Re: Stay progress As gad says start doing them outside, but reduce the time and then build up the time again before moving on to another level of difficulty. Things to try are: - stays in your back yard - it the front of your house - down the street a bit - at a local park (no dogs or people around) - at the local park (people in the distance) - at the local park (dogs and people in the distance) - stays in your backyard with you moving about, jumping, turning your back, tying your shoelace When you make one thing more complex (distraction) make everything else easier. Think about the complexity of an exercise being a combination of: - distraction - distance (how far you are from the dog, how far the distraction is from the dog) - duration (how long you expect the dog to hold the position or continue the behaviour) When you increase distraction, reduce distance (stand closer) and duration (make the stay shorter).
Re: Stay progress Thanks Rachael. As a result of repeated watching of Mrs Kikopup's videos we've already done a fair bit of "stays in your backyard with you moving about, jumping, turning your back, tying your shoelace". And boy did I feel like a pillock (especially with the head tilt and quizzical look from Harvey)! The things we do for our dogs
Re: Stay progress Ah, if you are making a fool of yourself you are doing the training thing right We do little stays in a lot of places on walks - just 20-30 second ones or less. That's a good way to build in a whole raft of distractions you can't plan for (birds flying over, a loud car, different surfaces underfoot).
Re: Stay progress That's brilliant! Well done! Max and I are working on this too. I've managed to get to the end of the kitchen (which is about 10ft) but outside we're still at the beginning with only seconds. It's all a work in progress - now if I could just sort his lead pulling out lol
Re: Stay progress Me again with some further progress ... 1. Up until now I have been using an approximation for Harvey's Stay times as my usual watch doesn't have a second hand. The approximation went along the lines of One one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand ... one hundred and eighty one thousand. Well this morning I wore my watch with a chronograph and timed him properly - we were closer to 3 1/2 minutes so I pushed our luck and managed 4 minutes 2. By way of a brief introduction for this part - Harvey loves chasing pigeons. It's not something that we have encouraged but when he is outside they sometimes decide to land and, well, he wants to say 'Hello'! So, working on the distractions objective that was suggested we were doing a stay on the patio in the back garden (lot's of interesting sounds and smells to distract a young labrador). Having taken 5 paces away from Harvey after giving the Sit command my view of the back garden was screened by a large plant. We got to 90 seconds (although see above for my approximation of this!) and I could see that he was really struggling so I decided to 'bank' the progress to this point and returned to give him his release cue ('Free'). It was only after doing this, and watching his hasty departure, that I noticed that a pigeon had landed on the lawn about 15 feet away from Harvey! He'd remained in his Stay despite the pigeon's arrival. I was amazed and pleased in equal measure 8) I'm so pleased with the little chap I keep wondering around with a stupid grin on my face and telling anybody foolish enough to show even the remotest interest
Re: Stay progress Woohoo ;D 2 minutes (although only 3 paces away) at training class tonight - with other dogs breaking their stays and running around and people shouting left, right and centre. Harv didn't move an inch 8) (On the downside he pulled like a train while on his lead walking among the other dogs but one battle at a time )
Re: Stay progress Wow, well done everyone!!! Remember to take it slow in extending stays - the name of the game is for the dog to never make a mistake and break before you end the stay. If they break, you made it too hard and the mistake is really on you
Re: Stay progress Well, two steps forward one step back. Or is it the other way around : In the house (minimal distractions) we've managed a 10 minute 'down' stay, including 4 different 1 minute out of sight sections. He'll also stay quite happily while I throw his favourite toys right past him or, better yet, squeek a squeeky before throwing it, and then walk around him in circles (this took a while to build up as he really wasn't happy with me walking behind him initially). We've also managed 1 minute out of sight sections of longer stays in the back garden. And a 2 minute stay at 20 paces in the field where Harv is allowed off lead on our walk. Very happy with all of that. ... Went to a new training class tonight (just to keep adding to the 'something new' for Harv so he gets to experience different things, different people and different dogs). We'd been the previous week as a trial run and Harv had behaved brilliantly. Plus points: * Harv had great fun getting know Sadie the GSD as we sat waiting for the class to start * His heel work was hugely improved (we've made a real effort on this recently) with lots of loose lead walking and comparatively little pulling/lunging. * Managed a down stay while I walked around the room (although he did move from down to sit just before I returned so it was probably a little too much for him in a new location with new distractions) Negative points: * Harv got a little hyper (wild popping eyes and jumping up/mouthing) and I couldn't get him to stay long enough to even attempt the a-recall that we were trying to achieve. * I felt quite disappointed. I know its down to me expecting too much but I really thought he'd do this (especially as he did it perfectly the week before when things were completely new). Sigh. Back to the proofing drawing board. : Anybody else working on Stay?
Re: Stay progress I'd say there is more good in there UB so don't feel despondent....I think the key is as you said it yourself,a NEW training class,I think in the circumstances he did really well. I'm working on a settle at the moment as I'm wanting to build up to take Dexter to sit outside one of the very few cafés I found that will allow dogs outside......the house is fine and he's settling very well on his garden bed now .....added distractions of my niece and nephew have been introduced and he managed to stay put last eve while they ate their pizza at more or less his eye level.....so into the front garden when it cools down ,looking like a numpty to passers by sitting by the fence ;D I might get a coffee by Christmas ;D With our Stay ,Dexter still shuffles around when I walk around him,if he's in a sit he will stay but just shuffle....if he is in a down he will stay put in the place but he tends to get up into a sit.....it's the usual story with me,just something we do for activity and fun so I've not really done anything about it but I'll see if I can fix it now you've brought the topic up and made me think about it ;D
Re: Stay progress Some dogs will always shuffle or move round in a sit to watch you and as long as they don't move off their spot I don't worry about it. If you're doing obedience it will probably matter though. I think learning to settle is so important and I wish I'd realised that earlier and spent time on it
Re: Stay progress I think it's so easy to underestimate the impact of changing location - what dogs will do in the garden, or in a familiar training field, they often jut won't do in a new room with new dogs. I do think they get better, and new places don't have quite the same impact, but it's a really strong effect at first. Charlie's lead walking is good, really quite good - I've done months of work. But he still pulled - just at first - when I went to that new communication class, with loads of new dogs, a couple of weeks ago. The trainer told me to put him on a harness until I trained him to walk on a loose lead. I had difficulty not answering through gritted teeth.... ;D ;D ;D
Re: Stay progress We're working on stay, but it sounds as if you're further ahead! One thing that has helped is rewarding Molly with either a retrieve or some other game after the stay as she seems to value this more than a food reward and I think is beginning to make the link that stay = play.
