Hello Paw-lite Manners Pet Degree Class!

Here is your continued practice Homework for Week 6 of Paw-lite Manners 101.

  • Loose Leash Walking (please see your instructions and video from Week 4)
    Goal for this week: Your dog will be able to Loose Leash Walk in your home with distractions.
    Graduates of Puppy Pet Degree: Your dog will be able to Loose Leash Walk in your yard or near your building with distractions.

NOTE: Distractions you can try are someone tossing and catching a ball a few feet away or someone squeaking a toy from across the room. Be creative. What is your dog most distracted by? How can you start incorporating that into your training at a level he or she is still successful?

NOTE: You can start out by luring if your dog is standing up in between positions. The next step would be to fade the lure and reward after each behavior: Sit>Treat>Down>Treat. Then you can start rewarding after the combination of the two behaviors: Sit>Down>Treat. And then you can start rewarding after the combination of four behaviors. Sit>Down>Sit>Down>Treat.

  • Maintain/Stay (please refer to the instructions and video below)
    Goal for this week: Your dog will maintain a Sit and a Down with a distance of 5 feet for 10 seconds. Return to your dog to Release him or her.
    Graduates of Puppy Pet Degree: Your dog will maintain a Sit and a Down with a distance of 5 feet for 20 seconds. Return to your dog to Release him or her.
    (at 3:30): Video: The easiest, most reliable SIT STAY – sit stay training sit stay fun! | By: Kikopup

    • Stay with Duration
      When adding the Three Ds, we recommend starting with Duration while intermittently rewarding your dog. For example, you may ask your dog to do a 15-second Down-Stay. Before expecting your dog to maintain that Stay for 15 whole seconds, you should reinforce after every couple of seconds for continuing to maintain the behavior. Over time, you can slow down your rate of reinforcement and extend the length of time steadily. The key is to vary the length of time in between rewards. If your goal is 15 seconds, then you should not try to increase the length of time all at once. For example, you may reward after 3 seconds, then 6 seconds, then 5 seconds, then 8 seconds, then 2 seconds, then 10 seconds, and so forth. Dogs don’t realize that we are slowly increasing the length of time if we keep them guessing about when we are going to provide reinforcement.
    • Stay with Distance
      Next, we recommend adding Distance. Distance can be as simple as just leaning away from your dog or as complex as turning your back on your dog and walking completely out of sight. It’s important to start this process small and make it very simple because most of the foundation skills we teach dogs are taught right in front of you. When you begin adding Distance to any skill for the first time, it is common for dogs to become confused or to require a slow approach.
      One warm up exercise for beginning to add distance is to place one foot behind you and just lean backwards. After one second lean back with your posture straight up again and then reinforce your dog. It’s important to reinforce after every repetition to help your dog comprehend that no matter what you are doing, the required behavior is to just stay in position. It is okay to ask your dog to Stay again in between each repetition in the beginning, but ideally you should be working up to only cueing the Stay once and your dog understanding that he or she should remain in position until the Release cue is given.
      If you can lean to the side and back, then you can move on to taking one quick step backwards and then returning to right in front of your dog. Again, reinforce your dog for maintaining the Stay. Repeat the simple exercises until you can take two steps backwards and return or until you can turn your back on your dog for one second and then turn back around to face him or her the next second. If your dog gets out of the Stay at any time, simply re-cue the behavior and make sure you are not moving too fast. Multiple mishaps might mean you are adding too much Duration and Distance at once.
      Continue to add more and more steps as time goes on, but remember that building Duration, Distance, and Distractions into your dog’s obedience skills can take time and patience.

NOTE: Remember, when you add new criteria, you should lower other criteria to make it easier for your dog. For example, if your dog has a great 20 second Sit-Maintain, you should lower the duration to 10 seconds initially when you’re ready to add distance.

  • Leave It (please see the instructions below, continuing where you left off in Week 3)
    Goal for this week: Your dog will be able to leave dropped treats on the ground.
    Graduates of Puppy Pet Degree: Your dog will be able to leave dropped treats from 2 feet off the ground without putting your foot over it more than once.

    • In this step, we will increase the value of the source to add more difficulty. Make sure your reward is as valuable or more valuable than the one you are asking your dog to leave. You can also begin asking your dog to leave a favorite toy, like a ball or a flirt pole. Make sure you start out simple. You may even have to go back a few steps initially and work up to tossing the Leave It item on the floor.
    • In Step 6, toss a high value treat or toy on the ground about ten feet away from you and your dog and then practice walking past it. It helps if you have a second person that can assist you with managing the resource (i.e., covering it up), but if you are working solo, begin walking past the Leave It item with a distance of at least six feet between the dog and the source. Gradually move closer to it until you can walk over it. As you grow closer, make sure you are ready to put your foot over the source if your dog tries to go for it. If someone is available to help, they can begin adding movement to the source as you walk by.

Try to set aside 15 minutes a day (or 3 five minute sessions a day) to set your dog up for success and meet your homework goals for this week.

Please let us know if you have any questions or if there is anything you need more clarification on.

See you in class next week!

Happy Training!