E461: 사라 리다(Sarah Rida) - "콘택트 힐 가르치기"

5:39

Yeah. My training is very criteria and reinforcement driven. I spend a lot of time thinking about clarity for the dog. What information are we actually giving them? And are we reinforcing the behaviors we truly want long term? I also care a lot about functionality. I love behaviors that have a purpose outside of just looking impressive. I think dogs learn best when behaviors are clear, repeatable, and actually useful to them and the handler. And lastly, I really look at the emotional side of the dog. I want dogs to feel successful and engaged in the process. So I want to dive into talking about contact healing. I think, you know, when people hear the word healing, they often picture kind of a formal competition heel work picture. So, you know, what makes contact healing different? I think that's one of the biggest misconceptions people have initially. When most people think about healing, they picture that focused heel work. The dog is visually locked into the handler. You know, you have that neck stretched up. Sometimes depending on the breed of dog you had, you know, you can get that, you know, prancy feet motion going in the front. And it's very precise precision. It's a very precision style movement behavior. Contact healing is different because the dog is using physical contact rather than visual focus as their point of reference. For the version I teach, the dog maintains contact between their shoulder and the handler's leg while moving. The dog doesn't need to stare at the handler. They're free to observe and, you know, observe their environment while still maintaining connection through that positional clarity. What does it mean to say that, you know, contact healing is a functional transport skill? You know, what does contact actually add to the communication between the dog and the handler? For me, transport behavior means behavior that helps move the dog and the handler together through space. In a clear and functional way. A lot of dogs struggle in spaces between exercises or between activities. They disconnect, they scan, they forge ahead, get overstimulated or rehearse unwanted behavior. Contact healing gives the dog a very clear job during movement. The contact itself becomes information. The dog can feel where the handler is while they're moving, when direction change happens, or when speed change happens without needing that constant visual attention. I think the tactile piece is really powerful because it reduces ambiguity for a lot of the dogs. It gives them,

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with that little bit of tactile response with the shoulder to the handler's, you know, side of their leg, they have enough information there to stay connected and move through those spaces. And like I said, it just gives them the opportunity to be aware of their surroundings versus us maybe needing to take that away. And I think there's space for that, right? There are definitely moments where maybe we don't want our dogs to interact with the environment, but there are some benefits to that as well. How can, you know, using contact healing really help dogs maybe who are struggling with arousal or are just really distracted by the environment? Yeah, one thing I really like about contact healing is that it tends to be less cognitive expensive than focused healing. You know, you need a lot of energy. You need a lot of attention to perform a focused deal, you know, pretty accurately. The dog isn't trying to maintain intense visual focus, as I've mentioned, while also processing the environment. Instead, they're, they can observe what's happening around them while still staying behaviorally connected. So that connection piece is your, your engagement piece essentially. And it allows the dog to take in the environment, learn about the environment, process that environment, um, with still maintaining a behavior while they're doing it. Um, so for some dogs, especially dogs that get environmentally overwhelmed or aroused that can create some stability. Um, you know, sometimes those dogs are, they, they do need that, that attention taken away, but sometimes they do need to process the environment to learn about it, to be able to store that information in their brain. So that next time they see it, it isn't so novel, right. We're not always trying to take, you know, the attention away. Um, and they're not able to process the things that are going on around them. I also think movement itself can help dogs, you know, for some dogs, their, they movement kind of helps release some of that, um, arousal and, or, um, you know, possible frustration, or it could be, you know, anxiety, depending on the dog that we're looking at. Um, so being able to have movement, kind of helps as well for some of those dogs. Sometimes we have dogs that prefer to just stop and, and process, but I think for a good portion of the dogs that I work with, you know, they are kind of teetering on, you know, that arousal being over arousal. And sometimes that movement can really help. So instead of stopping and asking the dog disengage from the environment entirely,

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we're giving them structural movement behavior that allows them to process what's going on around them. It's really interesting. And kind of thinking about it, you know, you can almost picture how if your dog is against your leg, you can feel them. So you can be aware of more things, including your dog. And I imagine that that goes both ways that the dog is because they're touching you. They're aware of you while they're processing the world around them. It just seems such like a, it's a different picture than we usually think about for this stuff, you know? Absolutely. It's, it's, it's a back and forth kind of feedback. That's really what it is. Um, you know, where sometimes in, in certain movement behaviors, you know, let's talk about like loose leash walking versus focused healing versus contact healing, you know, with our, our loose leash walking behavior, it can look so different for so many of us. Yeah. We have that criteria that we want a loose, you know, lease that J, you know, in the, in the leash line, that slack. Um, but in reality, some people allow their dogs to go just a bit ahead of them, or some people want their dogs behind them. And there's usually a space in between. And so there's criteria for that as well, but it's not, um, it, that criteria is a lot looser. There's it's, some dogs will go forge a little bit ahead. Some will got, you know, go off a little bit more laterally or behind, um, the handler as they're walking. Um, sometimes that leash does tighten up a little bit and with contact healing, you know, again, that information piece is the contact itself. So it's that give and take between the handler and the dog. I think for me as a handler, I know if my, I have my dog with me, if that contact point is being maintained, like if I, if for whatever reason, something happens into me in the environment and I lose my dog, they get distracted by it. That contact point will also get lost. And so then that's information for me that I need to change things up. So it is that give and take kind of information. Um, and it's not, um, attached by a leash. It's not attached by eye contact. It's attached by a tactile reference. Yeah. And, and, you know, just even thinking about that, right? Like the, the touch against the leg, it's so much more clear than like a loose leash walking picture where it's like, okay, at what moment did the leash actually become tight enough to cross the criteria line? Right. Like, but with the, with the contact, you're either touching me or you're not.

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There's not really like a, yeah, there's, it's a very clear thing without quite the level of, um, precision is not quite the word I'm looking for, but without all of the other pieces that kind of tie into formal heel work for obedience. So I can totally see what you're getting at there. Um, when we start to think about training it, you know, what foundational pieces need to be in place before dogs can understand what it is we're working on here, right? Understand contact healing. Where do you start? I actually start with, um, a very simple piece. I, I first, I want the dog to understand the contact point itself. So the shoulder to the leg for me. Um, and I spend a lot of time building clarity around that before moving, adding movement to it. I will say like, you know, this, this style of, of an A to B behavior, it really trickled down from ring sports, right? So our bitey, um, sports. And, and so with that, there's looser criteria and even what contact healing will look like when we look at different dogs competing in, in, in those sports. Um, some people, they want their dog to be maintaining contact, you know, a little bit behind almost like at their rib cage, um, to the, the handler's leg, you know, some people don't mind if the dog kind of is forging ahead as long as they're maintaining contact. I think for what we're going to be teaching, having that reference point of shoulder to leg is really, really important because it allows everybody to have that, uh, some clarity in, in, in the, the, in the criteria for the handler and for the dog. And personally, I like, you know, for the dog to kind of understand shoulder to leg, almost that side seam of, of the handler so that the handler can actually walk, you know, like we want it to be functional for the handler as well. We don't want it to be, you know, the dog is saying, okay, well, I'm maintaining contact and I'm only touching you with my tail, you know, like we want it to be functional. We want to be able to have the dog understand, um, you know, that contact point really well. And then from there, we can kind of add a lot of things to it. You know, again, once you have understand contact healing from, from this standpoint, you know, if you wanted to teach something like defensive handler, you know, just for fun, you, you could, because the dog is going to have that reference point of shoulder on, on the handler's body versus rib cage, or maybe, you know, um, more of that hind end area. Um, the dog has a clear understanding, maintain contact with shoulder to my handler.

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And so I think it gives, um, teams, uh, the, both of them clear criteria of where they, where we want them to be for it to be functional, really functional outside of it being for ring sports. Um, so I use both shaping and mooring, depending on the dog that's in front of me. Some dogs do really well with shaping some dogs, you can actually lure it. And I I'll be honest with my youngest dog, Rue, I actually captured it. I had already, you know, had the, uh, you know, the ability to train my, my first dog Mantis on, on, on this skill. So when I saw it with my younger dog, Rue, she one day just kind of very young, like I'm talking like probably within, you know, the time I got her, I would want to say between the eight to 16 weeks, she kind of offered this little bit of touch onto my body. And I said, Oh, I re that's pretty close to contact healing. Like I like what she's doing here. And so I captured it. I captured it with a flirt pole and, um, I, that's how I kind of taught her. So it just really depends on the dog in front of you, but for the purpose of what we're talking about in, you know, in, in the course that's, that's going to be coming up in June, it's shaping and luring because those typically tend to be the easier routes to, to establishing the behavior. Um, and again, some dogs understand the picture initially while others do better by taking more responsibility through shaping, you know, shaping can, and we would shape through the use of props like pivot discs and platforms to help the dog kind of understand that body position. And the movement mechanics before we start really moving through space. You, you were talking before about, you know, some dogs kind of, um, uh, they, they forge a little bit or they're a little forward. And I can certainly understand why you wouldn't want to be tripping over your dog as they like half walk in front of you or like you turn towards them and now suddenly your dog's on your way, like all that kind of stuff. So how do you help dogs kind of maintain contact while still moving in a way that's, you know, fluid and natural? Is it, is it about placement of reinforcement? Is there, is there more to it? Like, what are we thinking about there? It's really about reward placement. Um, that's a huge part of it. Uh, I don't think it's the whole picture. Like there, there's definitely handler mechanics that go into place with it as well. Like you have to be savvy about what you can do as well, but that reward placement, we can kind of play around with it quite a bit. Um, so again, I think the handler mechanics matter a lot.

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Like what is the handler really capable of doing? Like, are they better feeding with food? Are they people that have, um, a little bit more of a repertoire with toys or remote reinforcers? Like what is their marker system look like for this dog? Do they have a vast marker system where we can kind of play around with? Um, so all that kind of matters in the, the picture of, of kind of helping and troubleshooting through us kind of getting clarity in that shoulder to leg, um, contact point, um, and how quickly, um, we progress and whether the dog actually understands the criteria and, um, it's going to matter in affecting its, its fluency really. So I spend a lot of time splitting movement into very small pieces, initially forward movement, lateral movement, backwards movement, rather than trying to immediately create long chains of behavior. So kind of looking at each directional piece. Absolutely. And explaining it that way to the dog. Um, outside of sports work, you know, somebody doesn't want necessarily to do, uh, a bite sport where, you know, they might actually need this behavior as their sports performance. Where do you find yourself using this? Where do you find contact healing, you know, useful, especially like in everyday life? I honestly use contact healing every day. Like it is probably one of the behaviors that, uh, I, I will cue my dogs every day. Like if you'll be see behaviors that we, we often, you know, like sit things that we ask our dogs of on a day-to-day basis, contact healing is one of those for my dogs. So crossing roads, you know, when we're on a walk and I need to navigate, you know, whether it's a busy road, whether it's a road that's not so busy, like I'm putting my dogs in that contact heal and, and, and so that we're not again, running across the street or, you know, having a dog that's, you know, pulling you cross a big road. Um, so crossing roads, moving through busy environments. So your car parks, um, I'm trying to think of other places, the park I go to, there's a portion of the park where it is quite busy with bikers, with, you know, kids on scooters, you have a lot of dogs coming in and out of the park. Um, a lot of people walking, um, that's a busy environment. And so for those pieces, I can, you know, during those high traffic moments, I can ask my dog to come into a contact deal and, you know, we can navigate our way through those, those, um, big traffic areas as well. Some, some people can use it during hiking, you know, you're on a hiking trail and you come across, um, another human and dog on the hiking trail and you

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want to kind of get your, your dog back with you for a moment. Um, you know, instead of putting them on leash, you could put them into a contact deal. I think navigating tight spaces, as I said, you know, anywhere that you're like, okay, there's, there's something there, there's something over there, there's something, you know, right in front of us. We need some, some way to navigate out of this contact deal is my, my go-to. And, and I also really like it for behavior work because it gives dogs something clear and structured to do without requiring them to visually disengage from the environment. So, you know, if you've got a dog that is dog reactive and you just so happen to have a dog that is, you know, um, you know, five feet away from you and they're huffy and they're puffy. And you're like, I don't want my dog to, you know, be checking those vibes. You can put them into a contact deal. And again, there's that, that whole connection piece. Like I'm with you, you're safe. Let's navigate our way out of that. And they still have the ability to, um, check their environment so that they can kind of feel safe about it as well. Um, sometimes we can, you know, take their attention away from those moments and sometimes it's necessary, but sometimes it's also that feeling of, of being safe when something is, um, you know, making them feel let not, um, you know, that's going to be really kind of important for them. So I, I, the dog can still look at the world, you know, while remaining connected to the handler. So that's really anything that you can think of in everyday life, you could possibly ask your dog for a contact deal. I know I specified everyday life, but I'm even thinking about, you know, if you're waiting in line to do agility or you're, you know, queuing up for your obedience run or like, like those moments where you kind of need your dog with you to know where your dog is, to be aware of the scenario. It's a tight space, lots of people and dogs, but also like, you're not quite doing the sport thing yet. I can totally see how it'd be useful. So I, I use it for nose work to A to B behavior for nose work. It's one of the pieces that as, you know, a nose work coach, I get a lot of, um, inquiry about, you know, how do I get my dog from the car to the search? Like my dog is crazy. They're at the edge, edge of the leash. They're so excited to get to the search. Well, do you have a ready to work behavior and part of your ready to work behavior? What is your A to B behavior to get your dog from the car to that search?

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And a lot of people don't have that. You know, a lot of people don't have a loose leash walk, you know, and they're like, and I personally don't want to add that much obedience of a focused heel in nose work. I think that it, you know, sometimes a sport like that can use a little bit of less obedience. We want the dog to be engaged in the environment, not on us. Um, and so contact heel is what I use. I get my dogs out of the car. They do their ready to work. And once they're ready to work protocol is towards the end. And I know that I have a dog that is truly ready to work. I ask for that A to B behavior and that's how we navigate our way from search to search. Um, so it's, it's something that I use and I do think that it's, it could be valuable across many different sports getting in and out of the, you know, different rings. Yeah. Um, so we're talking about this, as you mentioned, cause there's a class. So you're offering a new class for FDSA contact healing, a functional transport skill coming up in June. Um, tell me a little more about the class, you know, who might want to sign up? What are you covering? Give me all the details. Yeah. The class is really designed for a broad audience. I don't, you know, we'll be covering where the behavior came from in ring sports and, and how it was traditionally used, but the main focus is teaching the skill progressively and functionally. It's not going to have, you know, a huge, um, I don't want people to look at contact healing and be like, Oh, that that's for the bitey dogs. Um, it's like I said, it, it can be so useful for so many. Um, so we'll start teaching the, the contact point itself. Like I mentioned earlier, where I would start with the shoulder to leg, and then we'll gradually add movement. We'll talk about reinforcement strategies. We'll talk about environmental challenges and real world applications. Um, you know, some of the fun things that you kind of see in, you know, the use of this, this skill in say Mondio ring, you know, you see, you know, the dog with the handler and the handlers pushing a wheelbarrow or having to lift things like that's all fun training. Um, and it's proofing essentially for this skill. Um, so we'll, we'll talk about how to, how to kind of add some of those components to really make sure that the contact behavior is, um, is being established and is, is something again, that's going to be functional in the real world. Um, so we're not going to just put you, you know, in a car park and say, go ahead at it. Here's, you know, set up your contact deal. There's going

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to be steps in between and those steps in between are going to be fun training. They're going to really, you know, it's going to be creative. You're going to be able to, you know, find things that are around your house and say, maybe let's try this and see if the dog can maintain the behavior. Um, towards the end, you know, we'll kind of talk about a fun little exercise where again, the sport, um, the behavior itself was kind of, uh, used for in ring sports, which is, um, defensive handler, DOH. We'll kind of talk about a little fun ways to kind of add that in for anybody. Like you don't have to have a bitey dog. You don't have to have a dog that is, um, uh, you know, toy driven. You can teach that with food and it could be something fun just to, to say, Hey, look at how cool my dog is. Um, you know, they'll, they'll orbit around me while, you know, somebody's is, is kind of in front of them and kind of enticing them with, you know, food or a toy. Um, so there, there will be little bits and pieces in there, but again, it's, it's not just for people who are doing ring sports. Essentially, this is broader than that. So I think the class will appeal to sports handlers, behavior focused trainers, um, you know, pet owners, you know, it's, it's not a hard skill to teach. And like I said, it can be so beneficial, beneficial in everyday life. Um, the skill is so adaptable. Um, so, uh, whatever, you know, as you move through the world with your dog, you, you know, and you don't want to necessarily rely on constant verbal cues, like, you know, whatever your loose leash walking is or that visual attention, I think this class will, will possibly resonate with you. That is awesome. And I'm so excited that you're teaching this. So thank you so much for coming on the podcast to talk to us about it. Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited for the class, um, and to see how teams apply the skill in different ways. Awesome. And thank you to all of our listeners and our viewers for tuning in. We'll be back next week, this time with guest host, Crystal Wing, to talk to me about my upcoming recall class at FDSA. If you haven't already, subscribe to our, our podcast, either on iTunes or the podcast app of your choice, or over on YouTube to make sure you never miss an episode. Today's show is brought to you by the Fenzie Dog Sports Academy. Special thanks to Denise Fenzie for supporting this podcast. Music provided royalty free by bensound.com. The track featured here is called Buddy. Audio editing for Redhead, Chris Lang. Thanks again for tuning in and happy training.