Tag: dog training

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How to teach stay

Teaching the stay is easy, but can be time consuming and takes lots of practice. First have your dog on a leash and put them in a sit. Your dog should be in a sit in front of you, say sit and feed, then continuously feed every couple of seconds for staying there. Once your dog is staying for a couple seconds, you can start increasing the time between treats. Once they are staying well even with more time between treats, step one is complete! Always say “okay” or whatever you use for a release word to let them know that they are done “staying”. We choose not to say “stay” because we expect them to stay in a sit until we tell them they’re done sitting, or stay in a down, etc. If you choose to say “stay” simply say,”sit” then “stay” then feed every few seconds like mentioned above.

Now you can start increasing the distance, or time. If you choose to increase the distance first, simple start by having them in a “stay” then take 1 step backwards, then go right back and feed, then repeat. If they’re good at that, you can take 2, then 3, etc. Once they’re good at that you can start increasing the time but staying with them. Once they are good at both time and distance, you can try taking a few steps away and increasing the duration from afar. This will take a lot of repetition and a lot of practice, but if you’re consistent, they’ll get it! Remember, if they ever break their stay, put them right back in the same spot, don’t feed and start over. If they break their stay more than once, you’re probably moving too fast and should go back a few steps to make it easier for them.

A big mistake that people make, is they’ll practice “stay” and “come” at the same time. They’ll say “stay”, walk across the room and say “come”, it will make the dog anticipate the “come” and more likely to break their stay. So until your dog is super solid with both commands, do not put them together. ALWAYS go back to your dog in the beginning before releasing them. That way they’ll know that you will come back for them and be less likely to break the stay. Even once they are solid make sure you return to them at least half the time, so that they don’t think they’ll always be called and start anticipating.

Stay is a command that should be practiced daily, or almost daily, to continuously improve the stay, it’s such an important command!

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How to teach sit

Things you need:

  • A dog
  • A leash
  • Treats

Start with your dog on a leash with lots of treats. Simply take a treat and put it above your dogs head, and their bum should naturally fall, bringing them into a sit. As soon as their bum hits the ground say “yes” and feed them the treat.

Some dogs pick this up super quickly and some need a little extra time. For the dogs that really aren’t getting it, even after multiple attempts, you can use one hand to put the food above their head and the other to gently push their bum down to help them figure out what you want. Again when their bum hits the ground, say “yes” and feed.

Once your dog starts sitting as soon as you raise your hand up, you’re ready to start adding the word “sit”. This could take one session or a couple sessions, depending on the dog. So now you can start saying “sit” then immediately helping your dog into the sit position. After a while you can say “sit” and wait a couple seconds before helping your dog. Eventually they’ll hear sit and know exactly what you want, before you have a chance to help them.

Teaching a sit with leash pressure

Next you can start teaching them how to sit with leash pressure. This gives you a super valuable tool in the case that your dog is distracted, confused about what you want or just doesn’t feel like listening. You don’t want to bribe the dog with food to do everything, otherwise if you don’t have food one day, they won’t do anything until you show them the food.

To start this you will simply pull up on your dogs leash (straight up) and hold until they sit. Most dogs will automatically sit after a few seconds and if they do, say “yes” and treat. If they need a little help you can pull up on the leash while also pushing their bum down. If they already know what sit means, you can pull up on the leash then say sit. Eventually they’ll feel the pressure and sit right down, which is the goal!

Once they know sit verbally and with leash pressure, you can start working on them staying in position longer. Check back for our post on teaching the stay!

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Teaching leave it

Do you want your dog to leave treats and toys like a pro? Do you worry about accidentally dropping something that’s not good for them like medication or a piece of chocolate? Does your dog counter surf? Steal your food? Does your dog generally just not have any self control? If you answered yes to any of those questions, keep reading!

It’s easiest for this trick to start with something big enough for your dog to see easily and preferably something a bit boring to your dog; a crunchy dog biscuit usually works well.

Things needed:

  • A leashed dog
  • A large crunchy dog treat
  • A bunch of small treats

It’s important for this exercise that you act as if the large treat is not edible. Whatever you do, do NOT let your dog eat the large treat. Start by having your puppy in a sit or a down and place the large treat in front of them and say “leave it”. They will naturally go to reach for the treat and you’ll put your hand over top of it and say “no, leave it”. When they leave the treat even for a second you’ll take one of your small treats and reward them with that. Then continuously feed small treats as they continue to “leave it” with the large treat. When you’re done with the exercise pick up the large treat and release your dog. Practice this at least once a day in short sessions. At the beginning, you may need to cover the treat with your hand many times before they understand. If your dog is having a really hard time, try moving the treat slightly further away from the dog to help them succeed at this exercise.

As your dog progresses you can start dropping the cookie and saying leave it instead of placing it down. You can progress by placing it closer to your dog or you can make it even harder by using yummier treats that are irresistible to your pup.

Next Step

To make it harder, you can start getting them to “leave it” with balls and different toys. Start by just gently dropping the ball and saying “leave it”, have the dog on a leash so you can stop them if they go to grab it. When you can say leave it and drop the ball without any movement from your pup (other than them looking), you’re ready to make it a bit harder.

You can progress to tossing it a few feet a way, and eventually throwing it as far as you want. If you move through they steps slowly and make sure they fully understand before moving onto the next step this is a fairly easy and one of the most important things you will ever teach! This will help them to not chase birds, squirrels, cars and even other dogs!

We use this command every single day. Whether you drop something your dog shouldn’t eat (like a pill or a grape, etc), or you see something on the trail that they shouldn’t eat (garbage, road kill, etc) or your dog spots a bird or a rabbit that they really want to chase.

Our dogs will leave anything we tell them to including their favourite ball, their best friend, or a bird mid chase, and that is the goal!

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How to create a dog that loves to learn

Marker, Praise and Release word, and how to use them!

During training we use three different, very important words. These words and method of training will help your dog not only learn faster but also enjoy every second of their training time.

If you clicker train the clicker would be your “marker word”. We use the word “yes” as our marker word, but there’s tons of words that you can choose. Choose something that is easy to say but not something you say often. It’s important that once you say “yes” reward the dog. “Yes” means “that is perfect, exactly what I wanted, you’re a genius!” so whether you’re using food or toys to reward, you must reward after using your marker word to show the dog that they did something right. You can choose whatever word you’d like but for the remainder of this post I will be using our word “yes”.

We also use a word or words for praise. This tells the dog that you’re getting close to what I want, and you’re doing good. Praise is important because it will keep your dog trying when the tricks and commands get harder. When you praise the dog, you’re telling them that the reward is coming soon, and typically they’ll try harder once they hear the praise. My main praise word is “good girl” but for the praise it’s all about the tone of voice you use. So just talk to your puppy and say whatever you want to them while they’re doing good, then when they do great you can say “yes” and feed. Just make sure you say the praise before the marker word to have the “try harder” effect on the dog. I tend to tell Petunia that she’s a genius, that she’s the “best puppy in the world” etc. Anything you say in a happy tone will tell them that they’re getting warmer to what you want!

The release word is also important. This is the word that you’ll say when they are finished a command. If you have them in a sit/ stay and you’re ready for them to move again, it’s time to use your release word to release them! We use the word “okay” but you can use anything. Some people use “free”. The important thing about the release word, is that you need to always use it when your dog is finished, otherwise they’re “stays” and everything else will start to get sloppy and unclear; you want everything to be very clear. That’s how dogs learn faster, when everything is very clear!

Marker Word

So let’s get started with teaching the marker word.

What you’ll need:

  • A hungry dog or puppy
  • Yummy treats

This part is easy, and your dog will very quickly catch on and have fun learning this. One or two sessions is all it will take for this. Simply be with your puppy and say “yes” then immediately feed your puppy. At first your puppy will be confused but be like”oh food, yay!”. Repeat over and over until your puppy hears “yes” and looks to you for food. Eventually your puppy will get excited when they hear the word “yes” and that’s when you know they’re ready to move on and start teaching other tricks using their marker word!

Praise

Praise isn’t something that necessarily has to be taught, but rather something that with everyday training they’ll get used to and learn. When you’re training everyday tricks, start praising them more and more before you feed and they’ll learn very quickly that when they hear praise, the reward is coming soon!

Release Word

The release word is an important one to teach, typically they’ll learn the release word first when learning a stay. Whenever we put our dogs in a sit, or down etc they know that they have to stay there until we release them, no matter what! We call this an automatic stay. This means, our dogs don’t really know “stay” but rather anything we say to them is considered a stay in that position until told otherwise.

So start with your dog in a sit and imediatley reward. At first you’ll reward every second, and once you’re out of treats (about 5-10 small treats) say your release word and allow them to move.

At first you have to make the word VERY clear, so you can say “okay!” and clap your hands, throw a treat, anything to make them move out of position.

Eventually you can space the treats out a bit more (every couple of seconds), then eventually less and less until they can stay for longer periods of time before you release them.

We also use the release word when feeding them supper, they can’t eat until we say “okay”, releasing them from their kennels (they are expected to stay even after we open their door), and for literally everything in their everyday life!

With the help of these training tips you should transform your dog into a very eager to please canine citizen who loves to learn and work with you!

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Teaching the lure

Teaching a puppy to lure is simple, and can be done in one or two session in most cases; but this is a skill that you can and will practice daily will your puppy over their lifetime. Start by holding a piece of food by your pups nose and move it slowly to let your puppy follow it. Once they catch up to your hand for a couple steps say “yes”, feed them the food and start over.

At the beginning make sure to feed them after a couple steps, so they don’t give up; if they give up you’re moving too fast, so go back to the beginning and feed after one or two steps. Once they know what they’re doing, you can start feeding them less often to make it more difficult. To progress you can start luring them over objects, under objects and in patterns.

We use luring to teach most, if not all of the tricks that we teach, so this is important for the puppy to fully understand!

For puppies that love eating, simply do this at meal time with their own food, after a couple meals they’ll likely understand luring. For pickier puppies get the good stuff out!

Things that even the pickiest puppies like are:

  • Cubed Cheese
  • Chopped hot dogs
  • Boiled chicken or other meat
  • Dehydrated liver
  • Roll over dog food cut up
  • Or any other treat your dog loves!

Have fun, and let us know how your puppy does!

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How to teach look

Does your pup get easily distracted? Do you ever wish they would pay more attention to you? Are they reactive?!

Teaching look is quick and easy, but this command is so important. This is how you can very quickly get your dogs attention. The more you practice this command, the better!

This command is perfect for reactive dogs. When you see a trigger for your dog, (this can be a dog, person, bike, etc) you can simply ask your dog to “look” and you should easily get your attention. You can praise and reward them when they look and slowly you’ll get a less and less reactive dog. They’ll learn to look at you rather than the thing they’re trying to react to, and eventually when they’re unsure, they’ll look to you, ready for their next command! Australian Shepherd’s are naturally reactive dogs, it’s in their DNA, so we’ve worked extra hard on making sure they aren’t reactive by teaching them “look” and automatic “looks” among other things!

So start with your dog and a bunch of yummy treats.

Say “look” and put the treat by your eyes. When they look up, say “yes” and reward.

After a few tries you can start saying “look” and wait a few seconds to see if they look at your eyes. If they look at your eyes, immediately say “yes” and feed; If not, bring the food up to your eyes again, then say “yes” and feed.

As soon as they no longer need the help of the food by your eyes, congrats, they know “look”!

We also reward often times when they make their own decision to look at us. If i’m walking with one of my dogs and they look at me for no reason, i’ll tell them how amazing they are and reward. Rewarding them for making their own decision, creates a more attentive dog!

Bonus

Once they know look, you can make it harder by saying look and having a treat somewhere other than your eyes and wait until they make the right decision to look at your eyes instead of the treat. As soon as they look at your eyes for even a second, reward!

You can try this with toys and anything else they like as well.

Once they’re good at that you start adding duration, first start 5 seconds, then 10, etc to see how long they can look at you for without looking away.

If they cannot do these, they need more practice before adding in the distractions again.

If you can say “look” and throw a toy or treat while they remain looking at you, you know they have a super strong understanding of the command.

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How to teach an amazing recall

Do you want your dog to be able to have freedom to exercise and play off leash?! We’ll tell you how!

This is the single most important command that you will ever teach your dog.

This is a life saving command, and you need it to be reliable! For pet dogs, one recall command is absolutely fine, Petunia and Myrtle being future sport dogs have many recall commands.

Before we get started I’ll explain all of their recalls and why we use more than one.

  • Come- We use “come” only during training, this means “immediately come here and sit directly in front of me, nice and straight and look up”. We use this for Rally obedience, and if we decide someday to put our dogs in obedience, it’ll be used for that as well.
  • Here- We use “here” often, this means “come here and touch my hand with your nose”, this is perfect as a check in, they don’t need to stay long, they don’t need to sit, just quick contact with us and they can go play again.
  • Let’s go- We use “let’s go” during off leash walks, this just means come in my general direction but no need to come all the way.
  • Come!
  • Here!
  • Let’s go!

We have also taught them to come check in naturally when off leash, they are expected to check in with us often, we fed them for their automatic check ins every single time until they were about 8 months old, and now being 10 months (Myrtle) and 13 months (Petunia) we still feed them about 50% of the time for checking in, the other 50% we praise them for checking in but don’t feed. Once they are older it’s important to continue rewarding them for their automatic check ins, but not nearly as often! This is how you create a perfect off leash dog!

There are many techniques to teach a recall, and we recommend using more than one! We’ve used so many techniques to teach a solid recall, it keeps it fun and exciting for the dog. We’ll explain 2 of our favourite ways down below. Teaching the recall should be the most fun your dog ever has, you want to know that your dog is going to come every single time you call. You need to learn to be more exciting than anything else to your dog, this will keep your dog interested.

Method #1

It will take so much practice to get your dog reliable off leash, but it is worth it! Start by having your dog on a leash, say “come” and back up a few steps as you lure them with a treat, as they catch up to you lift the treat up to your belly and they should naturally sit; Then say “yes” and feed. Repeat this about 1000 times, and they’ll come running and sit in front of you when you say “come”. They’ll get it after a few tries, but this is something that you can never practice enough! Eventually you can have them on a long line and wait for them to get distracted and say “come” and they should come running and sit in front of you. If they won’t get distracted (this is awesome if your dog is this attentive ) simply throw some treats away to get them to leave, then call them back to you after they are finished eating the treats!

Method #2

Another great method works best with toys, but if your dog is not toy motivated, it can also be done with treats. You’ll need 2 people for this one, a long line, and a toy on a string.

So get your helper to hold the dog on a long line but by the collar so they can’t get far, you’ll take the toy and tease the dog with it a little bit, make them really want that toy! Then you’ll leave and stop about half the length of the long line, turn to look at your dog and say “come” or whatever word you’d like to use and get your helper to release the dog, once they start coming drop the toy (while holding onto the string) and run away while dragging the toy and get the dog to catch the toy.

If you’re using treats simply tease them with the treat, then go then call them, run away then reward with the treat when they catch you.

IMPORTANT

The most important thing about teaching a good recall is, never let your dog off leash fully until they are reliably coming back every single time. Keep your dog on a long line so you can grab them if needed. Taking them off the long line too early can cause them to make the wrong decision and not come when called. If they learn to do that, it’ll set you back in your training and they can start playing “catch me if you can”. The goal is to never let it get to that point, but if that’s where you and your dog already are, then the above methods with the long line can help fix your recall as well!

Tell us which method is your favourite!

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Teaching the head down

Step 1: With your dog in a lay down place your hand near your dog’s chin and lure your dog’s chin into your head. Once your dog is touching your hand with their chin say “yes” and feed. Repeat until your dog seems to understand.

Step 2: Once your dog sees your hand and anticipates putting their head in it, you can add the word. You can use any word or phrase you’d like, but I just say “head down”. Now say “head down” and show your hand, once the put their head down, reward.

Step 3: Once they get it with your hand, start trying it with something else like a stuffy or pillow. Place them in a down with the stuffy or pillow between their front legs and say “head down” and point to the ground. As soon as they place their head down, reward!

Step 4: Remove both the stuffy or pillow and your hand now and just say “head down” and point to the ground. They should now put their head down between their front paws on the ground. As soon as their head touching the ground, reward!

Step 5: Now you’ll start fading the pointing to the ground. Say “head down”, wait a few seconds and if needed point to the ground. Once they put their head down with verbal only, and don’t need to help, they know “head down”!

You can now start practicing in different locations and putting their head on different objects. Once they will do it anywhere, we consider it a finished trick!

Comment and let us know what tricks you’d like tutorials for!