Learning Energy

Kay Laurence Aug 2009

I have just started a new class at Wagmore. A blend of training as for sports agility and a broad range of fitness training for the dogs. Not only are the participants learning to change the energy movements of their dog but also their own.

The purpose of agility, going back over thirty years ago, was to assess the fitness of the dog for working skills. Once it became a sport it became obvious there was a tremendous benefit in the development of the fitness of the dogs and it became a great format for all dogs to learn different types of movement, change their energy with different pieces of equipment and respond to directional guidance. One of the extra benefits was the additional control and response the trainers’ had over their dogs. In comparison to the only other types of obedience based sports at that time, agility was channelling high energy and obedience was suppressing energy. In the mid 1980s I ran regular courses on the farm for urban collies to experience working as a sheepdog. The dogs that had agility training were noticeably quicker to move on the sheep and the handlers had much greater control of the dogs at speed than the obedience handlers.

Today’s agility has become an entire planet with high levels of expertise and followers but the benefits can still be of great use to the learning of any dog that has no intention of following a sports career.

Wag Agility Class

The Wag-Agility training group has enjoyed over 12 months of classes and I see tremendous benefit and improvement in the participants. The dogs’ fitness and movement is more extensive and controlled. Since dogs communicate through body language, having good body awareness and being able to move in subtle ways is like learning new vocabulary. It encourages communication with more finesse. It also means the dog can leap to eye level and deliver a lick without the accompanying black eye.

I remember working with an experienced dance teacher who was helping us with  choreography for freestyle routines. This involved taking a seat at a café and sipping from a cup of coffee. I knew she was drinking coffee and not tea or whiskey just by the way her hand held the imaginary cup. The subtle movement that had clear communication. I wonder how many dogs that have poor canine social skills would benefit from learning these skills? That ability to say “I’d like to say how-do-ya-do but I would prefer you to stay at a distance for the moment”. And equally the ability to read the message and control their greeting energy for the slightly uncertain dog.

Beneficial Trotting

Most pet dogs large than a Cocker Spaniel learn to go for a lead walk at a pace under their comfort level. The normal walking human pace is too slow for the beneficial trotting action and employment of a tall, fast walking person is required to build lower body strength in many medium to large dogs. If you have shared a walk with a person with noticeably different length legs to you you will be aware of this feeling of being out of rhythm.

Through regular cavaletti training at the correct distance for the individual, the dog gains strength, flexibility and relaxation in the natural trotting movement. That style of “going home” with easy limbs set for many miles and a relaxed mind after a day’s work. The cavaletti develops good rhythmic balance through the back and head carriage, and the extension exercises build a graceful fluidity that most dogs would never have the opportunity to find and experience. There is a more than the physical benefit of walking out or walking home with the dog – it is a shared experience that dogs truly enjoy. Dogs like to walk together.

The pet dogs learn to build their confidence through learning the Dog Walk and A-Frame and maybe more importantly the trainers learn how to teach a dog to trust them and how to reinforce learning at a pace to suit the dog.

Sit Fit

Energy in even the most simply moves can be changed. Sit happens in many different ways. Not just the mechanics of Butt-to-Floor, but the energy of the movement. The speed of the action and where the dog’s energy is focussed through the behaviour and on completion. They can sit with the wide googly eyes that anticipate the Best Fun or the sit that is relaxed for contemplating the time of day.

We need to pay attention to both. Sitting is a behaviour that all dogs perform many times a day and for many different reasons. But as the dog gets older the mechanics lose their strength and flexibility. Often the dog will sit in a consistent way that is not beneficial, but just the easiest. Keeping your dog “sit-fit” is an important part of our responsibility to our oldies. Mabel still ploughs up and down stairs a handful of times a day. At 12 years old this is no longer an easy exercise for her. She needs guidance coming down to support her balance and some pace management for going up. But she is still very mobile and has improved her balance through this small regular work out.

Working through the range of mechanical movements and keeping them strong and flexible is a key exercise. It takes the trainer several skills of observation, analysis, luring, timing and subtle pressure to enable these movements. At the same time irregularities become more obvious and the dog is learning that their finest movements can be developed at your hands.

Beyond the mechanics there is the energy of the movement: such as sit with high energy, and sit with cool energy. The type of sit is usually affected by the environment, (where we are: home or class) what reinforcer is on offer (a cheese-puff catch or an ear stroke) and your own energy. Very few people have the skill to change the energy or are even aware of how to.

Many of the problems felt by owners is this lack of energy control. The dog that jumps up on greeting, gets over excited in anticipation of going out, screams in the back of the car. We don’t usually get asked for help from the people sharing their life with a low energy dog  - they are considered “well behaved” or the perfect dog. Energy can be channelled for use at the right time, and practise can result in the energy being contained at the right time. It should never be suppressed, it doesn’t go away, it just diverts into destruction, frustration and the dog that never returns when on a walk.

Learning to teach energy management begins with the trainer learning to manage their own energy. To be confident to be able to remove uncertainty from new experiences. To believe in the dog when all around are criticising. To use the right cues and tools to channel energy and not compete against it. To recognise that our stress will be reflected in the dog.

Energy belongs to the group

Dogs were designed to live and work co-operatively. The stronger members of the group will find their energy reflected and reinforced by the rest of the group.  Even the youngsters in the group can re-energise the middle aged. They would not be able to survive as a group if they did not support each other in this fashion. We expect our youngsters to live in a world that is full of new and unnatural stimulus which is an ideal example of how our energy and responses can affect the young dog. They become anxious at the sight of a bag blowing in the hedge, we become anxious because we see an anxious dog and our response is to soothe and reassure. But words are not understood. Our non-verbal message is a supporting anxiety. This reinforces the uncertainty and strengthens it. We need to manage our energy to be strong, relaxed and “I’m not bothered”.

Flink is particularly stressed by the regular hot air balloons we see in the early morning and evenings. She can hear the burners much sooner than I can. But this has turned around from being a reason to wildly run around the garden barking (the fire breathing dragon even speaks at times) to a few barks to alert me, and then a watchful eye. I have taken the time to go out with her on every occasion, stand and watch the balloon with the “I’m not bothered” attitude, or energy. The others hang around me with the same “ .. and…?” energy and this has been an excellent structure for her to lean on. If we are in the field even better, we can continue our walk as if the presence of the balloon is an everyday occurrence, part of the environment and not threat. I do not think she will ever be as at ease as the rest of the group, but she has learned, or changed, her response to a quieter uncertainty. Her anxious energy is tapered by taking information from my energy.

The more I begin to focus on the language of energy the more I see that even though clicker training teaches us exquisite skills in building behaviour, we must also have the understanding and discipline to make sure we only reinforce the energy behind the behaviour that is beneficial.