TRAINING
WITH TEMPERAMENT THEORY
Agility with Temperament Theory
by
Val Maurer and Lisa Ochoa
Introduction and Acknowledgements
Training:
Training
Using Temperament Theory
Obedience and Temperament Theory
Agility and Temperament Theory
Herding and Temperament Theory: Action Dogs
The Temperament Theory and Rescue Work
Reference:
Bibliography
Glossary
Living
With Border Collies
Hug Therapy
United States
Border Collie Club
Border Collie Society of
America
Questions?
Comments?
Suggestions?
Tell us what you
think!
Take a look at the diagram below:
The scenario described by Val below is a very clear picture of what happens when the task-focused person does not make the dog a priority in warming up for competition:
Task-focused person:
Walks the course. Person is settling into task-focus and starts thinking about ways to do the course, problems the dog has, problems the person has, how to get around these problems so they can win on the course. Thinks about the embarrassing things that can happen. Finishes walking the course.Starts prioritizing. When will it be our turn? When can I watch some others run the course and get some ideas from them? What is the judge like? Do I have time to run to the restroom? Where's my dog treats?
Our turn coming up. Go get the dog. Put dog on leash. Yell at dog for wasting time with wanting to say hello to me - jeez! I luv ya, but we don't have time for this stuff!! Walk the dog to the arena, making sure we don't get waylaid by anybody. Stand in line. Getting there is accomplished. Now stand here and try not to show nervousness.
Feeling-based dog:
Dog is in crate or in vehicle by himself, seeing and hearing chaos surrounding him. Finally, sees or hears his person coming! UPBEAT. Person letting him out! EXTREME UPBEAT. Person yells at him. WARY. Person takes him thru the obstacle course of crating area or parking lot. Loads of smells and noises. Varies from Upbeat thru Wary (Oh! There's someone I love!! UPBEAT. Person won't let me say hello. WARY. There's that dog I got in a fight with. WARY. Person's making me walk past him!! EXTREME WARY.) Oooooh!! We're walking past the food court - sure smells good. UPBEAT. Oh! There's someone else I love!! MORE UPBEAT. Person won't let me say hello. WARY. Etc., etc..Standing in line. Person isn't paying much attention to me. WARY. Yuck, there's a 10 month old Lab bothering me. EXTREME WARY. Now we're moving onto the course. Person is leaving me. WARY. Person gives me a command - I need to get into Action-mode fast!!
Lisa now describes how she prepares several of her own dogs for competition, using the temperament theory to know what each different dog needs to be ready to perform well:
Ripley (Shy/Wary): As I approach, Ripley is circling in the crate; I put a slip lead on her and let her out. We are warming up with goodies all the way to the ring. I am about 90% looking for attention and focus from her, and discouraging sniffing (she's got a cue for when it's okay to sniff but I don't use it till we're done for the day) with some fast sits and downs tossed in. We also practice her Right command (tells her to go to my right side when I need her there). If someone comes up to us, she is allowed to con them, but she cannot go off looking for men on her own. We do a few warmup jumps, utilizing things I will probably want to use on the course, then we go and wait outside the ring, playing attention games interspersed with short down-stays while we wait. What all this leads up to is that Ripley feels good about the day and about agility, she is focused and ready to start. My entire tone with her all the way around the course is fairly light, with praise thrown in as I have time and breath for it.
Luke (Shy/Upbeat): Luke gets similar warmups for obedience as Ripley does for agility, except in his case I do a lot of downs (in case he takes off on me it's always good for him to have recent good memories about downing for excellent treats), and I do my best to feed into his Upbeat feelings as he is a lot more likely to stay with me if he is feeling Upbeat.
Ollie (Bold/Upbeat): Well, Ollie got control exercises outside the ring =) He was never a sniffer, and I never had any trouble with his attention span, but he did need to be reminded about who was supposed to be in charge of the course. Not that he always believed me, but I did try! My voice tended to be a lot more severe with him, not because I wanted to be that way but because a happy voice tended to garner us on average eight to ten off-courses (his record was about 17 extra obstacles on a jumpers course in NADAC, a run we completed in under 30 seconds!) as opposed to one or two with the severe voice. I think being a little harder with him helped him remember I was in the same ring with him.
This seems/seemed to work pretty well with all of them. I always vary things a bit, depending on how I think the dog perceives the situation.
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