# Working for Food/Jackpotting



## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Can you explain exactly what the method is?


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## K9-Design (Jan 18, 2009)

I started with this a year ago with Slater, with the enormous help of my friend Robin, who takes a monthly lesson from Bridget. Without her help I would have given up a way long time ago. You need someone who is very familiar with the program to help you, otherwise it seems completely stupid and pointless. Once you understand it though, it is brilliant. If you want to go this route you need to look into video lessons with Bridget. And it's not just a method, you have to have good training chops to back it up. Not easy but the results can be huge.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

But what exactly are you guys doing?


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## MaddieMagoo (Aug 14, 2007)

K9-Design said:


> I started with this a year ago with Slater, with the enormous help of my friend Robin, who takes a monthly lesson from Bridget. Without her help I would have given up a way long time ago. You need someone who is very familiar with the program to help you, otherwise it seems completely stupid and pointless. Once you understand it though, it is brilliant. If you want to go this route you need to look into video lessons with Bridget. And it's not just a method, you have to have good training chops to back it up. Not easy but the results can be huge.


Thanks, Anney. I have my DVDs from Bridget...but of course, I lent them to someone over a month ago and now I need them. I emailed them awhile ago and have not gotten them back. My friend who has her dog work for her food has had HUGE results with this, I'm looking at getting some private lessons from her. 

Megora: Check out Bridget's website...maybe that can give you a little bit better understanding of what she does. I'm just starting it out, so it may seem confusing as to what I may describe. But for the sake of it, the dog basically has a cue word, like "Are you hungry?!" I then get her food bowl ready during breakfast and dinner. I then say "Let's go work!" and bring her food bowl with us. I'll set the bowl down and start working, doing anything in a super fast, but FUN session, usually 2-3 minutes with some heeling, spins and twirls, some fronts and finishes and anything else I can do in that time frame. In the beginning stages you want to reward EFFORT with some of the food. I NEED my DVDs to explain this further and better...but if that person would just mail them back to me..argh!


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Oh - okay. I've done that. 

It's sorta like a NILIF method + jackpot method.


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## K9-Design (Jan 18, 2009)

Um, well, that's "sort of" it.
If your foundation of behavior offering/cue words is not solid it's a house of cards.
I have Bridget's videos too and they don't fully explain it like having someone there.
Even after working at it for a year, once I went to Bridget's seminar last month I finally felt like I had a good grasp on it conceptually.
I still needed A LOT of help figuring out heel position and when/where to use cue words, and even in the past few weeks my heeling has vastly improved. 

I will say, I recently started getting Fisher to offer some behaviors just for his treats and dinner. It is sad because he is SOOOOOOOOOO much slower than Slater at picking this stuff up. Young dog vs. old dog. Fisher's been taught his whole life that one task = instant feedback, this is really different for him. For his dinner I will ask Fisher if he's hungry and I will get probably a spin, bow and bark (and sometimes, a sneeze, not sure how that worked itself into there), meanwhile Slater is literally turning himself inside out behind me! 
I realized at Bridget's seminar even if you choose not to go the whole cue word/offering/marker words stuff, the take home message was dogs are so used to putting forth very little effort for their rewards, and depending on their handler to do all the work, even really enthusiastic dogs, so when they go in the ring they are not used to the silence and no reward.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

I definitely believe in cue words (READY)... 

When I'm home it generally gets him worked up so he's vibrating and actually lets out an impatient woof (he does NOT bark so for him to woof is pretty huge) when I don't take off heeling fast enough.

This isn't necessarily for his meals (I have him do spins and doggy pushups). But like I will let him see me put a piece of bread on our bookcase. He knows that food will come at any point. Sometimes not until after we've done a bunch of different things. Sometimes it's the instant we do 3 steps with fixed attention.


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## coppers-mom (Jan 9, 2009)

I used clicker training and jackpooting/food rewards with my horse while my back was in spasm and I couldn't work him any other way.

It had immediate results with him, but he is very food motivated so that is to be expected. He learned to fetch whatever I points at in about 5 minutes, learned to bow in 2 sessions and a few other things. I really tried it for fun with him, so I haven't pursued it much. I also never could figure out how to keep him from being mouthy and mugging for treats and since that can be a big problem with a horse, I just stopped and went back to more traditional methods with him.


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## K9-Design (Jan 18, 2009)

BTW Bridget hates that she originally called her technique "jackpotting" as it really is not jackpotting at all. To me "jackpotting" is when the dog gets a surprise big reward, and that's not at all what Bridget does or advocates. A more appropriate term for her method is "effort based training" or something like that.


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## MaddieMagoo (Aug 14, 2007)

Very true, Anney. I know the dangers of jackpotting, as it doesn't carry very far into the dogs career. But, for the sake of us getting our CDX and hopefully finishing it at the National, I will try it!


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