Teaching Your Height Dog to Get Measured

Real measuring wickets are expensive, and so rarely used they are hard to justify to purchase for even a large flyball club. However, here are the two things we have our club members do to teach their dogs to stand for measuring:

1) Home Training: Stand during Distractions (you don't have to do all of these things, but the more, the better! ;) ):

• clicker train the dog to stand during distractions. I actually watch for (i.e., shape) the dog's big foot pad to touch the ground. I think that if you do that, the dog has to stand in a more relaxed position (vs. up on her toes), and also, if you adjust the foot position to get a good stance, they'll "push" it back down onto the ground when you let go.
  
• after the dog learns how to do this, and will still do it even if you pet them or walk around, I eventually teach them to do this while standing next to a table leg. This gets them used to not only standing next to something upright, like the wicket, but also to stand in a particular location. 
  
• also teach the dog to hold that position while you move a wire hanger or something similar over and above their body, including holding it like the crossbar of the wicket. Lower it down, move it back and forth across their back. Always click when their feet (foot really) is in the correct position, asking for longer & longer duration. Don't forget the "three D's" (distance, difficulty, distraction); that you've made the other two D's easier whenever you make one D harder. 
  

These exercises may sound kind of complicated, but if you have a clicker-trained dog and you are pretty good with the clicker, you can teach it pretty fast. I actually taught my last puppy just at dinner time; it took maybe 10 sessions? His hardest problem was his ticklish butt, but he was pretty determined to keep his feet flat on the floor!

2) Wicket Practice (this one's pretty easy to do, if you can come to Northern California, especially if the dog & handler have done at least some of the above):
at the big UC Davis Picnic Day play day in April, we set up a couple of "judges" (esp. bigger men) with the wicket, for people to bring their dogs up to learn to get measured. This is just for you to practice with a real wicket, and a stranger.