The Wall - Page 2

I don't know how many of you have done e-collar training with the use of "place boards". If not you may wish to explore it as the foundation for much training: the long sit, the long down, straight fronts, straight finishes, the recall, the send away, etc. 

A thorough discussion of place board training is beyond the scope of this post. However, I would like to demonstrate the teaching of the wall using place boards (which the dog already understands as a "safe place"). These photos were taken of re-training the wall with Jim Dobbs and my dog Nimo (Geronimo vom Olympus).

With this sort of training, the dog learns to always go over (never around) the wall before introducing the dumbbell to the exercise. Futhermore, he learns to walk up the wall and to walk down the other side instead of leaping from the top.

Louise, great post with the illustrative pictures.  Thanks for sharing your perspective.  

The "place boards" remind me a lot of teaching a dog to hit the contact zones in Agility. 

I've only been to a Ring club once, and only saw Mali's going over the vertical wall.  What little I saw was all motivational, with a jute toy as the reward.  However, I never got to see any young dogs doing their foundation work, so I'm interested in some of the posts that describe various techniques.

(Puppy punting aside)  

Yvette

Yvette,

There is a lot of back-chaining with this approach. First the dog is sent with the "hupp" command--he must go from the first place board near me when I give the "hupp" command and cross over a second place board before walking up the wall.

As he walks down the other side, I say "place"--meaning that he is to go to and to remain on the place board on the far side of the wall. When I want him to return, I say "hier"--immediately followed by "hupp"--he may be guided by the assistant as you see in the photos..

Finally, when the dumbbell is introduced, it is not thrown. Instead, it is shown to the dog from the other side of the wall by my assistant (in this case, Jim Dobbs) who puts it on a place board fairly close to the base of the far side of the wall--to reinforce that the dog is to walk down the side of the wall.

After the dog has walked down the wall to the placeboard with the dumbbell, I say "bring", "hupp", etc. Gradually, my assistant places the dumbbell on a second placeboard further from the wall--and we repeat the sequence.

This is a continuation of the "learned retrieve" which is initially taught on the "table" (which I will not discuss here). IOW, the whole wall exercise is taught as an obedience exercise progression from one place board to another. In this manner, the dog learns not to perceive the dumbbell as a fast moving "prey object" (and become hectic). This approach teaches the dog to "learn to learn" sequentially.

Only after the dog is retrieving the dumbbell from place boards at increasingly greater distances is the dumbbell actually thrown. Often, even then, its position may be adjusted by the assistant after it lands. In the meantime the dog learns that I will not send him with the "hupp" command until he gives me focus and deliberate eye contact.

After the dog is retrieving reliably over the wall at low levels, the height of the wall is gradually increased.

This training technique is not nearly as complicated as it sounds. It does teach the dog to retrieve and to scale the wall without the risk of injury from leaping.

 Sorry, that post was an accident

I'd be interested in seeing pictures of hearing from people who have done wall training with a GSD, much as it is done in some forms of ring.