Dog Training: A Step-by-Step Guide to Building a Solid Obedience Dog
Have you ever seen the “dream teams” in the obedience ring and sighed, “I wish I had THAT dog!” Guess what, you have that dog: he goes home with you every day and he goes to practice with you whenever he can! Your dog can be a strong performer if he follows a few simple rules.
Rule number one
Every time you are with your dog, you are training it. If your dog ignores you in the yard when you call him home, why would you think he’d come to an obedience test when there are a million interesting distractions around?
rule number two
Motivation is everything. In fact. If the dog isn’t enjoying working with you, you can pass the CD title, but the chances of passing Open or Utility aren’t that good. Your dog needs to LOVE work.
rule number three
Don’t go into a trial until your dog is really ready. That means you can work at the dog park, in parking lots, near a playground full of kids, or near a baseball game…and the dog doesn’t lose focus.
Let’s look at a couple of “challenging” behaviors (not coincidentally, these are duration behaviors).
Lurch
The heel is the first behavior your dog is asked to perform every time you enter the obedience ring. It is the behavior in which you spend most of your “acting time”. It’s also inherently boring. So how do you make it “not boring”? Consider the “rewards of life.” What is your dog distracted by? Can you make that a reward for a good click? Are squirrels in your garden keeping your dog from working? Try a few heel steps followed by “catch the squirrel!” (Assuming, of course, that your dog cannot capture the squirrel.) How about the dog playing ball in the park? Ask for a little heel work and then get your own ball out! Train with your dog’s best friend: Heel, heel, let’s play!
Also remember that every time you allow your dog’s attention to drift while he’s stumbling around, you’re training him to tune out. If your dog’s attention wanders away from you, stop right there. Remind him what he is supposed to do and start over. After you have had a “corrective moment” (this is not a “correction”, just stopping the activity to remind the dog), take a few steps and then reward with games or treats, whichever is better than distraction for your dog. . Don’t send the dog to the distraction right away, but keep it in mind for a future reward!
To stay
The key to a solid stay is to add time and distractions before adding distance. Staying is another inherently boring behavior, so you don’t want your dog to learn to reward himself (running around the room is much more fun than standing still for three minutes). Plan your work stay. Increase the difficulty one criterion at a time.
So let’s say you’re going to work on time today (that’s one of the criteria). Go from 5 seconds to 15 seconds, then 9 seconds, then 25 seconds. Sometimes it’s harder (your goal is 5 minutes), sometimes it’s easier. Do not always increase the duration, your dog will not have fun with it, sometimes it is very easy, sometimes it is difficult.
Once your stay is up to 1 minute, start working on distractions (that’s your next criteria). Go back to 5 to 15 seconds with another dog working in the room, start increasing your time with that level of distraction. When you get back to a minute or more, make the distraction harder (a dog playing ball across the room) and lower your time criteria again.
Only when your dog has up to 3-4 minutes of stay with lots of heavy distractions is it time to start weaning him. Same idea as before, start small (one or two steps away) with little time and minimal distractions. Don’t increase all criteria at once, add more distance OR more time OR more distractions. Yes, it takes time to build a solid foundation to stay on, but it’s worth it when you get to the ring and you can relax once you get through the individual exercises!
Building a solid foundation takes time. But if you prepare and systematically build a solid foundation, your “house of heels” will survive the “stress of the ring” when you start competing!