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And now I'm going to try the arms.
With the arms, I'm going to use a skill that Walter has, which is impulse
control. He has been trained to sit and wait with a treat in the
environment and not to get up to get the treat until I say OK. And now he's
allowed to get up and get the treat. I'm going to see if I can use that
skill to help me train the hoop jump. I'm going to place my hands all the
way on the ground so that he isn't tempted to go around. OK. Good job! I
want to make it very easy for him because again I want him to really
understand I want him going through my arms, and it has nothing to do with
height.
Obviously, I want height eventually because it's going to look a lot
flashier, but first I will need to make sure that he's comfortable and he
understands what the behavior is. OK. Hoop. Good! I know he's going to do
this at this point because it's so low, so I'm going to go ahead and put
the cue one. I'm releasing with OK. Hello. Good job! And then I'm saying
the word, hoop. OK. Hoop. Good boy! This is going really great, and I don't
want to jump a dog too many times in one session. You want to keep your
session short and positive. And we don't want to tire our dog physically.
Sometimes, we don't really keep in mind that our dogs are getting tired
both mentally when they're learning something and in the case of jumping,
maybe physically. So I want to keep this short so he doesn't fatigue, and
we end on a really good note. So I'm going to place the treat. I'm going to
raise my arms higher. OK. Hoop. Yay. Good boy! And I'm going to make an
impression there and give him a little jackpot because I was really
impressed with that.
Now I think I'm ready to get rid of that food on the ground for him that
was helping him focus in a straight line and take a jump really nice and
straight. But now I'm going to see if we can do it in a more abstract way.
OK. Hoop. Yay. Good boy! Then he can come back to me and get the treat.
And that is how I taught Walter to jump through my arms.