# What Foundation Skills are a MUST ???



## LuvourGSDs (Jan 14, 2007)

Never was taught foundation & not sure what is recommended for great foundation skills ?

Shared what all you have trained & felt was useful.  From new pups to adults.

~Thanks~


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## TaraM1285 (Sep 24, 2009)

Foundation skills that I've found helpful are:

1. Basic Shaping work 
2. Rear-End Awareness: Perch work, ladder work, learning to back-up
3. Targeting
4. Board work
5. Stays/Releases
6. One jump work

That's all I can think of at the moment, but I'll add more if I think of any. I started training Tara in agility as a 2 year old, after rescuing her at 1.5 years and doing pet obedience at first.


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## MaggieRoseLee (Aug 17, 2001)

Having dog comfortable 'working' on BOTH sides of the handler! 

CLICKER skills for the handler


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## tierra nuestra (Sep 8, 2010)

I started with this site and have found the methods great for foundation skills wether for ordinary day to day obedience or full out hard core shutzhund and agility,SAR, ect.She make things very clear precise and gives you cues and help points along the way if you run into issues or if your dog is not responding the way you want them to.
Their site is SHUTZHUND-TRAINING.COM
Worth the peek.Like I said,great for the beginner or the one who wants to refine their training methods to get better results.


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## TaraM1285 (Sep 24, 2009)

MaggieRoseLee said:


> Having dog comfortable 'working' on BOTH sides of the handler!


:thumbup:

Wobble board work

TOY DRIVE BUILDING


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## tierra nuestra (Sep 8, 2010)

oops I misspelled it. It's schutzhund-training.com.


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## AgileGSD (Jan 17, 2006)

* Engagement with Handler:* The first foundation skill is to enjoy interacting with you, especially playing with you and running with you. Even when there are other dogs around, even when you don't have the very best treats, even at training class, even in outside in a field - anywhere! Once you have that everything else will be much easier. Easiest to get when you start with puppies who don't have years of "foundation" in self rewarding for other behaviors but a dedicated trainer can _always_ improve on what they have. 

Beyond that, in no real order:

* Tricks*: Teaching your dog to do silly tricks helps build a good working relationship. It helps trainers be better teachers and dogs to be better students. Many tricks actually help to build body awareness and in muscle development such as sit up, stand on back legs, balance on a ball, lift one or two legs at a time, spin, bow, etc. A friend recently took her dog to a dog sports oriented vet because her dog has had lameness on and off. The vet gave her several pages of exercises to do with her dog, many of which Whimsy already does on her own, as tricks. To dogs, agility is all tricks but for owners, the pressure is off when the behaviors don't all have to be perfected. 

* Restrained Recalls:* Done properly, restrained recalls build your dogs enthusiasm to get to you. An enthusiastic recall is an important foundation skill for life. In agility, it is also a foundation skill for lead outs. Also a good foundation for comeptition obedience and flyball and just about any other sport you might want to try. This is really a must for all beginner dogs or dogs in need of remedial work. Restrained recalls should be done early and often! And they should always be done in a highly moticational, play sort of manner. If you have no one to hold your dog, you can practice by wrapping a long line around a pole or tree and running away while holding the end. Turn, call your dog and let the leash go 

Baby Whimsy's restrained recall:





* Focused Heeling:* For agility?! Yep! Teaching dogs focused heeling using motivational methods also encourages a good working relationship between dog and handler. It's teaches the dog to read your body cues and move accordingly. And it requires the dog to concentrate on a precise task for a prolonged time, while keeping focus on you. It challenges the handler to make such a task rewarding for the dog. Here's Baby Whimsy working on focused heeling in puppy class:





* Go!:* Teach your dog to go out after a reward (ideally a toy) on your cue. Show the reward, tease the dog with it a bit, hold their collar and throw it. Encourage your dog to pull into his collar or harness at the reward while saying "Ready...set...GO!". Once they get to the reward, encourage them to race back to you by running away from them. Once they get the idea. you can switch it up by planting the reward while your dog watches or while you have his collar and pull him away from it, so they are going to something that they didn't see move. Another game, if your dog needs work on running with you is to race out to the toy with them. You can also add a couple low jumps once your dog is solid on the go out and back idea. 

* Perch work/wobble board work:* There are endless exercises you can do with a perch and a wobble board! These exercises teach your dog coordination, rear end awareness, confidence and can be used to teach the concept of 2o2o. The main purpose of a wobble board is to accustom the dog to movement and sometimes sound (depending on the board/floor), which is foundation for teeter training. For perch work, teach front legs on, rear legs on, one leg on, all legs on and balance (on a smaller perch), lift rear legs over (think boy dog lifting his leg LOL), front legs on then pivot in a circle both clockwise and counter clockwise, back rear legs on from a stand, back front legs on with rear legs already on, circle left and right (larger perch), etc, etc. Many of these exercises can be also be done on a wobble board, once the dog is totally confident on it.

* Toy/Tug Drive Building:* It can be very hard to get an uninterested adult dog into toys but most puppies will learn quickly to enjoy playing with their handler. Having "toy drive" is such a handy thing for any sort of training! I use a flirt pole to start and make catching/winning the toy easy at first. As the dog gets more intense, I make the toy harder to catch and a harder to win. Once the dog will pursue the toy with intensity every time and really work at trying to win it, I will reel them in little by little until I and holding the flirt pole rope right next to the toy in their mouth. If the dog will hang onto the toy while I reel them in and tug on the toy, I'll start moving to a toy on a shorter rope or just a long tug toy and start over making it easy to win and progressively harder if need be. Some dogs need little encouragement on this and some need a lot. I always let the dog win when he's trying his best for his level of progress. Make sure the toy is easy for the dog to grab and hold on to without it sliding out of their mouth. For dogs needing more encouragement, long tug toys with lots of fringe are ideal to start with.

For more inspiration on foundation skills, check out videos of Silvia Trkman's "puppy class":


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## LuvourGSDs (Jan 14, 2007)

WOWSA oh WOWSA, THANKS all & esp for the detailed info & video clips !!! 

Well, yep harder since kind of threw the adults into it & never knew all this stuff about certain training ways.  Hopefully someday I can raise a pup into this sport & see if that sure makes a diff................. 

Thanks again...........


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