Line Out Training
Objective:
to teach your dog to hold a gangline tight while you are doing other activities.
- Your
team should be able to stand with the gangline stretched out while stopped and
another team passes.
- Your
team should be able to stand with the gangline stretched out while you do
things, like move a dog to a different position on the gangline or while
hooking up the team.
- Your
team should be able to stand with the gangline stretched with NO handlers holding
the dogs during the last 10 seconds of a countdown to the start of a race.
- Control
= safety! Even holding still for a few
seconds may make a big difference in not getting dogs or people hurt or gear
damaged.
Remember:
- On
the trail, you have no one to help you; during some run, a disaster will
happen!
- If
you can’t control your dogs in a line out at while connecting them or starting,
you won’t be able to do it during a run.
- When
your dogs are connected in the team, they cannot see you; they need to rely
only on voice commands.
You
should train ALL dogs in your team to line out, not just your lead dogs.
Line
out training is done in many small incremental steps.
- Only
spend a few minutes at a time.
- Work
incrementally building the behavior, one step at a time.
- Don’t
move to the next step until the prior step is solid.
- Don’t
be afraid to go back a couple steps and reinforce behavior before advancing.
- Repeat
training two or more times a day.
- Repeat
several times a week.
- Do
not stress your dogs; stop and try again later.
- Always
end a session on a positive experience.
- Use
the “line out” command and reinforce the behavior.
Start
- Start
with your dog in harness.
- Attach
you dog to a tug line attached to a solid support such as a fence post.
- Work
in an area away from other distractions.
- Use
positive reinforcement, including treats.
- Facing
your dog, have them come toward you to pull the line tight.
- Have
the dog stand in the line out position.
- Begin
to slowly back away; return to correct if the dog moves.
- Use
a leash if needed to direct the dog.
- Continue
until you can back away several feet from the dog and it will stay for a minute
or more focusing on you.
Building the
line out
- Once
the dog will hold a line out with you facing, work on backing away and then turning
around (or turn around and step away).
- The
dog should remain focused on being lined out with you in front.
- Once
the dog will hold a line out with you in front, work on moving away to the
side.
- Once
the dog will hold a line out with you on the side, work on moving out of the
dog’s sight.
- It
is OK for the dog to move their head to look for you, but they shouldn’t break
the line out.
- Objective:
be able to move away and out of sight for a few minutes.
- At
your option, you may require the dog to stand or may let it sit or lie down
(relaxing is good when stopping for a break on the trail).
Team
line out
- Once
individual dogs are solid, switch to using a multi-dog gangline tied to the
stationary object.
- Connect
one dog and have it line out.
- Go
away and get the next dog and connect it and have it line out.
- Repeat
until all dogs are connected with the entire gangline stretched.
- Correct
individual behavior until you can get all dogs connected.
- Dogs
side by side should not be interacting; fix those problems.
- Build
incrementally; 2 dogs, 4 dogs, …
- Do
not rush in hooking up all the dogs.
- Avoid
hooking up the dogs in the same order every time; don’t build inadvertent
patterns.
- For
a four-dog or larger team, you can decide if you want to start by connecting
the wheel dogs first and moving forward along the line and connect the leaders last,
or start with the leaders first.
- Note,
individual dogs should be able to hold the line out for as long as it takes to
harness and connect the entire team before working on team training.
- That
means that after all the dogs are on
drop cables, you should be able harness one, connect to gangline, repeat and
then get ready for your run – check your gear, put on your helmet, get
something to drink.
- Hooking up
the team is a controlled process; work at a comfortable pace.
- Once
you can line out the team to the stationary object, move to doing it with your
rig or sled. Reward with a run.
- This
is the ultimate goal and if you can achieve it, you won’t need to rely
completely on brakes and snub lines to hold the team. The dogs are capable of
controlling their bodies—help them learn that “waiting” has rewards.
It’s
a beautiful thing to see a 16-dog team standing at the start of a race with no
one holding them. They will learn how to
count backwards from 5.
If
you can do it, get into the start chute, have your team ready and have someone
hold the rig or sled while you visit each dog and praise to reward their
behavior.
Success
criteria for race situations: have your handlers release the dogs and move to
the side of the chute when there are 10 seconds left in the countdown. At 10 seconds, it’s “your team”.
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