Hi Me again - sorry. I am trying to teach Alfie to stop by developing my sit command - is this the right thing to do or should I teach an entirely different command? Also Alfie will stop and sit when coming towards me now but I am not sure how to develop this to train a stop when he is moving away from me. Any help you can offer is always well appreciated! Thanks Rebecca and Alfie
I think the whistle is your friend with the stop - not least because when you want to stop at a distance your voice may not be heard. What I do is introduce the stop as a new cue to the sit. So, like everything, new cue - old cue. This means blowing the whistle then giving my visual sit cue (not at the same time). Eventually fading the visual cue. So, stop now means sit. Great. Then, when your puppy is a little way (a couple of feet) from you, blow the whistle and your pup should turn to look - put your hand straight in the air in a "stop" sign. It may help to have a treat or a ball in there; the ball really worked for my two other Labs. At this stage, you may have to give your old cue again for sit, but that's OK. Repeat and fade. Then, simply build up the distance. Some people say always reward behind the dog when you're working on the stop, so they don't start creeping forwards. Other say it doesn't matter where you deliver the reward, as long as you mark the sit at the right time, with your clicker or verbal event marker. As far as getting him moving away from you, it's really handy to train targeting, either of a post or a placeboard. When you have the behaviour of him running away from you, you can start blowing your stop at the target, or on the way to it. Just ensure that you do more repetitions of him running to target without stopping than with, otherwise he'll start anticipating the stop, which you don't want. As my trainer says, "anticipate anticipation"
Thanks Snowbunny. I think i'm always using your traing tips. Alfie loves the food on the floor turn and run back, more food and repeat, and it seems to be helping with his recall .
I've learnt - and continue to learn - from far wiser people than me, so just passing on things that have worked on my way!
