Obedience Exercises
To use as rewards, you will need lots of small food
treats - something your dog is very interesting in
following with his nose. Use a reward that the dog will
work for. This means if the dog will work for cheerios
or kibble, don't upgrade to slices of hotdogs or diced
chicken. If your dog doesn't like any of these foods as
a reward, check for a pulse.
SIT
* Put the food in the palm of your hand covered by your
thumb. Let the dog sniff it.
* Say "sit", then scoop upward with your palm facing up,
stopping just over and behind the dog's head.
* Wait. Ignore any other strategies like jumping, pawing,
nibbling or licking. Simple wait for a sit.
* To continue comfortably sniffing the treat, the dog will
eventually sit. Once he does, praise warmly and then let
him eat the treat.
* Repeat several times.
* When he sits reliably as soon as you give the signal,
demand two sits per treat, then three or more.
* Recognize and exploit training opportunities. Ask the
dog to sit before initiating walks, opening the door to
the yard, greeting him when you come home, putting down
his dinner, etc... Think of sit as the dog's way of
saying "please".
DOWN
* With the dog in a sit, put a treat in your hand. Let
the dog sniff it.
* Say "down", then bring your hand, palm down, treat and
all straight down from the dog's nose to the floor
between his front paws.
* Wait. Again ignore all other strategies like pawing,
licking and nibbling and reward a down when you get one.
* If this doesn't work on the first few attempts, sit on
the floor and make a tunnel with your bent knees: draw
the dog through with the treat, opening your hand as soon
as he is in the down position.
* Repeat, then ask for and reward a "sit" once you get one.
* Repeat and reward several "pushups" (sit-down-sit-down).
* Make the dog do pushups whenever a training opportunity
arises in the daily life.
STAND
* With the dog in either a side or down, turn your hand
sideways, palm and treat toward the dog.
* Say "stand" and move your hand horizontally away from the dog.
* To continue targeting, the dog will have to take a step
forward. When he does, praise him and give him the treat.
* Practise going smoothly from sit to down to stand in random
order, rewarding all correct performances.
* When the dog is reliable, make him do more for less: reward
after every time or two or three position changes. Try to
select particularly nice efforts for reward.
* When the dog is reliable for occasional reward, practise with
the treat in your pocket instead of your hand. For this
step, go back to rewarding every correct performance again.
* When the dog is reliable for empty handed command, demand
more for less again.
* Practise in different locations. Dogs don't generalize
will, so you must vary your practise venue. Initially,
if the enviroment is distracting, more frequent rewards.
Follow the same as before to gradually wean off these.
STAY
* With the dog in a sit, say "stay" and give him a traffic
cop style halting palm signal.
* Play devil's advocate: dangle a treat in front of him
at nose level.
* When he moves toward the treat, say "too bad" and snatch
it away. Your timing is important: inform the dog he blew
it the instant his rear leaves the ground.
* Re-sit the dog and repeat the exercise.
* Eventually, because plan A (moving) is not working, the
dog will eventually try plan B (not moving). As soon as
he freezes when you dangle the treat, praise his effort of
self control and feed him the treat.
* Repeat until you can't get the dog to move, no matter what
you hold in front of him.
* Cancel the treat at any time if he breaks his sit
position.
* When the stay exercise is over, give him a release word "ok"
to let him know he can move now.
* Gradually increase the duration of the stay in 10 second
increments, rewarding him "in position" at the end of each
new accomplishment.
* Practise waling in a circle around the dog. Start with
a step or tw, pivoting back to reward him for not moving.
If this is successful, add steps until you can march around
the dog. Head movement is legal, but do not allow him to
rotate - he must keep his body facing front or he gets
a "too bad".
* Gradually increase distance in five foot increments, returning
to reward after a second or two at the newly established
distance.
* Combine distand and time: practise stays for up to a
minute or two at 30 feet or more. Always watch the dog
so you can time your "too bad" perfectly.
* Practise in different locations.
COME
List your dogs favourite five things. These might be
playing with dogs, fetch, cookies, cuddling and walks. For the next few weeks, precede these things with the command
"come". The first tip off the dog has that something
great is about to happen should be the word and first
impressions are extremely important.
* Escort your dog to your fenced yard or try working
together in your house.
* For basic conditioning, play a game where you send
the dog back and forth between two people. Each takes
turns calling the dog as follows:
1) Command "come"
2) Encourage your dog to you by crouching, clapping,
backing away or high pitched baby talk
3) Praise the dog when he arrives
4) Ask him to sit, then take hold of his collar
5) Dispense a treat that you have hidden in your pocket
* Practise this in a variety of locations. If there
is no one on hand to help, call the dog randomly
during the day using the same sequence.
* In the early training, protect your recall (come)
command: always associate it with pleasant things for
the dog. If you must end a walk in the woods or do
nail clipping or put the dog in his crate, label these
honestly "nail time" "bed time" but NEVER ever use
the word "come".
* After several practise sessions, start providing
consequences when he does not comply right away. When
you call and he does not come, calmly and mater-of-factly go
collect him and escort him to your calling position.
Thank him and then let him go. Immediately call again.
If he complies, praise and give him a treat. If he
does not, repeat the escort and try again. Your message
to the dog is that he would like to carry on doing
what he was doing, his best policy is to comply with
your command. If he doesn't, he will be made to
complete the recall anyway and then be called
continuously until he completes one solo.
Always reinforce training. Whenever you are out with
your dog, mix and match the commands "sit" "down"
"come" 'stay" Do so randomly so that he must constantly
be thinking about what you are telling him to do. In
that way, he will always look upon you as his leader.
He will also respect your mind, and you will have the
positive influence on his that will, in turn, make him
a delightful, responsive and intelligent companion.
