How do you teach the articles? - Page 1

 From little puppies.  After they learn platz,  I drop articles at random in the house. random places and random times.  I tell the pupp to platz when they come upon them.  Then treat and play time.  The puppies learn quickly that finding an article on the ground, on the carpet, etc, is a good thing and they are happy to "inidicate."    No stress about articles and no avoidance, when it is transferred to the track. 

Wow, you must not have kids! I have articles all over the house.

I teach it both on and off the track.  When I am teaching it off the track I will put articles in my yard on the grass, walk the dog up to them, have them down, and reward.  Since they also know how to go to a place, and down on it for a reward, this seems to click fairly fast.  Then I work it on the track.  I don't wait until it's 100% off though, which is why I say I teach it both places.  On the track I just use a lot of articles, every 10-15 feet or so, with food under or on them (depends on the dog), enough for the dog to pause and then I tell them "down" and reward futher.  Fade out the food at the article, not the reward, just the food being there before the dog gets there, and also start adding more distance. 

Malndobe, I don't put food under or on an article. Too worried about the dog F'ing with the article. Only time the dog doesn't get rewarded for an article is at a trial.

I do when I first start it on the track, so they will pause at the article and I can reinforce the down there.  But I wean them off it as soon as they have the idea.  Haven't had any problems with them messing with the articles, but if one were to there is enough time between when we start articles and when they finally trial I can clean that up. 

I train them off the track, starting with just one article in my hand, getting the dogs attention, and sort of luring the dog into a platz with the article between the paws.  I mark the behavior and reward with a treat (from my other hand, I don't put food on/under the article).  I've found the dog picks this up off the track very quickly, and within a day or two the dog will go to articles scattered randomly and platz on them and from then on never needs to be told to platz on an article.  Then I do article tracks.  If we go out tracking, I'll lay a normal track, whatever I was working on before we started articles AND a shorter, straight, easy article track or two which have a dozen or so articles fairly close together.  Once the dog is absolutely consistent on the easy article tracks, I start laying articles on my normal tracks.  I always reward with food at an article and the food comes from my hand.

 we play the "show me" game


essentially we teach how to "touch" something. Then we have them touch articles in hands.
Then once they understand I want them to touch them. I have the dog sit. I throw 3 articles in a circle around us. Then release the dog and say "show me" since the articles were shown the dog immediatly runs to them. the dog touches nose to article. I immediately mark with a "yes" and reward and go to the next one and so on and so forth. once the dog understands the articles are the center of the game. Then we slow it down. The dog learns to platz with the article in front of it and touching with nose. Then we slow it down a little more. 

The teaching to touch with the nose eventually turns into a beautiful platz with the article in between the legs and the dog staring dead straight at the article until you come and pick it up. 

My approaching of their finding an article always means a great food reward so they are MORE than happy to find articles and indicate. No stress, beautiful straight sphynx platz with the article in between the legs and a stare right at the article so you cant miss it!

After all that described above, I do article tracks. I use 20 articles to start with and put them on a track (my dogs track at least 400 paces at this time and I Do multi surface but for this i use grass, easier for me.

So I do about 50 paces 20 articles and I put them so the dog cant see them as they approach them. If the are about to run articles over, I just hold the short line and tell the S word, maybe help them. I cover the articles with grass and so on. At this point I want them to use their nose, not eyes.. unfortunately if there is a hard, long windy and rainy track, it happens the dog indicates the articles off track.. but then I could care less since those tracks are 5000 paces, 3-6 hours old.. I am not loony I know that my dog is not going to do a Perfect step by step track.

yes .. it is correct to teach the 'article indication 'off track - mystere ... excellent how you teach ! really really nice !!.. my philosophy .. sch or any other sport should be a way of life .. yes .. teach an exercise away from the field if you will ..  then bring it to the field .. a canine should learn something any where , any time and any place ..i teach dog sports , right in my living room ..  same for protection work .. i train the lesson, wherever ,  then bring into the protection routine .. if i train an out that means in the house , on the porch , in front of walmart .. then i go to the training field with my friends .. it's the ;last place most often .. ..why .. i say don't teach indication first not on the track ./.. because everything on the track is 'positive' .. if i have to discipline my dog after having been taught .. i enforce myslef away from the tack .. by the time i bring the dog to the track .. the indication is proofed .. so for the dog .. it is just a plain ol' indication .. the last place a want to be correcting the dog is on the tack [if possible] .off track ,  And then again off track - i want to motivate the dog so much that my dog can't wait to indicate even if he is later working on track .. . Don is correct , if you hide food under an article .. some dogs will start nosing and playing with the artice trying to problem solve  in order that they may  find the food !!  the dog will think  : the food was there before , it must be here somewhere .. YOU CREATED the PROBLEM ..not the dog !! A side comment : i get a kick out of the fact that most people think a training exercise has to be formal .. no .. it should be a way of life / having a great time together .. why does Sch have to be on a training field .. in reality the exercises are real life , dog sit . sit and wait , bring something back .. walk controlled .. the trail .. shoiuld just be another day that you and your dog interact .. or just another paractice session .. no more and no less .. every day you interact with your dog .. that is trail day .. just an opinion .. that's the way i see it ..