Week 4: Called “Hell Week” for a Reason
Dog learns to yield to handler, new turns, etc., and for the first time to string a series of exercises together to form a single new exercise. Handler and dog will have a great deal of learning/practice to do and often, this week is the time when a dog says, “No”, and learns to continue working past that ‘point of contention’.
Pre/Post-Training Session protocol
Know when to use the OUT! in public.
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New Material:
HEELING
Week 4, the Safety Zone shrinks again to under 1’. The way to help the dog choose to remain close while heeling, no matter what, is the use of heeling posts, all the turns (including the new Left About Turn), and using heeling posts at 8’ apart to work Figure 8 in an hourglass pattern (straight lines). Auto Sits should be straight and dog should be able to read your hand position and give immediate Sit.
SIT/STAY – Increasing distance to 15'
Start increasing time and distance by using your longe line. Eight feet for eighty seconds, ten feet for a hundred seconds, and so on. By the end of the week your dog should be holding a fifteen foot Sit/Stay in high level distractions for about three minutes.
SIT/STAY - Approach by a Stranger
This week add the Approach by a Stranger. Put your dog on a Sit/Stay - step away from your dog laterally (beside the dog) about 4'. Have a familiar person approach your dog diagonally, don't have that person look into the dogs eyes, stand beside your dog and move away. The point is to teach your dog to accept a person approaching and hold its Sit/Stay. Once the dog holds, then have the person lightly touch the top of the dogs head & shoulders and hips...and move away. The point is for the dog to accept a stranger approaching & being touched while it maintains its Sit/Stay.
Once your dog holds its position with the above sequencing, add new people the dog hasn't met before. You may need to have them approach initially and be 5', then 4', then 3', then 2', etc., to teach your dog to hold its position even with unknown and new people. Once the dog can do this with new people, then add the touching sequence. REMEMBER: A Stay = A Stay..so no moving at all by the dog.
STAND – Supported stand circles
This week you are to expand your Stand by doing circles around the dog. Always step off on your right foot and pass the dog on your right foot to help your dog understand to remain in this positon. Maintain the supported stroking of the shoulders the entire time you are circling. Start with 1 circle, then 3 circles, then 4 and etc., until you can do 6 circles and the dog remains stationary. Always end your final circle with an Exercise Finish and praise.
PLACE
This week the Place Board and/or the Negative Space provide new training opportunities. For example, you can send your dog to Place on the board, then do Sit/Stays with the dog on the board. Having the dog on the board reinforces the Sit/Stays. You can do the Sit/Stay and Diminishing Spirals with the dog on the Place board or inside the Negative Space. The mechanics for the Sit/Stay are the same once the dog is on the board or inside the Negative Space.
You can do the Stand on the Place Board as you do your Supported Stand Circles. If need be, you can use your Sit/Stay Approach by a Stranger exercise with your dog on the Place Board.
LEFT ABOUT TURN
New turn and wonderfully fun for handler and dog. Incorporate this turn whenever you feel the need to turn your dog. Works particularly well when you are on an elevated surface and/or working the dog someplace where there is a 90 degree corner. Use it often. It is a pre-conditioning exercise for the Finish in Week 5. Plus, it’s just plain fun.
FIGURE 8
This is initially taught to the dog using two (2) stationary poles approximately 8’ apart. This is done using these poles as heeling posts and the Figure 8 is taught using straight lines rather than curved.
RECALL
Use any aisle or alley, such as a hall in your home, or create an alley. This exercise is to introduce the SSIF (Straight Sit in Front) as part of the formal Recall. This is the first time your dog has had a single exercise (Sit/Stay) now strung together with a new command, “Fido, Come” to create a new exercise, the Recall. Dog must be able to hold a Sit/Stay to do learn this exercise. Command sequence “Fido, Come, yes, Sit, Good dog.”
DOWN
This is the hardest exercise for a dog to learn as it is learning to yield to the handler’s authority. Easiest to do the initial 25 a day Downs (molding & silent) on a raised surface. If the dog is doing the Downs by reading handlers mechanics at the end of the 3rd day, go on to the Downs (shaped + command). You are looking for the dog to read your body mechanics and yield. That is when you know you are ready to go to the next level of Downs.
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Week 4 is "Hell Week" for every new student.
"Why so much new material? Why is this so hard? Why even have a "Hell Week?" Why not make this week easier?"
Great questions, Kristen. Kristen is my friend from PA and long ago, they purchased Scout, Sugar's brother. So, a very long time ago, Kristen took Scout through a similar type training including the Novice and Open classes. However, Kristen remembered her "Hell Week", and mind you it has been YEARS since Kristen did this training with Scout, so she asked some terrific questions.
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| Longe Line work in the bitterly cold Snowmeggedon of 2010 |
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| Scott on the left and background, Sugar on the right and in the foreground |
Kristen has been visiting me with her daughter, Emma, who has taken an extraordinary interest in ALL the many dog training opportunities here.
1) "Why so much new material?" By Week 4, foundationally, a dog has become accustomed to the work, has developed both physical and mental strength, and the dog is now able to learn at a faster rate of understanding. Remember, we are building piece-by-piece, a building block at a time, layers-upon-layers of cognitive learning in the dogs mind and stored within the dogs muscles. The dog is able to learn at an accelerated rate and thrives in this pace of training.
2) "Why is this so hard?" By Week 4, a new training pattern has evolved. There is Week 1, 2 & 3 as a foundation layer and in those weeks the dog has had to learn to think and to take responsibility for its choices. Week 2, the Sit was taught. The Sit establishes the owners authority. Week 3, The Stand was taught and is being build upon this week. The Stand is about trust between owner and its dog.
Week 4 expands on ALL the previously taught exercises AND teaches the Down, which establishes the owners dominance over its dog. So the obedience foundation is being tested, proved, stretched and build upon during Week 4.
3) "Why even have a "Hell Week?" "Why not make this week easier?" Love this question. First, let's answer this question based on how it affects the dog doing the learning. Here's why so much is packed into Week 4. The dog can handle the work load learning and will learn faster and the material taught will stick better if it is taught in a compressed timeline. When you stretch out this training, timewise, the dog will do worse in memory retention as there is to much time and not enough challenge. Dogs learn faster and quicker when taught in a quick, steady, consistent succession of exercises and owner expectations (of course, the method used has to make sense to the dogs, be fair, and applicable to the dogs ability to understand). A dogs timeline is not the same as a humans timeline. Dogs have approximately 7-18 human years of life to our 70+ expected years of life.
Second, let's answer this question based on how it affects the owner learning this method and going through this Novice curriculum. By Week 5, all the on-leash material is taught and the Instructor knows that Week 6, the off-leash material begins. Off-leash training is not to be taken lightly or casually as it requires an owner who has been thorough and consistent in laying the foundation through the on-leash work done in Weeks 1 - 5. Off-leash training is for dog owners who have earned the privilege, by being faithful, consistent and responsible with their dog, to learn the off-leash training with their dog. OFF-LEASH TRAINING IS NOT FOR ALL DOG OWNERS.
So, Week 4, "Hell Week" is a deliberate weeding out of those dog owners who have not earned the privilege of going forward. As a Koehler Instructor, I want the Koehler name, my name, my business and my reputation to be with those solid students who have applied themselves and learned this method. IF they have not been consistent, no worries, Week 4 "Hell Week" will be to much and they will either quit (rarely) or most likely (usually), slow down and stick with on-leash training only. That's fine with me as they will have a better trained pet than 98% of the other dog owners out there. BUT, they will not have earned the privilege to go onto off-leash training with their dog and that is the wisest and safest route for these students.
BUT let me share, off-leash training is woo-hoo, high-styling, flying FUN! Oh my word! I had no idea how much fun it was until I started working Sugar off-leash. What absolute freedom! What joy!
What exuberance it is to have a trusted dog, who will respond to your commands, and be able to have them off-leash in everyday real life.
Nothing, absolutely nothing beats the freedom of knowing your dog is reliable off-leash. Sheer, unadulterated, outrageous fun!
Are you a 4% or a 96%?
I know this seems overwhelming, but everything new to us initially is overwhelming. Remember you are learning a foreign language, one you don't know at all, a language that takes time to learn. PLEASE don't compare yourself with me or some ideal of yourself. Do your best, breathe, relax, smile and you will see amazing things occur between you and your dog by the end of these 10 weeks. Weeks 3 & 4 are a LOT of new material. By Week 5, training takes on a rhythm and a flow that makes sense and everything becomes easier.
Right now, that is not so. For instance, there are those individuals, the 4%'rs I call them in life. You know, the ones that learn it quickly, easily, with little effort, and fail to understand why everyone else doesn't learn as fast or quick or as well as they do. Somehow, mystically, magically, they just seem to get 'it' whatever the 'it' is they need to get. I am NOT a 4%'r in life. Then, there are the rest of the population, what I call the 96'rs in life. Sigh, they work, they struggle, they do things bass akwards (and consistently so!) and it seems as if they have to work EXTRA HARD to learn a new subject and master that subject well. I am a 96%'r in life and especially as it pertains to the mechanics of dog training. (I don't dance well either so there is that flaw within my not so coordinated body.)
What I have had to do to learn these mechanics well enough to teach is mind-boggling. It took learning the mechanics, then dreaming the mechanics, then practicing the mechanics with "Fido" my invisible dog over and over and over and then over again. So, I teach from a 96%'r perspective. Was the struggle, the effort, and the time spent worth the journey? Yes, it was as dog training teaches you much about yourself (more about that in the future) and sometimes what you see in yourself is not what you want to see or like. So, I have grown in leaps'n'bounds, internally, just because of the struggle to learn these mechanics.
I know it feels odd or weird or uncomfortable. It will be like that for most of the Novice classes. Then, one day, when you least expect it, you will have a moment of "Ah - ha!" and you'll get 'it'. It will feel right and you will know it. Hang on, get used to feeling discombobulated (my word for mixed up), please, please, please- relax, breathe, smile at yourself and know this journey is worth the effort and is a journey, when you look back, you will marvel at how wonderful it has all been. But one day at a time, one step at a time. I'm here, I'll help you, you'll get 'there'. If I can learn this, AND LOVE IT, so do can you.
Are you a 4%'r or a 96%'r?
Smiles, Roxanne
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