the go-out using a
method other than the retrieve method. I use a target method with food as bait. You can substitute a ball or another toy for the food if you wish but whatever the
target/motivation the dog must be positively nuts about it or this method probably
won't work.
That said, I didn't invent this method and I don't know who did. I picked the original idea
up at a class I took somewhere along the way and tweaked it with some of my own stuff.
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The Target Go-Out Method
By Pat KalbaughJuneau, Alaska
The beauty of this method is that it is very simple and can be taught to young puppies.
It is, in fact, preferable to teach a puppy while it is young to do as many behaviors as you
can while you are playing. Since puppies are very motivated by play they will pick up on
this quickly. If it is always positively reinforced (no negative associations) they will have
very nice, straight, fast go-outs. You have to do approximately a million of them anyway so why not
start early?
The Target & The First Go-OutFirst you need a target. I use a yellow margerine container that shows up well on a green or black surface. Take the pup or dog with you while you set up the target. Place him right in front of the target while you place a yummy treat on the target. Hold him by the collar and let the him look at it for a second until he pulls at the collar towards the target. When he wants to go, give your go back command and release the collar. Let him get the piece of food and then repeat this step close up a few times. Begin to move the dog back from the target, three or four steps at a time. Do about 5 Go-Outs the first time and then quit. The next day or later on the first day, you can do one close up and then move back again. At this point you are always allowing and encouraging him to watch you set the food on the target. If he has a steady stay, and after he knows what you are doing out there, you can set him up with a "stay" command at whatever distance you are working while you put the food on the target. If he doesn't know "stay" yet you can either have a helper hold the dog or put the food on the target or let the dog/pup run up to the target with you while you set the food and run back to the set up point in a race with the dog. My dogs think this is part of the game and become very excited trying to beat me back to the setup point so they get to play the "go out game". Commands The command I use is "go back" with the emphasis on the "back". You can use just about anything but keep it short because most dogs have a tendancy to anticipate this command. Other examples I have heard people use are "back", "go", "run" "go away", "away". Random Sits In the meantime, while at home, you are doing random sits. While the dog is going away from you and is not expecting a command, you command him to sit and be there to enforce/reinforce a quick turn and sit. He gets a treat for a quick turn and sit. Increasing Length and What To Do If The Dog Seems Unmotivated After a week or so you should have increased your length on the Go-Out to 50 feet if the dog is properly motivated by the target. If he seems sluggish or uninterested quit for the day or move in closer and back up to the previous step in your Go-Out training. Keep him at this level until he is excited when you get the target out and is doing solid Go-Outs with food on the target every time. Then gradually begin increasing distance. That said, I have run into a more than a few dogs that were more motivated by greater distance from the target so you might want to consider that you may not be moving back far enough fast enough. How's that for confusing you? Moving to full distance from the target usually happens fairly quickly [within the first week] with this method. Begin To Walk In, Sit & Treat When the dog is doing solid Go-Outs to the target at the 50 or more foot length, begin to walk in after him and treat from your hand while still putting food on the target every time. Here's the sequence: Give the dog the go back command, let him start for the target and when he is committed, quietly walk in behind him. After he has eaten the treat from the target, command him to turn and sit and hand him a treat. Be close enough to so that there is no forward movement on the sit. This is really important!!!! Stand on top of him if you have to. Gradually, wean the food from the target until you have a random schedule, making the dog believe that it just might be there and he better run out there and check. The dog is still always getting a treat from your hand as you walk in behind him and command him to turn and sit. Begin Randomizing Food On The Target At this point you can begin to be sneaky about putting food on the target. Have someone else put the food out while you distract the dog so that sometimes the dog finds the food there even when you haven't gone out to put it there. Sometimes there is no food and sometimes you do the whole routine: put the food out, send him out to get it and walk in behind him and feed him from your hand. The point is that the dog knows if he goes out he gets rewarded somehow, either from the target or from your hand. Do this for quite a while. I said you have to do a million Go-Outs, didn't I? You can do these in the house if you have a long enough hallway. I never do more than 3 or 4 Go-Outs in a session. I might do more than one session a day, though. I always leave the dog wanting more. That is the key.  Using A Ring Gate As The Target You are now gradually fading the food from the target and replacing it with food from your hand. Randomly put food on the target just enough so the dog is motivated by the sight of the target alone and associates it with the food. I also begin to set up a gate behind the target fairly early in the training so that the dog and associates the gate with the target and the food. If you plan to show your dog in a place where gates aren't used then try and set up the target with the appropriate background in view, be it a ring rope, curtain, whatever you usually encounter in your area. My plan is that eventually the visual of the gate replaces and becomes the dog's target. Begin Delaying Walking In To The Dog To Sit & Treat For a long time, it seems, you are walking into the dog and reinforcing the quick sit with no forward movement. This is important because so many dogs anticipate the sit, or creep forward to get the reward. When you think the dog will respond to your sit command quickly, begin [very gradually] to delay your walk in and be slightly farther from the dog when you give the sit command. If the dog creeps forward, replace the dog, do not treat, put a piece of food on the target, go back and do another Go-Out and this time walk in right behind him to reinforce the sit. Occassionally, you can put food on the target and release the dog without a sit from farther away, or have the dog sit, then release and throw a toy behind the dog so the dog never really knows what you're going to do. Keep the dog guessing! Phasing Out The Target Eventually you will have to phase out the target. If you're using a gate you can place the target behind the gate with the bait on it and let the dog reach through the gate. Now the gate or the barrier becomes the target. You can also use the lid from the container reducing the target so it is less visible. You can hide the container top partially under a mat if you use a mat. I will warn you that this sometimes produces searching behavior but if you have done your homework, the dog should know by now that if the target isn't there or visible, then you will have his reward from your hand. The dog's behavior will probably be shaped enough by now that he will know to turn and sit and wait for the reward. But again, the target is sometimes there with food and the whole bit. It never completely goes away forever. When I am phasing out the target, I always walk in with a treat or release him and the game has now become, "Go-Out till I tell you to stop and sit and then I will come out and give you a reward". If your dog is highly motivated by a toy then you can substitute tossing a toy for the reward after the dog has done the go-out and sit. Remember to release as you toss the toy. I have a dog that is currently exhibiting in UKC Utility and one that is in Open and is in training for Utility. When the Utility dog watches me do Go-Outs with the Open dog, he whines and barks until I let him do two or three with the target. Then he is happy. I believe this keeps his Go-Outs motivated, straight and forward. Remember you have to keep the game going! Corrections???? There really are no corrections other than backing up to a previous step, or putting the target out with food to motivate the dog. To work, this must be positively taught and reinforced and perceived by the dog as a game. If you can do longer than 50 foot Go-Outs, so much the better since it will seem like a snap in the ring when the dog only has to Go-Out 30 feet. If the dog fails to sit or creeps in, gently go in and replace him where he should have been. Do not get mad or scold him. Do not give a treat from your hand. Then, set him up so he cannot fail again and do another one. Be there so he can't creep. Anticipating The Turn & Sit If the dog anticipates the turn and sit, go out to where he stopped and gently take him out along the Go-Out line and forget the turn and sit. Then do more motivated Go-Outs with no turn and sit, just a release when he gets all the way out. If the dog isn't motivated by the target you may have to use more traditional methods to teach the Go-Out or find something else that motivates the dog. In Terry Arnold's words, "If your dog is bored, guess who's boring him?" Keep in mind that it's your job to keep the dog motivated, to to know when to quit while you're ahead and to know when to back up to your previous step in training. Random Sits & Jump Distractions  Don't forget to reinforce random sits around the house and in other areas when the dog isn't expecting it and is turned away from you. I also want to mention that the dog is not being sent to any jumps during this time. If you're also training directed jumping, do it separately from the Go-Outs. Cheryl May has a wonderful article on training the Directed Jumping portion of this exercise. Late in the Go-Out training you can set the jumps up so that the dog gets a mental picture of going out between the jumps and learns how to deal with this new distraction but he is not being sent to the jumps...yet. You will have to go back to using the target when you add the jumps (and also walking in and treating the dog from your hand). When the dog is doing 50 ft. Go-Outs between the jumps, sitting on command without creeping forward then, one day when it feels right, you can give him a signal to do a jump. Then you can begin to put it all together, carefully, returning to your "Go-Out game" training fairly often. The Two UKC Go-Outs Training Go-Outs for UKC Utility is a challenge because the dog must first do (1) half go out on the Directed Signal (Glove) Retrieve and then (2) full Go-Outs on the Directed Jumping Exercise. This how I deal with this twist. After the dog has the concept of going out 50 feet reliably with random reinforcement and no creeping on the sit, I begin to stop and sit him in random places on the Go-Out line with the target present. I will send him out, make him turn and sit at 20 feet, walk in and treat, send him out another 15 feet, turn and sit, walk in and treat, then finally send him back to the target. Like the drop on recall/straight recall, I do many more straight full Go-Outs than I do half Go-Outs. My goal is to produce a dog that never knows when or where I'm going to stop and sit him but he learns he should keep going until I do! You will know when the dog is figuring this out when he slows down and looks back at you at the halfway point but keeps on going. Eventually, he will understand that you want him to keep going until you tell him to stop so I don't correct for the looking back or slowing down. I simply ignore it. I am happy when this happens because it tells me that the dog is making the connection and soon be confident on the go-outs. |
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As always in dog training, there are many paths to get the same result and what works for one dog may not for another. It is always useful to have more than one tool to pull out of your bag of training tricks. Here are other motivational techniques, problem solving and proofing ideas for training go-outs from the Obed-comp E-mail list compiled by Mary Jo Sminkey. |
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