Tag: how to

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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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Growing Panda’s hair

Every month I will share how our experience is going with growing Panda Bear’s hair out. He’s a 7 year old havanese, who’s had many different hair styles in his life, but never had it fully grown out!

For those of you who don’t know, a Havanese is a toy breed of dog usually ranging between 7-13 lbs, although it can vary. Their hair can range from silky/straight to wavy to curly. They don’t shed, therefore need to be groomed on a regular basis to keep their hair tangle free and in good condition. Most people will get them shaved or trimmed, but if they are shown in the conformation ring they must have their hair grown out nearly to the ground and untrimmed. They are part of the Bichon family which includes breeds such as the Bichon Frise and Maltese; unlike those breeds, they come in a variety of colours. Their temperament is happy, outgoing and very trainable, these dogs love to entertain and are often referred to as velcro dogs because they love to be with their humans.

Panda Bear is a 7 year old Havanese, he is not registered, nor is he well bred, but we love him to death anyway! I got him as my second havanese, when I was about to graduate high school, before I knew anything about well bred dogs and good breeders! He is curly coated, which is unfavourable in terms of showing, as it is much harder to grow and keep maintained. He’s slightly large for his breed, weighing in at 14 lbs.

Panda has allergies that we are constantly trying to get under control with a raw food, chicken free diet, fish oil, other supplements and special medicated shampoo during bath time. He has been unintentionally growing his hair out for a couple months since I couldn’t decide what to do for his haircut this time. His allergies have been flaring up a bit lately, so I have decided to start his weekly bath routine up again. I think I’ve finally lost my mind, because I’ve decided this is the perfect opportunity to grow him out and see how it looks!

Weekly grooming routine:

What you’ll need:

  • A willing dog
  • Shampoo, conditioner and detangler specially made for dogs
  • A bath or sink depending on the size of your dog
  • A grooming table or somewhere safe to groom your dog
  • A slicker brush and comb
  • A high velocity dryer
  • Clippers and a 10 blade
  • Thinning shears, straight shears and curved shears
  • Lots of treats

I always start with the bath so he’s clean and dry before I start the grooming process. I use a generous amount of shampoo and scrub him well paying special attention to his itchy areas, such as his paws. I allow him to soak in medicated shampoo for 10 minutes, then rinse thoroughly and use a generous amount of conditioner. I then allow him to soak for a few more minutes before rinsing him a final time. Once rinsed I wrap him in a towel and bring him back to my grooming table to get blown out. Before I start drying him, I spray him with a detangler.

*I always use lots of treats during grooming to keep him happy and make grooming a positive experience.*

I dry him with my high velocity dryer, this is his least favourite part of grooming, so I use the majority of his treats during this part. I make sure he is extremely dry as it straightens his curls and allows me to brush him out easier.

Once he’s dry I start with the slicker brush all over his body. Then I take my comb and comb out all of his hair, starting at his head, and going to his tail. There should be no hair untouched and there should be no tangles at all.

For trimming, all I do currently is his sanitary trim, trim by his eyes, shave his paw pads, and lightly shape his feet; then I trim and grind his nails. Once he’s done, I give him more cookies and let him go about his day!

Subscribe so you don’t miss any posts! There’ll be monthly updates on how Panda’s hair is looking, let’s see how long it can get before I give up and trim him!

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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.