'Welcome back' after my summer break and just plain old
'Wecome' if you've only recently subscribed.
This month I want to talk about something I often see people
do with their dogs which does nothing to improve their level
of obedience and can so easily be remedied.
A few weeks ago I was standing in line at the checkout of
our local shop. It was a baking hot day and the shop door
was open. The till was very close to the door, so consequently
so was I as I stood waiting.
Directly outside stood a man waiting for his wife/girlfriend
who was also in the shop. He had with him a bull terrier on a
lead. The dog stood quietly and patiently, making no fuss and
making no attempt to pull away. It was the very model of good
behaviour.
After a minute or so the man told the dog to sit, which it was
very reluctant to do. He ended up pushing hard on its rump and
forced it into position.
Shortly afterwards his partner came out of the shop and they
walked away. As soon as he turned to move off the man made
absolutely no sound to the dog, but simply started walking.
This is *so* common - if you pay any attention to people
with their dogs you see this happening all the time.
In my opinion it's one of the main reasons people have trouble
getting their dog to hold a sit; the dog has no idea how long
it has to stay in position for.
I saw a slight variation of the exact same thing one day last
week as I sat in the vet's surgery with Molly. A man with 2
border collies came out of the consultation room and went up
to the reception desk to pay. He told the dogs to sit, which
they did. He got out his wallet and began talking to the
receptionist. Almost immediately one of the dogs stood up
but because it just stood quietly and he was engrossed in
conversation, the man didn't notice. As soon as he'd paid he
turned for the door and began walking without a word to the
dogs.
It's the easiest thing in the world to teach a dog to go
into a sit position but what so few people seem able to do
is get the dog to stay in that position. And yet that's easily
achieved too. If you want to watch a demonstration have a
look at the video at the very top of the page at www.dogtrainingblueprint.com/secrete.htm and you'll
see me doing it with Zorro.
Remember this simple piece of advice; until you are absolutely
100% certain that the dog understands what's required of it,
only ever allow the dog to get up from a sit position (that
you've put it into) when you give it a 'release' word.
So teaching the sit is actually a 2 part process - part one
is going *into* the position on command and part two is coming
*out* of the position on command. When you teach it like this
the dog learns that what you really mean when you say 'sit'
is in fact 'sit in this position until I say you can move'.
What most people seem to do instead is to get the dog to
sit and then use a separate 'stay' command. But if you think
about this logically it seems daft; why wouldn't you want the
dog to stay in that position? In other words are there ever
any occasions when you want the dog to sit and immediately
get up again virtually as soon as its bottom's touched the
ground?
I certainly can't think of any. Yet by not teaching it my
way, the command 'sit' on its own can easily mean do exactly
that; put your butt on the ground and stand up again immediately.
Where's the sense in that?
It's the precise reason why you so often see people having
to repeatedly tell the dog to sit. What they really want the
dog to do is to sit and stay sitting. But they've only taught
the first part of the command - the actual going into position.
They haven't taught the dog how long it has to stay there for.
So if the dog doesn't know how long it has to hold the position
for how can it possibly be at fault if it gets straight back up
again?
It's far simpler just to teach the sit as a 2 step process that
finishes with a release word. It removes all uncertainty,
ambiguity and confusion and instead becomes a simple black and
white cut and dried process.
If you're not already doing it with your dog I highly recommend
you give it a try!
Webmasters - If you have your own dog training site, you are welcome to reproduce this article provided you reproduce it in full, without editing it in any way. Furthermore, at the end of it you must also agree to put the following resource box (without the speech marks) with an active, working link back to this site. If you are not prepared to do this you may not reproduce any of my work. Here is the wording you must use -
"This article is the copyright of Andrew Chastney, author of Dog Training Blueprint to Success. To read more of his articles and get a free copy of 'Top Ten Tips For Having An Obedient Dog' go to www.dogtrainingblueprint.com"
The section to hyperlink back is www.dogtrainingblueprint.com as I've done in the example here. In case you are not sure how to do this, simply copy the following -
(a href="http://www.dogtrainingblueprint.com")www.dogtrainingblueprint.com(/a)
and replace the brackets with the 'triangular brackets' that are used to open and close html tags.
Watch this 58 second video...
“You'll discover how I can show you ten simple things you can do rightaway that'll put you streets ahead of everyone else when it comes to training your dog”
The FREE report mentioned in the video will show you secrets like ...
the one simple thing you can do that'll guarantee your dog would go through hell or high water if you asked it to
the single most important weapon in your dog training armoury (you've already got this but you almost certainly don't yet know how to use it)
Just use your First Name, Primary Email then
click the “Sign up!” button. (All information kept 100% confidential). Then you'll be redirected to the page where I'll prove to you that I can help you train your dog.
We will NOT rent, trade, or release your name to any third
party for any reason - ever. We respect YOUR email privacy and hate spam with a passion.
