Having completed Starters, the dog is now able to do Touch - ie
run through the start/finish poles, up to the target box which
is 51ft away, touch the box with its paw, and return through the
finish poles to its handler for its motivator. Bronze level
concentrates on training the dog to consistently do Touch
correctly while also teaching the dog to do the Game pointing in
different directions. The handler raises his expectations of
what he wants the dog to do, while the dog gains a deeper
understanding of what is expected of it through thorough
training methods. It is tempting to rush dogs through their
basic training in our eagerness to show how clever our dogs can
be. However, in the early stages of training an exercise, many
dogs are accidentally doing it correctly. This can be because of
- - because it is watching the handler's unconscious body
movements (ie not necessarily those chosen by the handler to be
the visual commands for the exercise) - or because it has
associated the environment with the exerc