Remember that your hands must be off the dog by the time you cross the start line, and that they may not be placed back on the dog until after crossing the finish line. Don't start celebrating too soon! Be sure you are aware of where these lines are when you walk the course. These lines are infinite in the direction of the cones placed on the field. If in doubt, ask the judge. Katie Greer

You have left your dog at the start line, and begin to move away. The dog leans forward in its anticipation of the game, and in reaction to the dog  you begin to run. Congratulations! You have just taught your dog the first steps to breaking a stay at the start line. Left unchecked it will take quite a bit to correct.

While lead-outs at the start are not always necessary, there are times in which you may like your partner to wait until you are ready before leaving the start line. If the dog looks like it wants to break, stop where you are and turn toward the dog. Often this will keep a dog who is not already accustomed to breaking the start line in place. If this is already a problem there are several approaches to correct it.

In trials plan to run with the dog until the problem is solved. Each time the dog breaks its stay at the start results in a multitude of training sessions to over come it. If you think that you absolutely must have a lead out then a vacation from trials will help until this is corrected.

Proof those stays! Make sure the dog fully understands what it is that you want. With the dog on lead place it in position and tell it to stay. Gently tug on the lead. If it breaks the stay return to the dog and reposition. Begin again. Gradually build up until you can give a pretty good tug (gently!) on the leash and the dog resists breaking its position.

When you leave your dog in a stay move out with confidence, or dare the dog to break the stay. The point is to not convey any doubt to the dog of whether or not you think it will do as asked. If you appear doubtful, why should the dog believe otherwise?

In training if the dog breaks its stay, return to it and go to the end of the line. In a trial situation this could mean forfeiting the run. The reward is getting to perform the obstacles, the punishment is not being allowed to play.

Place the dog on a stay and then call out anything. "Lemon", "taco", " treats", it doesn't matter. The dog should listen to what it is you are saying. At first you may only want to call out one false release word, later you can work up to several in a row before giving the correct command. You can also do this with body posture. Lean forward a bit, or begin to raise an arm. If you didn't give "the" release word, return to the dog and reposition it. You can up the ante on this exercise by building up to placing the dog in front of its favorite obstacle and proofing from there.

With some dogs it helps if you return to the dog as soon as it breaks and place it further back from the first obstacle. If it breaks again, return and place it even further back from the first obstacle. Repeat until the dog holds its position. Most will quickly see that if they don't wait for your signal they just get placed further away from what it is they want to do.

Break stay training up into a variety of exercises, keep it fun just like the rest of agility work. Put the dog in a stay, then without taking any obstacles release and reward, or play a game that the dog enjoys. Sometimes the object is to stay and do an obstacle, and sometimes it is to stay then play.

You can also add an additional command to the stay at the start. Leave the dog in a sit or down. Lead out, then ask the dog to perform the opposite behavior. If it is in a down then ask it to sit before releasing it. The dog will learn that before it begins there will be an additional command before it begins the game. This will require additional proofing so that the dog will take each command while you are at a distance. Work on this before adding it to a lead out in practice. Katie Greer 

I haven't solved my start line problems with Trekker, my 5 year old Tervuren, but we HAVE come a long way.  This spring, Trek & I have had some lovely runs that started with calm, quiet starts.  We still have a lot of work to do & unfortunately, health problems have prevented me from doing much since May, so who knows where we'll be when we get back out there.  Anyway, here's a summary of what has worked for us & what has NOT.

First, I have to say that uncontrolled barking on the line will probably lead to broken stays if it is allowed to continue.  The reason for this is just what Cindy said: self control.  (Hi Cindy! :-> )  For Trekker, broken stays preceded barking at the start, but I think it could easily go the other way. Secondly, I truly believe that you will have better luck solving this problem if you are not competing at the same time. Anyway, here's what has been working for us:

1. First, we have been (and will always be!) working on stays at the start. For Trekker, this is a very different exercise than stays anywhere else.  Remembering that the dog will gravitate toward the re-enforcer, I've done lots of variable type reinforcing, either releasing to a tossed toy or treat, a game of chase with me (away from the obstacles) or to the first jump.  This way, he never knows which way he'll  go to receive his reward. 

In addition, I NEVER allow him to continue a course if he breaks a stay.  In class, practice & show & gos, if he breaks, I pick him up & put him back where I left him.  This is done with no emotion & no additional commands.  Since I don't want to throw away my entry fees on a broken stay, I won't ask Trekker to stay for a lead out in competition until I'm SURE he will stay. 

2.  Like Cindy, we've been doing self control type exercises during class, or at show & gos, while other dogs were running.  I found that telling Trekker not to bark was counterproductive, so I decided to teach him what I DID want him to do instead.  Since his fallback clicker trained behavior is to "watch" (looking at me with eye contact), I started there.  (Note: I started this while slower, less exciting dogs were running & then moved up to the fast, barky ones!  :-> ) 

I started out by finding Trek's "Bark threshold", or how far away from the ring he had to be to NOT want to bark at the dog on course.  Then I moved him closer.  If he barked, I moved away again.  I then started to ask for a "watch" & clicked when he offered it.  I gradually faded my "watch" cue & let him figure it out for himself.  I'll never forget the first time he started to bark at a fast barking sheltie, then caught himself & turned his head to look at me!! 

After Trek understood the game & was able to stand right next to the ring w/o barking, I moved back & asked for a down.  We got so that he could hold a quiet down at ringside for a several minutes before I released him.  My intentions are to continue this desensitization, moving gradually toward the start line in class.  I will ask for a sit at the start instead of a down, though.

3. Since I HAVE been competing while we work on this, I had to change my routine at the start in competition.  First, I KNEW that Trek would not stay, so I haven't asked him to do so in a trial situation.  Instead, I have been asking for gradually increasing lengths of quiet sits (at my side).  Prior to this, I was actually holding on to his ruff & he would take off when I let go!  Not a pretty sight!  :-) 

4. The next thing I did was determine just when the barking & loss of self control started.  For Trekker, it was the removal of his lead.  I would take him on course on lead & when I took off the lead, his mouth would engage just as his brain disengaged!  I have to admit that I was hesitant to remove Trekker's lead outside of the ring, while the prior dog was on course.  However, since the removal of the leash was a trigger for the barking, I decided it was best to do that away from the ring.

Afraid that I'd be outside the ring gate with a nekkid barking Belgian maniac, I needed to give him something to do while we waited.  I tried a couple of things that did not work: 

a. Trying to do stationary attention work (or just keep him from watching the dog on course), with his back to the course.  While it seems like a good idea to take away the visual stimulation, there are still those darned auditory things like barking & the handler's commands.

b. Assorted tricks.  Trekker realized that the tricks preceded his run & they became the trigger for barking, if the lead was already off.  I ended up with a barking maniac weaving around my legs, waving his paws, backing up, etc. 

c. Susan Garrett's down, sit, go.  I truly believe that this actually frustrated Trekker so badly that it caused his barking to escalate to screaming at the start.  I know other dogs that this has worked for, but it wasn't for my boy & I wouldn't recommend it for other Belgians. 

What DOES work for us is heeling.  For whatever reason, Trekker LOVES to heel & while he is very enthusiastic about it, he does so quite calmly (and quietly! ;->).  In the best case scenario, we will be able to do little heeling patterns a few feet away from the ring entrance while the previous team is running & calmly heel to the start line as they leave the course.  Since trials in this area never fill, and tend to be more informal, this is
rarely a problem for us. 

As I said above, this is a work in progress for us, but I'm seeing quite a bit of improvement from Trekker.  I hope that you can use some of these ideas! Deb Frank

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Start Line article from Power Paws