The Path to Better Catching with Loot | Punishing with a Pause and an Offered Down Part I

Loot does not and has never caught well. He can’t catch a piece of food to save his life. I should shoot a video of it – it’s so horrifically incompetent that it is almost sad… I have recently begun to question his sight, as he runs into things and misses completely visible objects and signals all the time. Besides that catching thing, in the game of disc the dude pretty much knows his job.

Like many dogs, Loot likes to run and move much more than he likes to catch the disc. Some dogs like to bash their face on the ground after a miss, or like to corral the recently missed disc as it skitters and flips on the ground – that’s super fun.

Avoidance and Frustration

You may have noticed that I run Eppie all the time in our training session. I don’t run Loot much in lessons and have not been training much with him because it really feels like work. In addition to feeling like work, I can’t depend on him to catch the disc to seal the deal and to make the lesson look valid.

He can do most all the things Eppie can and he can do them well, but as soon as I split focus, the catching falls apart and the demonstration of skill or lesson fails and the focus must shift to training and work on the catch. It has been extremely frustrating. Poor Loot…

Split Attention and Focus and Gains Lost

I have worked on catching with several techniques that all work quite well, but other needs and focuses of the game have gotten in the way of proofing the catch and putting the reward history that is necessary to fix this problem for Loot.

Like many handlers I have a competitive focus. Competition is important to me, but more importantly it is important to my business. Our poor showings in World Finals competition have harmed my livelihood. This pressing need to compete every few months and to have a World Finals pull gets in the way of good dog training. Such is the life of a pro dog handler…

Unlike many handlers I also have a teaching focus. Teaching and the learning required to understand the game is my primary focus – it is literally what I do. This is why I’m writing this long lesson after planning, filming, and editing a pointed training session – this is hour 10 on this production. So I’ve got this pressing need to learn and teach that gets in the way of fixing tenacious problems like this.

I also want to jam with my dog. I would much rather play than work. I try to create training methods that allow me to play with my dog without the overarching pressure and focus of work. I don’t mind working, but I would much rather have a 3 day workweek with weekends off, if you catch my drift.

As a result of this split focus, we have “fixed” this catching problem several times only to have it fall apart as the other aspects of the get in the way of good training and working my dog. C’est la vie…

Lessons Leading to the Offered Down

There have been several lessons that have led to the offered Down as a solution for poor catching (and I do think it will be THE Solution™). They have all reinforced the successful catch but have not been followed through on as my focus shifts to those other important aspects of play. Not all of them are helpful to the Offered Down, as I’ll explain in a moment.

Any one of these lessons, on their own or added to simple consequent play, should work with most dogs. This is something of a flow chart order, the top of the list is where to start and the further down the list you go, the further down the rabbit hole you have fallen.

Positive Marker with Verbal Reinforcement

This completely works with most dogs. Just mark the catch and reinforce with some praise. If the catch misses, zip your lips and let your silence do the talking.

This with a bit of consequent play has been, pretty much, the entire lesson for Eppie, and is a simple and fast fix for most dogs who have experience with marker training and decent social drive and biddability.

This will have a less than stellar result with dogs with great prey drive, dogs with a strong desire to move, and dogs with a long history of inconsequent play.

Catch = Next (Consequent Play)

This is Punishing with a Pause, and is a great solution to catching issues.

You catch it, we move on. You miss it, we stop. Super simple. This is enough for most dogs and combined with the Positive MarkerA Positive Marker is a signal that is used to communicate the exact instant that a behavior is correct and that predicts a positive consequence. A click of the clicker is a Positive... and Verbal Reinforcement above solves the problem for 90+% of the disc dogs out there (75% of border collies). A simple stop on a miss, a 3-5 count of nothing happening, or a slow-rolled disc pick-up and reset is all that is required to make the point to a high drive dog.

The idea that the game completely stops, like freezes, and nothing happens on the miss is key for this to work. The energy level and flow of the game has to die. Stopping for a second and an immediate resumption of play is not enough.

Cued Drop = Next

Mandating a Cued DropA cued Drop, or Drop for short, means that you tell your dog when to drop, purposefully, and upon your discretion. A cued Drop is a must in the game of disc in... has worked. Nothing happens without the completion of a Cued Drop.

Loot has worked harder to catch because it is a pain in his ass to stop, turn around and go back and get the disc. Because he definitely knows that he must be carrying it to drop it on cue. And the fastest and most surefire way to be carrying it is to catch it.

This technique has gotten in the way of the next two, and is especially incompatible with the Offered Down. You can see in the video that Loot, nearly immediately goes to pick it up and looks excited as he looks to me for the Drop Cue. I take this in stride and will fix it with the next one on the list…

Lie Down on Miss

Dog misses > “Lie Down!” or “lie down…” preferably the latter. An immediate Down cue after a miss is a terrific punisher.

There are only 2 problems with it: One, it is that it is the handler’s responsibility to act. I don’t like to be responsible for acting on things like this. I’d much rather have the dog be responsible, or to let the situation settle and have the dog figure it out.

The second problem is that it can become just part of the game. This is a strong possibility with working and high drive dogs. They just budget it right in there as part of the gig. “Yup, I miss it, he tells me to lie down, and then we move on.”

And something to keep in mind is that a Cued Down is a positive consequence when the dog is tired. “Whew! Thanks, for the down… I could use a breather…”

Offered Down

The Offered Down means that nothing will make the game move on after a miss except for the dog choosing to lie down and wait for a release cue.

This self imposed punishment has tremendous power. The dog is completely cognizant of the fact that the catch is important and that a miss results in a self imposed stopping of the game. Nobody is going to make the dog do anything.

This self punishment is powerful. The first time I tried it with Loot a few weeks ago he responded so well and so thoughtfully that I decided it was going to be my go to for solving this. And I think with a bit of sustained focus, it actually will solve it, due to it’s self reliant or self disciplined nature.

Packing It In

Quitting the game on any miss and no more play for the session is a powerful motivator. I’ve used it. I’ve used it with Loot. The only problems with it are that there is no recovery or contrast between example and non-example, so the learning and lesson is very limited, and it can be logistically difficult for people who have to travel to a field to play or when the scheduling the game is a significant obstacle (limited time and availability).

Next Installment

Well this wound up a bit longer than I thought… I didn’t expect to run so deep into the path to get here. I didn’t even touch the lesson in the video and we’re at nearly 1500 words.

I’ll get Part II up ASAP and it will be straight to the point. Stay tuned…