8. Front

8. FRONT

LEVEL THREE

Dog hits centre line of Front-Ray 3 in a row/5, all cues, DOG must decide what is correct. Sit optional. Start with dog 5’ in front of handler. This is an optional behaviour.

DISCUSSION: Teaching Fronts with the Ray and Circle diagrams is so much easier and more fun that what came before! All we're asking here is that the dog's body blocks your view of the centre line.

EASY BEGINNINGS: Make an actual Front-Ray diagram on your floor or ground. Draw it in chalk, mark it out with electrical tape, draw lines in the dirt with a stick, it doesn't matter. The lines are not for the dog, but for you, so you can easily be able to tell whether the dog has done what you're planning on clicking for. While you're at it, make six lines instead of only three (I'm going to keep talking about three, but you're not a lumper, right? You're a splitter, so you naturally decided to use smaller increments!).
Stand at the point where all the lines meet, facing C. You'll need some room behind you and off to the sides, as well as the diagram in front of you. Make sure the dog is in the game, willing to work with you. Rapid-Fire a few treats if you have to. We're going to be shaping a straight Front.

Stand up straight, arms loose at your sides, looking straight ahead. Let her see the picture she's going to be searching for right from the beginning.

Toss a free treat somewhere behind you. The dog runs to get the treat. Then she runs back to you to see if she can get another one. If she comes ANYWHERE IN FRONT OF THE "A" LINE, click. Give her a treat from your hand, and toss another one behind you.

Careful now! She doesn't have to Sit. She doesn't have to make eye contact (she will, eventually, but she doesn't HAVE to). ALL she has to do is come from behind you to in front of you. She doesn't even have to be facing you.

When you've done this X20, or 30, or 50 – when she's coming in front of you every time, and not making any mistakes, not hanging around behind you wondering what's going to happen next, or wandering off to sniff the cat – you can move from the "A" lines to the "B" lines. Now she has to be between the "B" lines in order to get clicked (remember, you split the diagram up into more lines than I did, so there's at least one other step between A and B). Same criteria otherwise – you don't need a Sit or a Watch or anything else, just that she arrives between the "B" lines. Click when she does – and it will be MUCH better if you click while she's still in motion than if you wait until she stops – and hand her one treat from your hand, and toss the next one over your shoulder, behind you, or way out to the left or right.

When she's not making any mistakes finding her position between the B lines, you can hold out for her to block your vision of the C line. See why you were clicking her motion rather than stopping? If you hear yourself thinking "Oh, I guess that's as far as she's going to come", you're clicking her for stopping. Click her for stopping, she'll always be crooked. It doesn't matter if she passes A and is heading for SURE for C, if you're clicking her for passing A, then click her for passing A, NOT for stopping halfway between B and C.

Anyway, now you're clicking her for blocking your view of C. She's started to orient on you – on your face or, more likely, your hand. If she's coming around and looking at your hand, once you've got her coming every time and standing over the C line – WHEN SHE'S VERY GOOD AT HITTING THE C LINE! – you can start waiting for eye contact before you click. This shouldn't be a huge stretch for her, considering all the other areas in Level 3 that you're working on eye contact.

PROBLEM SOLVING:

SHE GETS THE TREAT AND STAYS BEHIND ME! Work the Get Lost game from the Level 3 Finish. Once she's doing that, this will be easy for her.

ADDING A CUE: No cue yet, this is only one small skill she needs to learn for a good Front. And when she knows ALL the skills, your body language will be the cue.

CONTINUING EDUCATION: Move your diagram all over the place. Front yard, back yard, facing south, north, east, west, NNE, ESE, etc. Dogs are EXTREMELY aware of what direction they're facing when they do something, so start generalizing this early. We want the dog using YOU as a focal point, not how far she is from the wall or where the setting sun is!

LEVEL FOUR

Dog hits the bullseye of a Front-Circle three times in a row with no more than 4 tries. This is an optional behaviour.

DISCUSSION: Working the Front-Ray diagram teaches the dog to be straight in front of you. Working the Front-Circle teaches her to be close to you. Get them both solid to go on to Level Five!

EASY BEGINNINGS: Draw the bullseye diagram. Again, the diagram is for you, not for the dog. It can be done in chalk, duct tape, lines drawn in the dirt – my floors are 8" tiles, so I have lines drawn already, and 8" apart is a good working distance. Working the Front-Circle diagram is another exercise in shaping. As you did with the Front-Ray diagram, you'll start standing up straight, arms at your sides, clicker in one hand and treats in the other, your toes just inside the centre ring of the bullseye. Toss a treat out away from you to get the dog started. She runs to get it, then starts back toward you. When she's STILL MOVING and her front feet cross over the A line, click. If you're purely into shaping, toss the treat behind her so she can start again. If you'd like all the help you can get, give her a treat from your hand after you click, then toss another treat behind her. Work ten times on the A line, then put off clicking to see if she'll cross the B line. Of course, as before, three lines in this diagram is lumping. You'll have many more lines, much closer together, in your own diagram. If she crosses the B line, work that 10 times, then try for the next one. If she doesn't, work the A line another 10 times and try again.

PROBLEM SOLVING:

SHE WON'T COME ANY FURTHER FORWARD THAN THE A LINE! Two things. First, watch what you're doing. You're clicking her when she's crossed the A line and already stopped walking forward. She thinks you're clicking her for standing that far away from you. You HAVE to click when she's still moving, even if, at this point, it means clicking her OUTside the A line. Click for movement, not for standing still.

Second, if she's stopping, when you click, give her that treat from hand to mouth and toss a second one out behind her. Combine those two suggestions and get her moving again.

ADDING A CUE: Nothing at all yet. Let your posture and clicker speak for you.

CONTINUING EDUCATION: As before, move the diagram around the house and yard, different locations, different directions. By now she should be looking at you as she's working the diagrams. Be sure she's looking at your eyes, not your hand. Looking at your hand will make it less likely that she'll sit automatically, and will pull her off-centre when you get back to working the Front-Ray diagram as you move toward your lovely straight, close, snappy Front.

LEVEL FIVE

Dog hits a half-point-off front three times, three tries only, appropriate cues. This is an optional behaviour.

A perfect Front has the dog sitting very close to you but not touching you, spine and entire body perfectly in front of you so that you can look straight down the dog's body from nose to tail. Dog's front feet are very close to yours. Any part of the dog's body that deviates from this straight line - say, the butt out of alignment by maybe 2" - or if the dog is 6" further away from you than "very close but not touching" - or if the dog bumps you with his nose as he comes to the Sit - would be a half-point deduction in an obedience trial. In Rally, it would be no deduction, so if it's a "perfect" Front in Rally, it's good here. A worse (and not acceptable for purposes of passing this Level behaviour) Front would be TWO parts of the dog's body off-centre, for instance, the dog sitting square but over 2" so that both his shoulders and his hips are slightly off absolute centre, or the dog, say, 12" away from you, or maintaining a nose-touch.

DISCUSSION: As you work the Ray and Circle diagrams, the dog will start blurring them in her mind, combining the two requirements (straight, and close) into one straight, close Front.

LEVEL SIX

Dog hits two out of four perfect fronts with one cue only, starting with the dog a minimum of five feet from handler. This is an optional behaviour.

DISCUSSION: We're asking for a bit more precision now, and a bit of distance. Remember to make everything else easier when you make one thing more difficult.

LEVEL SEVEN

Dog must hit three out of four perfect fronts on one cue each. This is an optional behaviour.

DISCUSSION: Here's the finished product – a perfect Front, and with more precision than the majority of obedience competition dogs have. Congratulations!