The Assisted Walk Out (AWO)

I am now ready to reveal what may be the single most important secret for training the 2Q retriever.

Do 4Q trainers -- that is, virtually all retriever trainers, the ones who use ecollars, heeling sticks, choke and pinch collars, ear and toe pinches, etc. -- know about this secret? Yes and no. If you were to tell the typical experienced retriever trainer the secret, they'd say, "Well sure, I coulda told you that." But they do not use the secret I'm about to describe, because they don't need it. If you're lucky enough to get to join their group, none of them will tell you the secret in advance. And if you try to put the method into play while training with them, it will annoy them, possibly to the extent that they will not allow you to use the technique during group training, because it takes far more time than the methods that 4Q trainers employ.

I've given the secret a name: the Assisted Walk Out (AWO). It's related to the Walk Out (WO), which I've described several times in the past (it's the solo version of the AWO). In addition, another poster on this list (my apologies, I've forgotten that person's name), described this exact method for training the whistle sit (WS).

Indeed, the AWO is an invaluable method for training the WS. I haven't used the AWO for the WS, I've gotten by with the unassisted WO, and my dogs are doing OK with it, so you can get by with the WO for the WS if you have no choice.

However, I've come to the conclusion that a 2Q trainer can NOT get by without the AWO for land-water-land (LWL) retrieves, at least for some dogs, at least for harsh conditions such as cold water.

So here is a description of the Assisted Walk Out: When the dog is out in the field and does not perform correctly, have an assistant pick up the bird (or whatever retrieval article you're using). Then you as the handler, call out "sit", walk out to the dog (slow is OK, slow is even preferred), gently slip on the dog's lead, and silently walk the dog (again, slow is fine) back to the start line. Do not use this opportunity for training heeling, sitting, recall, or any other behavior. During the entire procedure, you're negatively punishing a particular behavior, whatever behavior the dog was doing when you stopped her. Don't dilute the lesson with some other lesson, just walk out, slip on her lead, and gently, quietly, walk her back to the start line. Then with all the joy and enthusiasm in the world, run the dog on the same retrieve again. That's it. That's the AWO.

Why does the AWO work? You may not need this information, but knowing it may help you to understand the crucial element of the AWO (and the WO): The dog must not complete the retrieve after an undesired behavior. The reason is that for a field-bred retriever (and probably many other dogs, such as Border Collies), the opportunity to complete the retrieve is of enormous value. Therefore, losing it is so undesirable that the dog will forego other pleasures if they learn that doing so results in losing that opportunity. You see, completing the retrieve is not the only thing of value out there in the field, and it is subtle enough that the young or naive field-bred retriever may not yet have discovered how valuable it is. (The AWO is a good example of what I call "discovery" training.) Because it is not the only thing of value, the dog will also be engage in other behaviors that are ALSO of value: licking or eating the bird, exploring nearby territory for frogs, etc. But the dog is only doing those things because she (or he) believes that when she has finished doing them, she will ultimately get to complete the retrieve.

As a result, if you do not use the AWO, but instead allow those other behaviors to continue while repeatedly calling the dog, your recall, if sufficiently well trained, will eventually succeed in bringing the dog back. That will give the illusion that you're on the right track, and that all you need to do is continue practicing until eventually the dog discovers that it's more fun to come straight back than it is to do those other things first, and then come back.

But in my experience, the opposite will happen. What you are actually doing is REINFORCING the undesired behaviors with your recall. Remember that a cue that has been well-trained with a high value reward ITSELF acts as a reinforcer. So let's say the dog licks the bird, and you, not wanting the dog to do that, call the dog. The dog picks up the bird and brings it to you. "Whew," you think, "disaster averted. At least the dog never put her paw on the dog and started to eat it." But here's what the dog experienced: "I licked the bird and something GOOD happened, I was REWARDED: Daddy used one of my favorite rewards -- my recall cue -- to REWARD me for licking the bird."

And here's something even worse that might happen next. As the insight hits you that you need to stop calling the dog when she licks the bird, you try it that way. Boom, you've just invoked Mr. Extinction Burst. "Oh," thinks the dog's behavioral instincts, "licking didn't work to get that recall reward? OK, let's try a more vigorous version of it. Let's try chewing the bird, or even breasting it." Congratulations, you are brilliantly if inadvertently shaping a really disastrous pick-up and return pattern. Be like me. Keep it up for a couple of years before you figure out what's going on. :0)

Finally, this may be the worst of all: Because the AWO (and it's poor cousin, the WO) are so difficult to arrange for, it is easy to let the occasional exception occur. Boom again, now you've just invoked Mr. Ratio. The best way to improve a behavior's persistence is to put it on a ratio of intermittent reinforcement. "Oh," thinks the dog's behavior instincts this time, "I only get rewarded for this behavior every few times. OK, I won't worry about it when I try it and nothing good comes of it. I'll just keep trying, and EVENTUALLY it will work for me." Dogs can build up tolerance for dozens, even hundreds, of unreinforced behaviors if you are go about the "training" the right way. It's easy: Just let the dog OCCASIONALLY complete the retrieve after performing some undesired behavior. This, of course, is why you must put the AWO on a zero-tolerance schedule.

The most mysterious part of the AWO, the part that makes it difficult to believe in and therefore difficult to execute, is understanding how important it is to the dog to be able to complete the retrieve. After all, the dog is acting as though completing the retrieve has no value at all. How can depriving the dog of the retrieve make any difference, when she doesn't seem to care about it anyway? To convince yourself that completing the retrieve really is valuable, all you have to do is to trust me and start using the AWO. When it works, and the undesired behaviors stop occurring, and the dog starts picking up the bird and coming straight back to you, then you will realize why it worked. If you start using the AWO early enough in the dog's training, you may be able to prevent any bad habits from ever forming, and have a dog who never shows the symptoms that my dogs do. I dearly hope that's the case and that I, too, will share in that benefit with my next puppy.

In conclusion, I know all too well how difficult the logistics are to arrange to always have an assistant available when training LWL retrieves. If you absolutely must train alone, then I can only give you the same advice I've belatedly given myself: Apply the same zero-tolerance, no exceptions policy to your use of the unassisted WO as you would if an assistant were available to help you with the AWO. One of the most important and annoying corollaries is that that means, do NOT train in locations where you cannot readily get to the other side of the water if the dog does not perform correctly.

I hope the AWO will be as valuable to you as it has been to me in the short time I've begun using it.

Lindsay, with Lumi & Laddie (Goldens)
Laytonsville, Maryland

Field training blog: http://lumi-laddie-test-series.blogspot.com (see "Archive of Video Blog Entries" in right margin)

YouTube playlists:
-- Lumi: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=BC338082E0B890DB
-- Laddie: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=9A44913FB240932A

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