Today Ella was a complete star. We lined up 20 dogs at training so that we could practice our stays. We did 2 lots of the 1min sit stay and a 3min down stay with us standing about 10-15m away from our dogs and dogs positioned about 1m apart. Ella did not move a muscle!! So proud! On the first sit stay, the dogs on either side of her broke. One walked straight to their owner and the other one did zoomies around the group . We were allowed to keep talking to our dogs ( not trial conditions) so I just kept a calm voice and told her how well she was doing. Then, in the down stay, 6 dogs broke together and ran laps around us! Most owners returned to their dogs but I took one look at Ella and thought "you've got this " and stuck it out! Anyway, sorry for rambling on but it was a good day
That is just fantastic! Great you had the confidence in Ella being rock solid. I've seen how hard this was for Coco last week - 5 dogs in a circle, facing inwards, down stay. Handlers step back 5 paces. 3 dogs broke & played. Coco looked around and saw them playing - decided to join in - OH should have talked to him in his down stay I think. He did better on the next go. Only 2 broke and went back to their owners. Coco and the other 3 stayed ("only" a 30 second stay I think).
The longest 30 seconds of your life! In a circle, facing inwards sounds really tough! Ella would be trying to convince the others to play with her
Well done! Very challenging with other dogs doing zoomies! I am finding sit-stays the bane of my life right now, so very impressed! Any tips on how you approached this?
Ella was awful with stays as she felt she needed to be by my side all of the time I just introduced stays into all parts of our life. We got home in the car and I put her in a stay as I unloaded the car. We got back from a walk and I put her in a stay (out of sight) as I put her poo bag in the bin. I put her in a stay as I unloaded the dishwasher etc. Our trainer also taught us to walk around them a lot to help increase the distance. So we'd put them in any position, leave and walk x distance in front, turn around, walk back and past them, stand behind them for a moment (varying distances), return back to them, leave again etc. to make it as normal as possible. Ella has always been nervous in the stays so our trainer had me breaking the stay part way through to return, reward and leave again for the remainder of the stay. All of this together has helped.
Oh, I'm yet to find anything that makes them more interesting to train! 3 minutes of standing still, doing nothing, is soooooooooo boring
Very impressive! If you walk behind Ella, does she turn around? My criteria is that they have to stay in the same spot, but are allowed to rotate, so if I were to walk in a circle around them, they'd keep shuffling around to face me. This is because I want them to always be watching me. Is it the same in an obedience stay, or does she need to stay glued to the same position she started in?
Great work Ella, that's amazing as so many dogs broke their sit which is very inviting to other dogs. I would be really proud Emily xx
Glued in the same spot, although she often turns her head to have a peak Most people (including me) find this hard to train as your dog naturally wants to turn with you. The other one I found tricky to train was to walk out in front and stop but keep facing forward, with your back to your dog. I can't tell you how many times I've looked down to see Ella sitting at heel, tail wagging
@snowbunny here's a mini stand stay. I left her and walked around the coffee table. You can see that she didn't move her feet but she watched me the whole time.
