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Lesson  Five

Sit Stay

Door Manners:​

Over the last week you've been busy working on your sit-stays. Now We are going to give them a practical application. We're going to work on having your dog in a sit-stay whilst you open the door. We want your dog  to learn that just because the door is opening that does not mean they can barge straight through. You need to work quite carefully and incrementally through the process.

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  1. Ask for a sit - stay.

  2. Touch the door handle, feed the dog for staying in position.

  3. Press the door handle down, feed the dog for staying in position.

  4. Press the door handle right down, feed the dog for staying in position.

  5. Open the door slightly, feed the dog for staying in position.

  6. Open the door more, feed the dog for staying in position.

and so on until the door is fully open. Then close the door and start again. Once your dog is reliably staying in a sit position while the door is open and you can step out of the door and back again then you can use your release cue. 

Leave it

Distraction:​

Now that you have conditioned the cue your dog is ready for a practice distraction.

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  1. Place some low value food on the floor.

  2. Attached a lead to your dog's harness.

  3. Take a couple of steps towards the food.

  4. Say "leave it"

  5. Mark the instant your dog turns to look at you.

  6. Give your dog a reward from your pocket when they come back to you.

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Your dog can never have the food on the floor. Your dog needs to learn that "leave it" means I never get the item I want on the floor but I do get something tasty from my person.

Let's GO

Walk with me:​

This is a very useful cue to teach your dog to start moving with you. It can be used in many different situations. You can use it when crossing a road, while your dog is sniffing or moving away from another dog approaching.

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  1. Start when your dog is walking with you.

  2. Say "let's go" then turn the opposite way.

  3. Reward your dog as you turn and while you are walking in the opposite direction.

recall

Rewarding eye contact:​

We want to teach our dogs to stay with us after we have called them rather than dashing off as soon as you feed them their treat for touching your hand.

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  1. Call your dog.

  2. Mark and reward for touching your hand.

  3. Then wait for them to give you some eye contact.

  4. Mark and throw a treat out to the left.

  5. Wait for attention again.

  6. Mark and throw a treat out to the right.

Homework

Downloadable work sheets:

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