Dog Obedience Training Some More Basics

The sit and drop are only two exercises that we teach our dogs in dog obedience training. Walking, stays and recalls are equally important.

Walking

You can teach your pup to walk on a loose lead using two positive reward training methods.

Try this retraining exercise if you have a dog that tries to pull your arm out of its socket. When the lead goes stiff, stop in your tracks. Wait for the lead to go slack, call the dogs name and click and treat as he comes to you. You may find it takes an hour to walk down the garden path to the front gate. The dog will get to understand that a loose lead is more rewarding than a tight lead fairly quickly.

holding a few small tasty treats in one hand, the leash and the clicker in the other hand we are going to lure the dog to walk close to us. The hand with the food should be the hand nearest the dog. So, dog on the left, food in the left hand. Working the dog on both sides has huge advantages if you wish to participate in the fun sport of dog agility and I recommend you work this exercise with the dog on either side as long as you remember that the food treats must be on the same side as the dog.

Start with the dog sitting or standing in front of you. Get the dog focused on the treats in your left hand and start walking backwards. Make a click and slip one of the treats out of your fingers so the dog can take it every three paces. Make certain the dog is staying with you and is following the hand with the food treat.

With the dog following the food in your hand, make a quick 180 degree turn so that the dog is now on your left, snuffling at the food still in your left hand, and you are walking forwards. You still need to click and treat every three paces. The walking backwards is slowly faded out at the start until you can start with the dog sitting or standing at your side.

You can now take more steps before you click and treat the dog. Over a period of time you will stop using food in the hand but will have the dog following a clenched fist that smells like it may have food in it. When the dog stays by your side you can click and treat when you come to a stop and you introduce the sit command as you come to a stop.

Click and treat only if your dog sits as you come to a stop. You may need to take one or two steps after you give the sit command. Watch the dog and if you see he has heard and sits, then you need to stop immediately as well.

Stays

Part and parcel of any dog obedience course is the sit and the drop stay, and is fairly simple to teach the pup. You start with the dog sitting next to you on your left. Place your right hand across your body and right in front of the dogs face, say the word STAY firmly and, stepping off on the right foot, take a step around and in front of your dog.You should now be about about 1 meter away and facing the dog with your right hand in the dogs face.

You stay in front of the dog for the count of 5 and then step back and around to the dogs side. Click and treat if the dogs rear did not move. Repeat this exercise several times and again do not over do it. Train in several short sessions usually about 10 minutes is adequate.

Extend the time you are standing in front of the dog but do not extend the distance at the same time. When you are able to stand in front of the dog for say 20 seconds, step out 2 meters, but drop the time count to 5. Build the time slowly up to 20secs and then step out to 5 meters but go back to a counting up to 5. Then go back to 2 meters for 10 seconds, and so on.

You can develop the sit stay and the down stay in the same way. If at any time the dog moves, take a quick break and then restart at a shorter distance for 5 seconds and rebuild your time and distance.

RECALL

Have you taught your dog its name? If you have already taught your dog its name then the informal recall has already been instilled into your dog. Your dog must come to you when you call its name. We now need to proof the recall with distractions.

Take a b reak between teaching the stays and this exercise.You must not do this exercise immediately after working the stay exercise as you will be confusing the dog one minute he is expected to stay put, the next you are telling him it is ok to move towards you. The idea is to teach the dog that the word stay means wait until I come back to you and your stay for a recall command is wait, which means wait until I call you.

The recall is started with the dog in either a sit or stand next to you. I personally do not mind but if you are working towards wanting a champion obedience trial dog then you will want to choose the position required in trialling situations this is most usually sitting.

With the dog next to you, give him the Wait command and step around in front of the dog and take a step backwards. Keep your hand out in front of the dog. This will be about one meter in front of the dog, and you will be facing the dog.

Before you call the dog, ensure he is looking at you. Call his name and add the word come Rover come and slap the front of your thighs with your hands. Do not attempt to train the recall if the dog is distracted by a squirrel or the neighbours cat.

You can use a tug toy if you have a good tugging dog. Iinstead of slapping your thighs,you wave the tug toy and get him charging towards you and reward him with a tug game.

Once again, you need no use short training sessions, repeating this exercise several times. Do not let the dog get bored. Six 10 minute seasons in a day is infinitely better than 60 minutes once a day.

You must extend the time and distance for this exercise the same way as for the stay.

If you find the dog is slow in coming into you, when you call his name, immediately spin on your heels and run in the opposite direction calling excitedly. Click and treat as the dog gets to you and use the tug toy if necessary.

The dog may run past you. If he does, turn 180 degrees and run in the other direction. Watch over your shoulder and as the dog gets close, spin around and encourage the dog to come right to your legs and have him sit in front of you.

As your dog begins to understand the exercise, you can start extending the distance and get further away from him. Try to resist crouching down when you call your dog. Rather make yourself as tall as you can when you call him in. Crouching makes you look smaller and less interesting to the dog.

If you have already read my other article on the basics, then you now have now taught basic dog obedience exercises that will have your dog sitting, dropping, walking on a loose lead, staying where you put him, and running to you fast when you do a recall.

You need to keep repeating these exercises continuously and consistently. The more you do, the greater will be the dogs understanding, and the stronger the behaviour will be.