We currently use a number of different venues for our Junior School – Live classes.

Outdoor Venue – Inverurie

For the Junior School – Live classes that are being held outdoors we use a securely fenced field just outside Inverurie. The Post Code to the field is AB51 5JJ. If you enable the Satellite layer on the map below, it is the rectangular field to the rear of the two cottages in the centre of the map.

Directions

• From the Blackhall roundabout on the A96 at Inverurie take the exit on to Blackhall Road signposted Burnhervie & Highclere Business park
• Follow Blackhall Road for 300m to the next roundabout. Take the second exit continuing straight on for 350m until arriving at another small roundabout. Again, take the second exit and head straight on.
• After 600m you will come to a junction located at the apex of a sharp left-hand bend in the road. Take the single-track road signposted to East Aquorthies Stone Circle
• Follow this road for approximately 200m past the cottages on your right. The entrance is on your right-hand side.
• Turn in to the property using the driveway between the two cottages and the neighbouring house and head to the parking area by the farm building to the rear of the field. Please use the button below to open a Google Street View of the area.

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Indoor Venue – Pitcaple

The Puppy School – Live Classes that are to be held indoors will be at Logie Durno Village Hall. This is located just off the A96 approximately 5 miles North West of Inverurie. The Post Code for the hall is AB51 5EB

Directions

• From the Blackhall roundabout at Inverurie take the A96 North.
• After Approximately 5 miles take the left hand turn signposted “Whiteford 1/2” and “Durno 1 1/2”
• Follow this road until you arrive at Logie Durno School
• Take the left turn next to the school.
• Logie Durno Hall is approximately 500 metres on your right.

Sometimes our dogs can be anxious to be away from us, their owner, so be patient and understanding with them.

“Stay” or “Wait” is much easier to teach when your dog sees their mat or raised bed as a good place to be. This is because the mat has become a comfort area, so your puppy will be less inclined to leave the mat to come to you.

These are the first steps to teach a reliable wait (or stay):

1. Ideally ask your puppy to go to his mat
2. Whilst your puppy is on it mat, take a step away from the mat and then quickly return
3. Click and reward. At this stage, reward the puppy directly on the mat.
4. With time try to take two steps away before returning. Always ensure that your movements are fast enough so your puppy does not have a chance to think about moving from the mat.
5. When your puppy starts to understand to stay in position whilst you are moving away, introduce the word “stay” or “wait” whilst leaving your puppy.
6. Do not forget to release your puppy with your chosen release word.

Tips and tricks:

We are not trying to test our puppies by making the game difficult, so they fail and break their wait. We are teaching them that it is OK if you move away from them and that you will come back with the reward.

 We are not recalling the puppy at this stage; the reward area needs to be where the puppy is sitting to reinforce the “wait”. If you start to recall too early in the process your puppy will start to anticipate this and will be more likely to break his stay.

 If your puppy is not paying attention to you whilst waiting, do not call your puppy by their name to get them to focus. This is a common mistake resulting in the puppy breaking its wait and running to its owner. The important point is that your puppy stays on the mat or raised bed.

If your puppy already has a good wait, try increasing the distance by moving further away or change the environment you are doing the exercise in, try outside.

Be patient, build the wait over with time. Make sure your dog is engaged with you before asking for the wait, or it is likely that they will default back to their preferred position. Engaging with you is not just about calling their name (which might actually encourage them to break the wait) it is about playing games to help them focus such as the say hello or giving a paw. Use any game, or tricks that your dog finds fun and easy. It is likely that your dog has a preferred position, and it will want to default to it when waiting, so change the difficulty of the exercise. For their preferred position you might be able to go further away from your dog or make him wait longer.

Location Specific Reward Markers are an advanced topic, and you will need lot of practice if you wish to use them. They can be very beneficial with sports dogs as well as with dogs who tend to anticipate after a Yes or a “click” where the reward will come from.

Reward markers tend to indicate to a dog that the behaviour they have achieved was correct and that they are going to receive a reward. It is really like including a verbal cue in the marker. You can even be more specific with your reward marker and add a Jackpot marker.

Whilst teaching a new behaviour or when increasing the difficulty of a behaviour, I have two different markers that I use so that my dog can differentiate between the step-by-step learning process and the Jackpot when my dog has just made a very good choice or finally got the exercise right.

For example, I will use:

• A low tone Yes or a click with one piece of food for a dog learning the say hello command for each time that it tries to touch my hand.
• A “WAOOO” in a higher pitch tone and multiple treats if, in the same session, I manage to move further away and my dog recalls to a “say hello” with no hesitation; This is a Jackpot. The jackpot marker should be like a celebration for you and your dog.

In most cases these types of markers give no specific indication to where the reward is going to be presented from. This can build anticipation or even frustration in your dog

The Location Specific Reward Markers are used just for that; they provide information to your dog on where it should expect the rewards to be presented from. If you want to make it even more specific, you can also discriminate between food and toy rewards by having different verbal cues for each, but it becomes very difficult to keep consistent.

Location specific rewards markers can really help in your training. How do we teach a Location Specific Reward Marker?

Well just as with the Yes marker, say the Location Specific Reward Marker whilst you are clicking:

• Be clear and consistent: write down the LSRM you want to use and the location where the reward should be, learn them so they become second nature for you and use them consistently with your dog until he understands.
• Start with some games that your dog is good at so both of you can concentrate on the neuroplasticity of using the LSRM rather than the game, because it is more difficult than you think!
• When your dog achieves the behaviour your asked for, click and add the new LSRM cue at the same time, you can potentially use the verbal cue without the click, but you will need to be very consistent
• The LSRM is an indicator of where the reward is going to be positioned, for example in your hand, in a pot, in front of your dog, behind them
• To start with your dog might orientate itself towards the wrong place to get the reward, that’s normal, you still need to reward him, just orientate them towards the right location.  This is where people tend to go wrong the LSRM is a REWARD marker, not a command. Reward your dog, even if they move towards the wrong location.

Think of your training strategy and start with the markers you feel may to be the more useful for you. I suggest starting with no more than 2 or 3, 3 is already a lot! 

I have suggested below multiple options for some potential LSRM, so you can choose the word you prefer.

• YES or CLICK: none specific
• GET / GET IT / CATCH / SNAP: catch the reward that I am going to throw at you
• CHASE / FIND IT / TREAT: Chase the piece of reward that I am going to throw on the floor
• POT / DISH / CUP / PLATE/TAKE: pick up the reward from within the specific object
• MARK / NICE / CALM / HOLD: hold the position and I will come to you to reward you whilst you remain in the position (I would not use a click or yes for this marker as the dog needs to be calm) – This would be a reward for calm behaviour such as relax or chin on your hand

There is a good podcast discussing LSRW for agility handlers that you might be interested to listen to:

https://baddogagility.com/episode-240-markers-in-your-agility-training/