Staying Power

We recently met with another trainer from Superdog. This time we focused on down/stay, sit/stay, leave it, and a little bit of the come command.

Beef is an solid B+ student when it comes to learning new things. I'd give him an A if he wasn't such a little stinker when he tests us here and there on his commands. He is smart and knows how to work the system, so we are put to the test every now and then when we give him a command. He has been stellar with the Heal and Back commands when we walk him and it makes him much more of a joy to walk with. Meaning he doesn't tug on the leash or try to eat everything he can.

Anyway, about this training session:

For the down/stay command we spent time putting Beef in the down position, which is basically a lay down position. And then we would give him an immediate stay command. The thing I learned immediately is that when I was saying "Stay" before, I was doing it the wrong way. Stay should be a one time command and then you should turn and walk away as you want to and not look back and not move away slowly from the animal. The idea is that you create the type of situation you want him to respond to. I was creating a type of nervousness where I would walk away slowly, watching the dog and repeating "Staaaaaaaaay", "stayyyyyyyy" and giving repetitive hand signals and ultimately this wasn't being very effective.

While Beef was in Down/Stay we created lots of distractions. We would walk in and out of the door, talk with each other and the trainer, throw his toys and things around him to make him interested. And if he began to get up or show interest in a toy, we'd give him a "leave it command" or say "no" and then give him another "down and stay" command. He did very well.

The ultimate goal is to be able to get Beef to be down and stay for 30 to 60 minutes at a time without him trying to get up and walk away. So far this week he has done very well. At one point he kept getting up and it was confusing why he would keep getting up because he was doing so good, but then all of a sudden he started peeing. So, the lesson here is: When your dog is doing very good at something and then all of a sudden doesn't do it, he's probably gotta pee, very badly. So, lesson learned.

We also went over the Sit/Stay command and had Beef sit for 5 to 10 minutes at a time. It's not as comfortable of a position for dogs and especially on tile that is slippery can be difficult for them to stay up long. So he did very well with sit/stay also.

When we did want to release Beef from any of our Stay commands we would use "CLEAR" to have him come over to us and then give him praise and pet him and so on.

We also went over and taught Beef how to "Upsit" from a down position. He is off and on with this one and occasionally needs a slight lift up assist to get him up, but he's learning it quickly.

We are taking Beef to Seattle with us this coming Friday the 8th, so that should be fun for him. We got a new airplane travel bag for him and he will reside under the seat as usual. We'll be sure to post some pics of Beef on the big trip.