Can you dog come when called?
Can your dog drop on cue?
Can your dog back up on cue?
Those are basic foundation behaviors that you’ll want to teach for your DOR. But they won’t fold easily into a drop on recall until you’ve proofed each piece.
Can your dog come when called, even when a cookie is behind the dog?
Can your dog drop on cue when you’re holding a cookie at nose level?
Can your dog back up on cue, when you’re holding a cookie at nose level?
Now a little harder….can your dog do these things when you’re moving backward?
If you have all of those pieces, you’re well on your way to an “overtrained” dog, because a dog that can back up or drop when you’re also backing shouldn’t have too much trouble with a drop on recall.
Before you create a chain with known behaviors, test the behaviors that you have individually. Then string them together and see what’s what. If you don’t like a specific piece, pull it out for a little more attention. Then try again.
When I want to practice the DOR, I’m not going to practice the whole chain because I don’t need to; that takes unnecessary time and space. Instead, I’ll emphasize proofing the pieces of the chain.
This video is unedited – I made a few errors. That’s ok.
Consider if this exercise were the retrieve on the flat. What steps might I need for a strong foundation? How might I proof each one to ensure that the chain was strong? If you’re interested, let me know in the comments and I can do that one next.
When you’ve got the chains you want just how you want them, then consider joining me for my online class, Bridging the Gap. There we’ll take your nice chains and get them ready for competition. That class is enrolling now and runs 12 weeks – $125 for bronze:
http://www.fenzidogsportsacademy.com/index.php/courses/203
Thanks, Denise!! It’s like you wrote this just for me😉. Smoothie is still working with me on this, and I often refer to the video from your seminar here. You just gave me some extra tools for my DOR toolbox.
I also have a box for ROF, and Stand, etc. I would love similar blogs/posts on anything you want to share.
Good ideas for proofing, thank you, and love to see the retrieve video.
Great ideas Denise! Always love watching you work. These will help with my DOR. Would love to see some proofing for the retrieve.
Denise Super ideas as always. Could do with some proofing ideas on the Retrieve.
Yes, definitely interested in how you would apply this technique to retrieve on flat!