The Trendsetter in Canine Performance Video!™


23Jun2015

Training Through Pictures with Dave Kroyer- Nose Work 1- The Indication wins a 2015 Telly Bronze Award

Canine Training Systems Wins a 2015 Telly Bronze Award for Training Through Pictures with Dave Kroyer- Nose Work 1- The IndicationAs the second title in our Nose Work series nears completion,  Training Through Pictures with Dave Kroyer- Nose Work 1- The Indication has won it's FIFTH International Award!  We've both seen and received tremendous accolades for this product.  Any dog, any breed, any age, any substance.  This title is ideal for sport detection dogs in Nose Work and professional applications like police K9 (narcotics and explosives), border patrol and specialized detection like medical alert and biologicals.  In addition to being an award winner, this title, by it's very methodology, circumvents problems created in other methods because of it's logical, linear approach to training.  As a backchaining method, each step in the process builds upon the previous so any error in training is incredibly easy to identify and correct.  As an immediate byproduct, this title has become the go-to repair manual for "certified" trainers in other methodologies.

This new title is incredibly popular and of the same quality Canine Training Systems is known for!  We're pleased with our fifth International Award, a 2015 Telly Bronze Award!

To date Nose Work 1- The Indication has earned:

  • 2015 Hermes Creative Gold Award Winner
  • 2015 Communicator Award of Excellence
  • 2015 Ava Digital Awards Gold Award
  • 2014 MarCom Creative Gold Award

About The Telly Awards
Founded in 1979, the Telly Awards is firmly among the premier awards honoring outstanding local, regional, and cable TV commercials and programs, as well as the finest video and film productions, web commercials, videos and films. The Telly Awards annually showcases the best work of the most respected advertising agencies, production companies, television stations, cable operators, and corporate video departments in the world. The Telly Awards is a widely known and highly respected national and international competition and receives over 12,000 entries annually from all 50 states and 5 continents.

“The Telly Awards has a mission to honor the very best in film and video,” said Linda Day, Executive Director of the Telly Awards.  “Canine Training Systems’ accomplishment illustrates their creativity, skill, and dedication to their craft and serves as a testament to great film and video production.”  You can learn more about the Telly Awards here.

To learn more about our 45 International Production Awards, please visit our awards page.

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30Apr2015

Training Through Pictures with Dave Kroyer- Nose Work 1- The Indication wins a 2015 Communicator Award of Excellence

Canine Training Systems Wins a 2015 Communicator Award of <b>Excellence</b>for Training Through Pictures with Dave Kroyer- Nose Work 1- The IndicationA heavy package arrived in the mail today!  Training Through Pictures with Dave Kroyer- Nose Work 1- The Indication has won it's THIRD International Award.  More importantly, it's full of detail and clear instructional content for training detector dogs.  Any dog, any breed, any age, any substance.  This title is ideal for sport detection dogs in Nose Work and professional applications like police K9 (narcotics and explosives), border patrol and specialized detection like medical alert and biologicals.

It's tough to top the 7X International Award Winning prerequisite title,  Training Through Pictures with Dave Kroyer- Learning to Learn.  This new title is incredibly popular!  We're pleased with our third International Award, a 2015 21st Annual Communicator Award of Excellence!

To date Nose Work 1- The Indication has earned:

  • 2015 Communicator Award of Excellence
  • 2015 Ava Digital Awards Gold Award
  • 2014 MarCom Creative Gold Award

We've received tremendous feedback via email and social media.  Despite the difficulty in advertising the video anywhere but online, we've had international orders from Canada, Italy, Indonesia, Greece, Hong Kong, England, Spain, Japan, Germany, Mexico, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Slovenia, Belgium, Finland, Chile, Panama, Ireland, Czech Republic, S. Africa and beyond.  More importantly, our customers are telling us how incredibly their dogs are performing and how quickly they are learning.  They're also talking about it with friends and training enthusiasts the world over!

As always, we truly appreciate your business and revel in your success!  Your success through our products is our success.

About The Communicator Awards
The Communicator Awards is sanctioned and judged by the Academy of Interactive & Visual Arts, an invitation-only group consisting of top-tier professionals from acclaimed media, communications, advertising, creative and marketing firms. AIVA members include executives from organizations such as Airtype Studio, Big Spaceship, Conde Nast, Coach, Disney, The Ellen Degeneres Show, Estee Lauder, Fry Hammond Barr, Lockheed Martin, MTV Networks, Pitney Bowes, rabble+rouser, Sotheby's Institute of Art, Time, Inc, Victoria's Secret, Wired, and Yahoo! To learn more about the AIVA please visit www.aiva.org.

”The Communicator Awards honors work that transcends innovation and craft - work that made a lasting impact. The Award of Excellence, the highest honor, is given to those entrants whose ability to communicate positions them as the best in the field.” You can learn more about the Communicator Awards here.

To learn more about our 43 International Production Awards, please visit our awards page.

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10Feb2015

Training Through Pictures with Dave Kroyer- Nose Work 1- The Indication has won an AVA Digital Awards Gold Award!

Canine Training Systems Wins a 2015 AVA Awards Gold Award for Training Through Pictures- Learning to Learn with Dave KroyerThe mail has been full of good news lately.  Training Through Pictures with Dave Kroyer- Nose Work 1- The Indication has won another International Award.  More importantly, it's full of detail and clear instructional content for training detector dogs.  Any dog, any breed, any age, any substance.  This title bridges the gap between sport detection dogs in Nose Work and professional applications like police K9 (narcotics and explosives), border patrol and specialized detection like medical alert and biologicals.

It's tough to top the 7X International Award Winning prerequisite title,  Training Through Pictures with Dave Kroyer- Learning to Learn.  This new title is incredibly popular!  We're pleased with the result, a 2015 AVA Digital Awards Gold Award!

We're really happy with the title and so are our customers, we've had international orders from Italy, Greece, England, Spain, Japan, Germany, Mexico, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Slovenia, Belgium, Finland, Chile, Panama, Ireland and beyond.

As always, we truly appreciate your business and hope you enjoy the final product!  Thanks for all the feedback, your success through our products is our success.

About The AVA Digital Awards
The Ava Awards recognizes outstanding work by creative professionals involved in the concept, writing, direction, shooting, and editing of audio-visual materials and programs. Entrants include video and film production companies, web developers, advertising agencies, PR firms, corporate and government communications departments, producers, directors, editors and shooters. Judges are industry professionals who look for companies and individuals whose talent exceeds a high standard of excellence and whose work serves as a benchmark for the industry. There were 2500 entries from throughout the United States and 17 other countries in the 2015 AVA Digital Awards Competition.

AVA's Digital Platinum Award is presented to those entries judged to be among the most outstanding submissions in the competition. Platinum Winners are recognized for their excellence in terms of quality, creativity and resourcefulness. About 15 percent won this award. The Gold Award is presented to those judged to exceed the high standards of the industry norm. Approximately 18 percent were Gold Winners and 8 percent received Honorable Mention recognition. You can learn more about the AVA Digital Awards here.

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10Feb2015

Training Through Pictures with Dave Kroyer- Learning to Learn has won an AVA Digital Awards Platinum Award!

Canine Training Systems Wins a 2015 Communicator Award of Distinction for Training Through Pictures- Learning to Learn with Dave KroyerTraining Through Pictures with Dave Kroyer- Learning to Learn has won a 2015 AVA Digital Awards Platinum Award!  It's a beautiful production, many of you have told us too.  We're proud of it and as more titles near release, it's good news for us to receive word of it's 7th production award.  The highest award they offer!

From the AVA Digital Awards website-

"The Ava Awards recognizes outstanding work by creative professionals involved in the concept, writing, direction, shooting, and editing of audio-visual materials and programs. Entrants include video and film production companies, web developers, advertising agencies, PR firms, corporate and government communications departments, producers, directors, editors and shooters. Judges are industry professionals who look for companies and individuals whose talent exceeds a high standard of excellence and whose work serves as a benchmark for the industry. There were 2500 entries from throughout the United States and 17 other countries in the 2015 AVA Digital Awards Competition."

Very nice.

That’s 7 Awards which nearly matches the 8 won by Training Substance Detector Dogs with Randy Hare- Detection 1

New titles are coming! As always, we appreciate your business and thanks for your feedback.

To learn more about the AVA Digital Awards, visit http://www.avaawards.com.

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09Dec2014

The Introduction of Toy Interaction in the Working Dog with Dave Kroyer: Part 3

Phone Interview with CTS President, Doug Calhoun, and Dave Kroyer.

In this third part of a multi-session series on toy interaction, we discussed common problems handlers have, how to schedule prey and food sessions and how to end sessions.  Part 1 and 2 can be read here and here.

Q: We’ve discussed starting prey interaction with a tug and establishing rules and contracts for interaction, what problems do you see with handlers?

A: These are a lot of things I see people bypass with their dog, they’re so busy working on things like sit and heel position and all these other things but one day they are going to have to use the toy and if these formal things aren’t put in place they are going to run into a road block when that prey item is introduced.  

One of the main problems though is not dedicating enough time to formal sessions or trials of teaching the dog how to play.  That’s the #1 problem, the #2 problem is we may have a very large, strong dog that someone who is very small, that maybe doesn’t have the strength of a larger person, will have a very difficult time playing tug. The dog could actually be manhandling the person.  It could be a 100-pound person and a 100-pound dog.  A lot of times, the dog will win that fight and drag them around.  This is where a game of fetch is actually better.   So someone that is not strong or mobile may want to play a game of fetch.

Another problem is with impulse control.  Let’s assume that the dog performed a behavior and we moment mark it and the handler can’t even reach for that toy without the dog taking our arm or hand or jacket.  That stems back to not enough out training and impulse control.  If we want to go back even further, it’s basic target training and how to work away from your prey and focus effort into behaviors or even stillness in the presence of prey.  The reason it’s based in this is because we’ve taught the dog two things- 1. to work away from the handler and not orient toward the handler or reward source and 2. because the dog understands to work for the mark, the click in my case.

It’s interesting really and timely, because this morning I was working with my pup, a young dog actually this morning.  I was working with a toy doing some targeting.  The dog was outing his toy and targeting to the table for a mark to return to a dead toy that he would push into me for play.  I would tug and then give him the toy and prompt him.  He would drop the toy and move to the table for his mark.  This is the first thing a dog has to learn, right, if you leave your toy you can have your toy and that’s impulse control.


Q: How do you schedule play sessions with food session in terms of predictability?

So we already know from Training Through Pictures- Learning to Learn how to establish food predictability.  Play is really just an extension, initially of those sessions.  At the end of a session of work with food, I will get the toy out and play with the dog.  I will use a tug and basically begin out training from day 1.  So it took like 1 week to 10 days to solidify the out from the tug, to make it very clear.  Once I had that then I started working on “out then you can take it back”, and now I’m going to let go of the tug but you have to interact with me.  Once I felt I had that under control, at around the 4-week period, I started playing fetch with the ball more.  

Now that you understand the rules of the out, I’m going to introduce a new type of game, fetch.  You go out and I throw one and I throw one, you come back and go between my legs and we play and you out the ball.  I may give it back to you, you may bring it back and push it into me to play and then out, create a behavior and throw it again.

So generally, now that my puppy is 5 months old, I have prey predictability basically done.


Q: At you near the end of a session how do you prepare the dog for the end of play?

95% or more of my play sessions end with the dog taking the prey item off of the field.  I still have to get it from him from wherever he’s housed whether it’s in the house or in a crate or a vehicle or dog box or trailer or kennel.  But, I’m very careful that when I put the dog away not to steal the toy away.  I usually have a minute or so more of work with the dog.  So if I’m 5-10 feet away from where the dog is housed, I may work on outs again.  An out, moment mark, give it back, out, moment mark and give it back and maybe then an out, moment mark and toss some food into the crate or kennel as a trade.  

Sometimes it’s one step further because the dog understands targeting.  I’ll ask them to kennel, crate or go into the trailer with the door open and when they enter I’ll click and let them return to me for the toy or ball.   At some point, the dog simply won’t receive the toy again as I give a terminal cue “we’re done” and offer a piece of food.  It’s never simply taking the toy away with nothing then.  I want an element of trust maintained but I do have to remove the toy.  It’s a balancing act and can be a bit different for different dogs but what I don’t want is the dog clamping down on the toy and me TAKING it away from him.  I want the dog to believe that there is ALWAYS a possibility of him getting it back.

Q: Is there a ratio of trading of items you maintain or how do you know when to adjust things with the dog?

When the dog becomes fluid with interactions surrounding the toy, I know we have trust.  With my very highly prey driven dogs, when they will approach the kennel or trailer and simply release the toy and enter, I know I have what I need from them.  They know a toy session will happen and understand the lack of finality of releasing a toy- they trust enough to let it go and that it’s done, for now.

Q: What is the big problem with teaching the out from a handler’s standpoint?

There are a number of things that go hand in hand.  First, not reading the dog and giving him a chance to be successful.  A good dog has drive and the handler needs to consider what the dog wants.  He wants his toy.  The release is a contradiction initially to the transaction.  

What we often see is that the dog will pull on the toy and if it’s a strong dog, the dog gets satisfaction from the pulling.  Often once the handler does get the dog to let go, IF the dog willingly lets go of it, the handler is often so quick to snatch it away from the dog- to remove any possibility from the dog’s point of view that he can get it back.  He’s actually really lost the toy, not simply released it.  We want the dog to make a choice to leave the toy alone, the opportunity to think about what he’s doing in the presence of the toy, to be an actual part of the process, to have some control in the matter.

In the past what a lot of people would do is put a leash on the dog to block the pulling behaviors, maybe do some type of coercion training to stop the pulling.  What I’ve found works really well and it doesn’t matter if it’s a puppy or a big dog is I’ll take a chair and place it along a wall close to a corner and work the dog up toward the wall.  I’ll sit down in the chair and place the dog so he’s backed toward the wall.  With a wall behind him and me in a chair, he can’t pull.  What you’ll see very quickly is that the dog will stop pulling because the behavior is taken from him.  So without gratification from that sooner or later the dog will let go.  We’ve just isolated a release to be clear now.  We can moment mark and give it right back to him.

So the pulling behavior is something I see with a lot of people including myself.  I’m not a huge person so if I have an 80 pound dog, it can be hard on my back.  

Another thing people seem to do almost instinctually is that when the dog let’s go, they move the prey away.  Instead of the dog moving away from the toy, the handler moves it away.  Movement is a super strong lure for the dog, it’s prey instinct.  The goal is really that the dog let’s go and the toy is static.  Any prey movement should only take place, if at all, after the moment marker.  So in a perfect world, the dog would release the toy, show impulse control, hear the moment mark and then bite the toy again.  The dog is showing super clarity here and what we should strive for.  


Q: In recap Dave for purposes of this interview, what do you think needs to be emphasized here?

To get the point hit home, we kind of decided the point of this interview was that I was seeing people not devoting enough separate, formal training sessions to any type of play predictability or teaching the dog some kind of game.  They just kind of assume that as the dog is older, we’ll start rewarding with a toy but there is no rhyme or reason to the system and then we create a whole other problem with the dog.  What is really important is that the rules are clear, we have lots and lots of successful practice and that the dog understands how to toy works in training and that an element of trust is maintained and perpetuated.

Now with dogs with less prey drive, we have to make some conflict with the dog sometimes to really get the dog to want it.   A lot of times I will tell people that if your dog doesn’t really want to possess a toy, don’t teach it an out yet.  In consideration of both realms, I don’t want to sound like a hypocrite here.  For a high drive dog I want to create impulse control but for a lower drive dog I want to create drive and interest in the toy so it’s really quite different than what we’ve discussed here.  That will be a great topic to cover in another interview and one I get asked about a lot as well. 

To be continued...


01Nov2014

Training Through Pictures with Dave Kroyer- Nose Work 1- The Indication wins a 2014 MarCom Creative Gold Award!

Canine Training Systems Wins 2014 Communicator Award of Distinction for Training Through Pictures- Learning to Learn with Dave KroyerHabits are hard to break.  Training Through Pictures with Dave Kroyer- Nose Work 1- The Indication is gorgeous.  More importantly, it's full of detail and clear instructional content for training detector dogs.  Any dog, any breed, any age, any substance.  This title bridges the gap between sport detection dogs in Nose Work and professional applications like police K9 (narcotics and explosives), border patrol and specialized detection like medical alert and biologicals.

It's tough to top the 7X Internation Award Winning prerequisite title,  Training Through Pictures with Dave Kroyer- Learning to Learn.  This new title is on it's way!  We're pleased with the result, a 2014 Marcom Creative Gold Award!

The feedback is tremendous and so far, we've had international orders from Italy, Greece, England, Spain, Japan, Germany, Mexico, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.  The Kiwi's know a good thing when the hear about it! 

As always, we truly appreciate your business and hope you enjoy the final product!  Thanks for all the feedback, your success through our products is our success.

 


19May2014

The Introduction of Toy Interaction in the Working Dog with Dave Kroyer: Part 2

Phone Interview with CTS President, Doug Calhoun, and Dave Kroyer.

In this second part of a multi-session series on toy interaction, we discussed the out, play predictability and toy usage.  Part 1 can be read here.

Q: What’s Missing for Most People?

A: What’s missing is this really remedial game of picking up a toy and the dog being willing to release that one for a toss of another.   I want the dog to release one toy and travel through my legs to get the other one.  You can get a 2-3 minutes of repetition with this and maybe 4, 6, 8 throws or more on the field.  It becomes a VERY predictable game that I can use for the training.  It’s very simple and very remedial but a lot of people don’t use it.  So it’s real simple, like what Gottfried Dildei did in his videos, it’s just using two balls instead of two hoses and the dog is moving through the legs.  If the dog doesn’t release the ball, you just wait a moment and stimulate him with the other and when he drops it, you just toss the other through your legs and pick up the dropped one while he’s chasing the other.  The difference though is that I’m not going to rely on the transfer of the toy for the out.  

Q: What do you do differently?

A: Outside of that session, I’m working on the out in a very formal setting.  The two balls is a means to an end to get the dog coming back with a tight turn when he gets the first ball with speed and vigilance and going between my legs to understand later where I want to you to go with that first ball that I throw.  The second ball can be removed after awhile.  

Q: What role does trust play in this interaction?

A: I think it plays a big role because when I watch people, there are conflicting behaviors between them and their dog when they use the toy.  I think it all stems from a basic lack of trust.  

The dog thinks where am I getting the toy?  How am I getting the toy?  Should I just molest you for the toy?

I see that a lot because nobody puts in any time to create a predictable game with the dog, they just decide one day that they are going to reward with the toy. Because they have a dog that is very active for the prey, they may not have any impulse control so you see the dog nipping at them, biting at them and grabbing at jackets.  You wouldn’t believe the number of jackets and sleeves I see get ripped at seminars.   

Another thing I see frequently when using a ball is the dog biting the string.  The dog is frantic to get something but he’s never been TAUGHT to bite something or target something and that is another complete exercise itself.  You could do formal training sessions with just that but the dog is so anxious to get the toy and possess it, all forethought into a mutual interaction goes out the window.


Q: When you first start the out or release of the prey object, you prefer a tug, why?

A: I don’t want to say it’s more interactive with a tug, but in one way it is.  With the ball and a very strong dog, you can’t easily make the ball immobile when you’re trying to work on an inducive out.   With the tug I can manipulate and inducive out better because I’ve got two hands on it and I can completely immobilize it when I want the prey to go dead.   So that’s the tool I actually use to teach the act of outing.  

I teach the dog that the tug is an interactive toy and one I’ve established an out, there are things I do to teach the dog to interact with me and even push into me with the toy and engage with me with the toy and that it’s not something that they want to go lay down in a corner with and covet.  A lot of times people will say to me, ‘well my dog won’t bring it back to me’ and they’ll see my young dog who’s actually driving the tug back into me and they’ll say ‘well your dog is different’ and my comment is, “No, my dog was exactly like that but I had to do many, many sessions over days and weeks to teach the dog to interact with the toy with me”.


Q: When do you switch to a ball and why?

A: When all of the rules are in place with the out and interaction with me, I generally don’t use a tug in training any longer I’m going to use a ball on a string.  I can tug with the string and throw the ball with the string but the dog has already learned how to out off the tug and to return to me and drive into me and interact with me.

So with the game with two balls and the out itself there are rules and contracts.  Once those in place, training with prey can’t proceed but I see a LOT of people start early when the rules don’t exist and they never get the repetitions of behaviors to make them really clear before polluting things with lots of drive and overactivity.

I like to use the ball because I like to play fetch.  I can throw the ball down field or across a room and the activity of running helps free the dog’s mind up.  Running and action is great for freeing the dog’s mind up.  Because with my system we gets lots of repetitions, and maybe a very session of learning something and he did good, I want to be able to reward the dog and free their mind through running a bit.  


To be continued…


06May2014

What goes from 0 to 14 in dog years in two days? Training Through Picures with Dave Kroyer- Learning to Learn, that's what!

Canine Training Systems Wins 2014 Hermes Gold Award for Training Through Pictures- Learning to Learn with Dave KroyerIt's been a busy week.  Really. Really. Busy.  A new product release is always an exciting time and this week is no exception.  Thanks for the incredible feedback on our new DVD release, Training through Pictures with Dave Kroyer- Learning to Learn. We love hearing about the difference a good instructional video makes for a dog-handler team, group instructor or student of higher education.  Clarity.  Detail. Performance.  Results.  Yes!  It's positive reinforcement (R+) for us and drives us forward.  We LOVE what our products do for our customers and we love to hear feedback.

We received a big envelope in yesterday's mail from the Hermes Creative Awards with the judging results of our entry in the 2014 competition.  We won a Hermes Gold Award!  The Hermes Creative Awards Competition is an International Competition with over 5,500 entries that honors "the messengers and creators of traditional and emerging media".  We've gone from 35 industry awards to 37 in just two days.  We strive to produce a product that is not only educational but is produced to video production industry standards, is highly marketable and something our vendors have pride in offering.  It's also nice to have shiny, heavy objects on our desks to hold down our stack of outgoing order receipts, idea lists, scripts and goals.  This makes two awards in two days and it's only been shipping for two days!

Don't worry, we're busy working away on uncoming releases in The Kroyer Sport Dog Series and, as always, we truly appreciate your business.  Your patronage let's us continue making a difference through producing titles with the best of the best in dog sport.  Thank You.

 


29Apr2014

Sometimes it's all about timing...Training Through Picures with Dave Kroyer- Learning to Learn wins a 2014 Communicator Award!

Canine Training Systems Wins 2014 Communicator Award of Distinction for Training Through Pictures- Learning to Learn with Dave KroyerSometimes it's all about timing.  Training Through Pictures with Dave Kroyer- Learning to Learn is gorgeous.  It contains 1,500 clips (video, narration, graphics, overlays etc.) and was, like other projects complicated, labor intensive and like a puzzle that needed carefully assembled.  Because it's the basis for Dave's detail-rich system of training, it was critical to take the time to explain what is conceptually broad and underlying to nearly everything Dave does for any dog in any dog sport.  At 105 minutes in Hi-Definition, it was a balancing act to keep the editing system healthy with multiple titles in the series in production.

The completion of the title coincided with many award competitions for broadcast producers.  We anticipated feedback from consumers first with competition feedback trickling in later.  We were wrong.  We knew the title was good, Dave previewed a rough cut during a Dave Kroyer Academy class and we sent out production roughs to professional videographers, editors and content creators in advance to get feedback.  We're pleased with the result, a pre-release 2014 Communicator Award of Distinction!

Other competitions have accepted our entry and we're excited to hear back from them as well.  Most importantly, we hope the video helps the individuals that purchase it and use it's content.  We made it because of you, for your dog, but more importantly for your team and for dog sport.  That's why we do what we do.  It takes a long time.  It's expensive to produce.  It's not easy.  It's gorgeous.  The DVD's are en route and will ship this week. 

From Dave Kroyer-

"Although the DVD took quite a while to produce, the project was a major undertaking for a few reasons. Up to this point in dog sports, no one has really touched on this type of training and theory and the beginning stages are very 'conceptual'. It's not really a 'this is how to teach sit,down,heel behaviors' project.  It's something MUCH greater and has many depths and layers to it.  It was crucial my info made a clean transfer from outline to script into narration and video.  Doug and CTS hit it outta the park!!!  It's a beautiful production and I feel the info is ULTRACLEAR!  I am super proud of the work everyone has contributed to the project!"

As always, we truly appreciate your business and hope you enjoy the final product!

 


17Mar2014

An Introduction to Toy Interaction in the Working dog with Dave Kroyer- Part 1

Phone Interview with CTS President, Doug Calhoun, and Dave Kroyer.

Q: What is the biggest problem you see regarding prey/toy interaction?

A: There’s a number of problems but the first one I’ll mention as the biggest problem is, what is the contract between the handler, toy or prey item and the dog.  When I talk about a contract, what I mean is, what are the rules that the dog and handler have to follow to be able to use that prey item in some type of productive way?

Q: What is the ideal contract?

A: There are 2 or 3 things and in no special order.  The first thing I need the dog to understand is that the toy belongs to me, the handler.  It’s no the dog’s toy or prey item.   And a lot of times when I see people reward the dog, they reward the dog with the toy and the dog will alone with the toy, chewing on a ball or a tug getting self gratification with it and that’s where the fun actually ends when the handler doesn’t interact with the toy.

The second thing I see is that the dog’s don’t know how to let go or relinquish the toy.  The third problem that I see is that the dog has no predictability of understanding how or where the toy is going to be produced in conjunction with the handler’s body.  So you’ll see a lot of displacement behaviors happening.  Handler’s getting bit in the chest, jackets being ripped and stuff like that.  There are often lots of impulse control problems that go along with this.



Q: What are the obstacles for many trainers to the successful use of prey/toys?

A: One of the things I don’t see enough of when I’m helping people is some type of predictable game or play session with the dog- something that happens where those other three problems can be avoided or worked through.  It’s just a random swinging of toys around and the dog can’t predict where it’s going to come from, how it’s going to get it or the fact that it belongs to the handler and that it’s an item that is interacted with through the handler.

So I try to tell people that with the dog’s foundation training, where we’re doing all this very interesting operant foundation work with behaviors such as The Spin and Get In for heeling, but one piece that they’re missing is how we play with the dog.  They’re so focused on this other stuff, they don’t have any type of play session or play predictability or any type of anything as far as the toy is concerned.  

So as training proceeds, we can’t inject the toy into training until there is some kind of predictable play session as far as logistics go with the toy.


Q: How do you begin?

A: I like to start with a simple game of fetch.  The dog offers a behavior you like and you moment mark it and throw the toy.  Of course the dog has to understand to bring the toy back.  Well bring it back to where?  Bring it back to 3 feet in front of me and drop it?  Bring it back and slam into me?  Run off with it?  So it’s important that the dog can understand where to bring it back to.  I like my dogs to bring it back to me through the legs.  We create this habit through the food toss discussed in DVD 1 Learning to Learn.

The behavior of out, tight turn and back is the precursor to how we are going to play toy.  That’s a precursor to the game of fetch which itself will be a reward to the dog.  When I give the dog the ball, I don’t want the dog to just lay down and chew it, I want to reward him with a game of fetch.  Will talk more about this in a bit in terms of how to structure fetch, strengthen cooperation and build trust in with prey DVD 2.


Q: What’s next?

A: I play a game that I just refer to as two balls.  It’s similar to what people have seen before but I don’t want people to mistake it for bribery or to get the dog to come back to you.  We are going to address the out elsewhere so the second toy shouldn’t be used to entice the dog.  We’ll take the logistics of the food toss game and do it with a ball.

I toss the ball and once the dog has acquired it, I will stimulate the dog with the second ball and encourage him back, I need a tight turn in the backend when they pick up the first ball.  The habit in the food toss is critical here.  Then just as we lured with food in the food toss, we’re going to lure with the ball to come back and as the dog reaches us, we’re going to toss that second ball between our legs and click that moment.  Even though we’re doing a toy transfer, the out is separate and worked on separately with a tug.


To be continued….


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