How Rosco Learned to Stay and Sit Stay for Greetings

[Adina P]

Disclaimers:

--  Although I love discussing training and believe I have a good grasp of principles for a lay person, I'm not a trainer and have yet to 'finish' any of my dogs or win any obedience titles.  So take this for what it's worth. 

-- DON'T try this at home :-)  These snippets don't give you the whole picture, just a glimpse.  It is not a complete picture of the step-by-step.  Take from this the general principles, not necessarily the "how to."

-- Sit Stay won't keep your dog from jumping on people when he's free and not under command...

But since we've been discussing jumping up on people or not being polite on leash when greeting people, I thought I'd show you a bit about how I train my dogs to hold still. 

So that is how I start...and from there add more distance or time or distraction (but never all three at once).  The point of this video is the principle that you start small.  Teaching stay starts with teaching to stay a very short time with you nearby.  This is true whether you teach with a regular collar, choke chain, clicker, treats, or nothing.  You have to be sure the dog fully understands what you want from him and gradually expand to longer times, longer distances from you.



And that is how I progress to people interaction (while under command).  I think that with continued people interaction under command (transitioning to off leash obedience too) over time a dog starts to make that the go to behavior chosen.

This is Boca doing kind of what I described above.

[Adina P]

Goldie is in a puppy class. And I follow a different method than you will find in most classes, hence my disclaimers above :)

[Adina P]

The definition of 'heel' is that they walk/trot in a certain position relative to you and sit when you stop.

[Star and Goldie]

So glad you added that. I wanted to ask what exactly it meant but figured it was something I should know ;)

[Elizabeth, Bailey & Bruin]

Our trainer started this in beginning classes.  This is what I was taught...If I know that I want to stop at a corner say 20 feet away, start walking at a normal pace with your pup at a heel on your left side,.  when you are about 5 feet away from your stopping point, start walking a little slower and take maybe 3 steps...on the 3rd step stop and pop up real quickly and not hard and say sit at the same time you are stopping.. If your pup does not sit, tell him no and push down on his back hips above his legs..not on his back...and say sit...Repeat this several times and your pup will get the hang of each time you start to walk slower and then you stop, he is supposed to stop and sit...

Practice, practice practice....  If this doesn't make sense, let me know and I will try to do a video..

[Gwyndolyn Morasko]

Thanks for the videos.  I need to do a lot of work with Kona still. 

[Elizabeth, Bailey & Bruin]

This is the type of training I do with Bailey... Really works...

OK Mr Rosco, you are a love...

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Great job explaining, Adina. You really explained the small steps needed when teaching a skill.   I think many, many people don't realize that dogs (and people) learn in in small increments, with a lot of practice, over extended time. They think it will happen full blown within a day or two, and that the skill will be retained forever without refresher practices.

[Amy, Cubbie & Ollie]

Ok Adina, I have to ask.  Does Rosco weigh more than you?   :)

[Adina P]

LOL -- it does appear so, but he's actually only furrier than me :-)

[Amy, Cubbie & Ollie]

lol

[Jeanine Bandini]

Thanks Adina! Thanks for breaking it down into smaller steps that are easy to follow. I feel that the advice on how to train your dog is too generalized for me and this was very helpful. Your dogs are gorgeous!!

[Pat and Traveler]

Well done!  Among other tips, it was helpful to see what the correction looks like, and the going around a corner idea.  Rosco is so laid back--too cute!