I worked with my pup to sit and stay with a frozen Kong (filled with frozen food and a bit of peanut butter)in front of him until I released him with great success until now. Now he will sit and look at it and will not get it when I release him. He still enjoys the Kong when I hand it to him, just a little confused as to why he would all the sudden regress. Any thoughts/ suggestions would be appreciated.
Hi @RyanO Does your dog know what the release cue means? And how does your dog know that it is okay to get the Kong from the floor? If you only ever pass it to your dog, then I think you have confused your dog. Why do you say regress?
I agree with Michael, it sounds like your pup doesn't understand the Release Word thoroughly. You can work on this by asking for a stay and reinforcing during it, then saying 'ok' and rolling a treat on the floor for the pup to chase. The pup can't do that until they hear the 'ok' (if that's your release word of course). Most problems with stays are really problems with Release Words.
I say regress because he had it down. I was introducing duration and distance by s It is almost as if he thinks he is not allowed it. What has me confused is the fact that he had it down pat, he understood the release cue so I was adding duration to the stay and this seems to be where he fell off track.
I'm not sure whàt is the missing word. The absence of a comma may be revealing to why problems are evidently emerging. You should only increase one criterion at a time, and initially make the exercise less demanding.
I think he has probably just over-generalised the concept: You practised self-control loads and reinforced it a lot and so now he is offering it to you all the time, even when you might not want it. It's not a huge problem to have, you just need to give your Release Word and then immediately encourage him to get the thing, so he learns that when he hears that word he is allowed to stop the self-control.
