In dog obedience training, the sit and drop are only two exercises that your dog needs to learn. Walking, stays and recalls are equally important.
Walking
Walking your pup on a loose lead can be taught, using two positive reward training methods.
i) If you have a dog that tries to pull your arm out of its socket then try this retraining exercise. 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 but the dog soon learns that a loose lead is more rewarding than a tight lead.
As the dog starts walking closer to you, you can start introducing method 2.
ii) You need to hold three or four small tasty treats in one hand, the leash and the clicker in the other hand. 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.
You must 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. As soon as the dog is 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 now start taking 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. At this point you introduce the sit command as you come to a stop and click and treat only if your dog sits as you come to a stop.
Stays
The stay is part and parcel of any dog obedience course 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.This should now put you about 1 meter away and facing the dog with your right hand should still in front of the dogs face.
Stay there for the count of 5 and then step back and around to the dogs side. Click and treat if the dog's rear did not move. Repeat this exercise several times and again do not over do it. Several short sessions are better than long boring sessions.
Now you may 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. 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
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 make certain that your dog will come back each time with distractions.
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.
You start for the recall is 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 - usually the sit position.
With the dog sitting or lying 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 should put you about one meter in front of the dog, facing the dog.
The dog must be looking at you and, when he is, 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 not focused on you. If you have a good tugging dog, instead of slapping your thighs, use the toy to get him charging towards you and reward him with a tug game.
Using short training sessions, repeat this exercise several times. 10 minutes, 6 times a day is infinitely better than 60 minutes once a day. Do not let the dog get bored. 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.
If the dog runs past you, turn 180 degrees and run in the other direction. Watch over your shoulder and as the dog gets close, turn and encourage the dog to come right to you. As your dog begins to understand the exercise, and you are starting to get further away from him, try to make yourself as tall as you can when you call him in. If you drop down into a hunch or crouch then the smaller you will be to the dog.
We 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 coming into you when you call him. Continue working these exercises, be consistent and be rewarding, and above all have lots of fun.
Nev Allen has been training dogs for 30 years and wants to help you to make your puppy a good canine citizen. If you want to understand all that is involved with dog obedience training, clicker training and dog ownership then you can read articles and watch videos about these fascinating topics at http://dogobediencetrainingblogs.com
