Puppy Recalls, leave its, stays and more

Mar 13

There is a lot going on this week as we move on with our foundations in all the classes! Here are some of the next exercises we will be working on in classes this week. Remember we are working on these together in the group classes and this is just to give you a head start to get familiar with what we are doing in class, so it’s ok if you don’t get to all of these before classes! And the Foundation exercises are split between two classes 🙂.

Foundations:

PUPPY RECALL GAME:

Show your puppy a piece of food
Give it a toss for your pup to chase
After they eat the treat give your clear recall cue “come” (or whatever you choose)
When they get to you, feed them a treat, giving them affection and praise as you do
Then toss another piece of food
Repeat the loop 4-6 times
If they offer a sit when they get to you that’s great, but it’s not required!

STAYS:

First we work on staying right by us until we get our reward & release in
Once our puppy can stay at our side for 20 seconds then we start working on movement
Start with 1 Step away at a time, always leading the outside foot! (foot furthest away from dog)
Once you can step away one step laterally, work in every direction, one step ahead, one step behind, one step in front, etc

Adding some movement to a stay

adding some trainer movement forward on a stay

adding lateral steps in all directions on a stay

LEAVE IT:

Have treats in both hands (use the same treats in each hand)
Present one treat in an open hand
BEFORE dog has a chance to reach for the food, present food from your other hand right at dog’s nose
Keep repeating until dog starts to anticipate that food will make treats come from the other hand so they stop moving towards the food in the open hand.
Add your “leave it” cue AS you give the treat, this will pair “leave it” with getting food from another source and create a head turn away from the food when they hear it.
Repeat the above steps but with putting food on the ground.
Be sure to put food on ground where you can easily get food to their mouth before they reach for the food on the floor.
If they go for the food on the ground don’t fight it, just let them win, then go back to having it in your open hand. You don’t want to create a game of who is faster (spoiler alert- they are 😂)

Leave it in your open hand

Adding your leave it cue

bringing food to the ground

HEELING:

Even if you don’t want to teach formal heeling, to work on loose leash walking we will start by teaching the basics of heeling to get the focus we want for nice walking
Have treats in your hand, show dog what you have and work to try and hold their eyes on you as you take just ONE step, if they step with you, reward
Hold hands up, not in a lure in front of their face, hold the treats sort of near your belly button.
When you give the treat do so with the hand closest to dog
increase your steps! But start inside the house where there are few distractions

moving one step with focus!

Moving around the house together

Reactivity

PARKOUR: (THIS IS ALSO A GOOD EXERCISE FOR ANY BED GUARDING DOGS)

Having your dog know how to and enjoy jumping up onto things can be a great way to manage reactive situations! Many times I have had Nick sit on a bench behind me as I have intercepted loose dogs.
Start with something low and easy, like putting their front paws up on a stool, an ottoman, upside down bucket, etc
Once they can confidently put their front feet on move to trying to get all four feet up, make sure the spot is big enough to support them.
When they will hop on something you indicate like a deck, ottoman, chair, add your cue (up, get on, hop up, etc)
Then also work on the cue for getting off, you can start when they still only have their front feet on, just say “off” (or whatever cue you wish- don’t use your release cue) and toss a treat for them to go get off and on the ground.

teaching getting on and off a bench on a walk

TUCK & TREAT

This one is basically our magnet hand but stationary instead of moving
Pick an object to be your imaginary trigger (in the video you will see me using Em as mine decoy)
Practice stepping between the trigger and your dog’s head and using your treat delivery to hold them in that spot
This is fantastic for things like being stuck in a tight space with triggers, like a waiting area, waiting for the elevator to open, waiting as something walks past you in a tighter passage

Tucking my dog to a magnet hand, using my body as a visual shield

POSITIONS: MIDDLE & SIDE

Being able to guide your dog to specific positions allows you to better use your body to cut off visual triggers
Being able to guide your dog to specific positions allows you to more easily handle stressful situations

MIDDLE:

Have treats
Toss a treat behind you
As soon as the dog finishes that treat reach down between your legs and show them a treat in your hand for them to come get.
If they are worried about coming through your legs at first, just drop some treats closer behind you so they are getting rewarded for coming a little closer.
Some dogs have space issues and might take some time to get comfortable coming into that space, for those dogs we can also work on a spin and back into the middle.

teaching middle

Breaking it down to smaller steps for a dog nervous about coming through your legs

Doing middle from front

SIDE:

Treats in the hand of the side you want to bring dog to
Step back with the foot on the side you are bringing them to
Use your treat to pull them as far back behind you as you can
Once they are back at your hand as far back as it goes, step that foot back forward as you draw the dog up to your side
Work BOTH sides!

Dawn Mellon