Motivation and the Agility Dog
No dog is born motivated to do agility. Even dogs that run the Courses flawlessly at two years of age and seem to soar over every jump and wiggle effortlessly through the weave poles have been taught to love it. Yes, it is true that some dogs are born with the propensity to love to work, and indeed this is what many agility enthusiasts look for in a puppy. Most people refer to this bold 'natural' ability as drive. However, even dogs with high drive have handlers that have successfully achieved a transfer of value from what the dog wants (primary reinforcers), and what the dog gets after he correctly performs the obstacles.
Primary Reinforcers
What is a primary reinforcer? All dogs are born with the knowledge of primary reinforcers. This is what makes a puppy search for it's mothers milk. They push and struggle against their littermates to reach the teat and their hunger goes away. They have been rewarded for their efforts. Hunger is not good, feeling full and safe and warm is. Therefore food becomes the first, and usually the most powerful primary reinforcer. Several weeks later food rewards can be used to train behaviors.
As time goes on other primary reinforcers immerge. Many breeds are naturally prey driven, therefore toys are great reinforcers for behaviors. Some breeds are bred to have a great affinity for people, like Golden Retrievers and most of the herding breeds. Just being able to play and get praise for their efforts is rewarding for some dogs.
Transfer Of Value
Good agility trainers understand the concept of transfer of value. This is what is behind motivation and gets our dogs to run Courses for us. It is this simple: Dog values hot dogs, dog runs through short tunnel for the first time and gets lots of little hot dog pieces! Dog begins to value the agility tunnel. Dog begins to see that every time he runs through the tunnel he gets not only hot dogs but shouts of praise and maybe a tug on a toy!!! Dog walks into club and sees tunnels and gets happy. This is agility, this is where the fun is!
As training progresses the very obstacles in which the value was transferred to, in and of themselves become reinforcing to the dog because there is such a strong positive association with them. For example if a dog does not really like the teeter, but then gets to run through the tunnel, we can use the tunnel to reinforce the teeter.
Challenges In Transferring Value
Why does this theory not seem so easy with some dogs, or alternatively, why does it seem so easy with many dogs? Let's take the obvious example of the Border Collie. Border Collies have been bred for hundreds and hundreds of years to love work. Pure and simple. Just doing their work reinforces them. I trained my Border Collie to perform behaviors that she hated by giving her the opportunity to work my sheep longer. Not a scrap of food was present! She loved her work so much she would do it for hours, without being distracted, in any weather. Just the nature of the work, sheep herding, also requires them to be fast. They have also been bred to work with and for people. In the Border Collie world this is called being biddable. If a Border Collie was not biddable, not only was it not bred, many times it was shot. Sheep farmers took biddability very seriously and many years ago spay and neutering did not exist. The chance would not be taken of such a dog passing along the trait of being unbiddable.
So, essentially we have the perfect agility dog. Other breeds, not only Border Collies, have all or many of these traits. My Toy Fox Terrier is an example. Loves his person, loves the work the person wants him to do, loves to keep his mind on work for long periods of time, loves to do the work fast. You can see why the transfer of value to agility obstacles occurs with a fair amount of ease for these dogs. What do we do if we do not have such a dog and what in particular can get in the way of this transfer of value? I believe there are four important issues that need to be explored when dogs show low motivation for agility.
First is a lack of confidence or out right fear. When a dog is afraid, and depending on the level of the dogs' fear, no toy or even food, is going to be reinforcing enough to get him to perform behaviors. This is why we start out easy, with low teeters, short tunnels, calm surroundings. My Italian Greyhound is a good example. Every small accomplishment is a huge step forward, and the confidence in doing an obstacle with dogs and people present is greatly rewarded. Most well bred and well-socialized dogs do fine in this area. Perhaps the teeter or chute might be an issue and they will get past it with patience, high rate of reinforcement, and plenty of praise.
The second issue is simply low drive. This is caused by a variety of reasons that must be determined before there can be any fix. My Pembroke Corgi Madeline, is a good example of the dog with low drive. She is the epitome of a dog that doesn't care what her owner wants. Most people would describe her as stubborn. She is also a low energy dog, lying around the house all day, not even caring if strangers come over. She also has very little prey, chase, or play drive. Many of these dogs lose interest and sniff on the course. However, she currently has her CDX, AX, (with 9 MX legs) and her AXJ, with one leg toward her MXJ. Why have I been able to accomplish this with her? She has an incredibly strong food drive that has allowed me to transfer value to obedience and especially to agility behaviors. To help with training I have also been able to transfer her food drive to toys, especially her Frisbee, and now those have value as well. I firmly believe that low drive dogs need to be kept THIN!!! Always be able to feel the ribs on your dog EASILY!! A hungry dog is a dog that wants to work and he will know very well where the food is coming from and how to earn it. We all should know that maintaining a thin dog is healthier, adds years to his life, and (this is the most important part) increases his energy level! We have a huge advantage in agility over obedience in this area because time in the ring is short, under a minute, and the food rewards can be dished out after every Course.
In obedience this transfer of value is sometimes more difficult. Food driven dogs discover that in the obedience ring there is never any food! This is why I believe it is important to transfer the value of food to toys. Weather it be agility or obedience we interact more with dogs when we play games with toys with them. Tugging, fetching, targeting a plate, is much more interactive than just plugging a treat into a dogs' mouth. I believe that once we transfer the value of food to toys we can transfer the value of food to us. We become the toy. We become what is valuable, and that is good because we are on the Course and in the Obedience ring. I want my dogs to know that all good things come through me. This can be an on going process, which I continue to impress on Madeline daily.
The last issue, sometimes seeming like the opposite of low drive, is distractibility, or inattention. Some trainers believe their dogs are too high, too crazy, and therefore they conclude that they have too much drive. I do not believe this is true. A dog can never have too much drive, but he can have too little focus. These are the dogs that blast through the start line, indeed they many times have NO start line, miss their contacts, take off courses. Their handler is not their partner, simply a person that allows access to the agility field. These dogs need to transfer the value that they already have for running the equipment to controlling their minds and bodies. For example my Toy Fox Terrier, Blink, borders on such a dog. He needs to see the value of maintaining a start line, lying down on the table, coming when called on the field, hitting his 2on 2off contact. If he does not perform these skills he gets removed to his crate. He sees so much value in agility that removing him to his crate gives his start line stay value. This is why dogs that are allowed to break their start line stay and run courses at trials continue to do so. The stay no longer has value and they have been reinforced for breaking the stay by being allowed to run the Course.
The last issue, and the most important one for us humans to understand, is stress. Stress can take an incredible agility dog that loves and values the sport and turn him into a dog that runs off the Course. And it happens all the time. Sometimes we do not cause it. Stress can go hand in hand with fear. I know that my little IG Zizzo experiences some degree of stress every time we come to the club because he is afraid of dogs. However there are a variety of reasons that dogs exhibit stress during training and showing and we can reduce or even eliminate it. I believe that the easiest way to reduce stress is to lay a good foundation. This means don't move to fast. Take time teaching difficult obstacles. Make sure your dog understand contacts, weave poles, and the table independent of where you are. Close the weaves slowly, and if your dog pops out more than two times open them up! Do not do Courses too early in training and reward frequently with high value rewards. Signs of stress can include sniffing, running off the Course, refusal to eat (if very severe), or yawning during training.
Be aware, there must be some amount of stress introduced during training, or the agility trials in and of themselves can become way too stressful for sensitive dogs. This is why dogs may run slower at a trial, or refuse weave poles. It would be better for such dogs if they went to a few matches that are lower key, or practiced weave poles at home where they are comfortable. That is the place to make entrances very difficult and to introduce lots of distractions tempting them to pull out of the poles. This way, when they see poles at a trial they seem achievable. Do understand that many dogs exhibit stress and a decrease in motivation when first trialing. Do not get down or upset about it, or they will pick up on that!
I believe that these are the four major reasons dogs do not exhibit motivation for agility. Of course there are others; coming into season, not feeling well, or even our own moods can affect them. Perhaps the human half of the team does not like agility and this transfers to the dog. But hopefully you do like agility, and this will transfer to your dog. Madeline will probably never be as fast or as driven as Blink, but she can be as fast and as driven as she can be. And that is what we are aiming for.