Doing some work on stay today - munchkin has struggled with this due to his desire to be attached to the hip so I’m very very pleased with this
That looks good! I remember our trainer was quite clear on the hand command being given, then not continued. So, give the flat palm that means "stay" then put the hand down, move your 1,3,5yrd or whatever distance, then do a recall. Otherwise you might teach them that they are to stay when the hand is up, which I don't think you want going forward. I think that was it, anyway! It's a while ago now
Also, to begin with, get the dog in a sit/stay or lie/stay and move back to them. Then you reward them for the stay, not the recall.
I’m working on that! The problem I’ve got is that the second he hears the click he is ‘released’ from whatever I’ve asked him to do and he wants his treat NOW. I suppose I could click when I get back to him? It’s literally only yesterday and today I’ve managed to get even 2 steps away - usually he is superglued to my side. He won’t stay without the hand at the moment, even if I lower the hand halfway he’s off like a shot
Maybe I need to start delaying the click to the treat? Although he’s only 11 weeks... I’m not sure if that’s too soon?
Yes, Jac is right, don’t continue with your stay cue for the whole duration. Give it once and then take it away. Some of us don’t even use a stay cue and just expect a sit to mean “sit and stay until released”. So you should think about what your cues actually mean; if you want to use a stay cue that’s fine, but what does it mean if you say sit without the stay? Definitely don’t recall regularly from the sit, or you build anticipation for that recall which can cause him to break his stay. You’d only want to be recalling once in a while. Watching your video, I see the click releases him, which is fine, but you should remember that a dog is reinforced for everything that happens between the marker and the delivery, so you have to think carefully about that delivery. You have a couple of options here; you could walk back before clicking or you could click and immediately throw the treat to him. I tend to do the former.
If he won’t stay without the hand then you’re progressing too quickly. Go back to just shifting your weight back slightly. Keep the reinforcement very high. From Susan Friedman: “Keep your cues small and your reinforcers big”
Right got it. Totally get what you mean now and can recognise where I’m confusing him. I don’t mind the click releasing him as (to me) it means he’s recognising the click as a ‘good job’ and I deliberately didn’t recall him once I had clicked but just let him wander over, but having watched the video I can see he is uncertain when he’s walking towards me as he’s not sure if he’s meant to be or not.
I think that is where a video helps - either yourself watching a video - or someone else observing. Everything has to be broken down into small steps to begin with, and sometimes we think we are only doing one thing, when in fact it is 2 or 3, and the dog doesn't which thing is the good thing, or worse, thinks its something different to what you think it is!
Jabs today! That means in a week I can stop carrying him around! Which honestly is a welcome relief for my poor arms lol
We went to a puppy party today! It was so much fun. Maslow had an amazing time and then slept for an hour lol Interestingly he was much more drawn to the chocolate lab (which my other half, who doesn’t ‘do’ dogs) now wants one!) to play with than any of the other dogs such as the Great Dane etc!
And just because he’s so cute honestly he only lasted 20 minutes because I wanted it to be a positive experience so chucked in a few recalls etc. After that time he was much more interested in me than he was anything else so we took him out and gave him a nice chew and then he slept the whole way home
Pepper did that too at one of his first socialisation classes. We just laughed and realised it’s always the Labrador owners who seem to be embarrassed by their puppies. Nowdays he’s too busy playing to think about humping! Brings back some memories of Pepper at that age, compared to his play group this morning which is only a month later, where the five labradors were rather boisterous with one another, but interestingly were much more calm with the other puppies.
Oh! Stanley's all teeny tiny like Joy was at that age! Sweetie pie! Of course the big ones are also sweetie pies!
Morning! From Leo (12y) and Maslow (12w) I needed to find something to entertain myself seeing as apparently 5am is a totally reasonable time to wake up. The birdies are awake after all. *contemplates shooting a pigeon M
