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jelly8bean
01-19-2009, 04:38 PM
Anyone doing active training? Any sucess stories? I'm finally starting to break thru on the stand and the stand/stay. Here is what I'm following..(got some great internet advice from a Rally group).

Okay, here are some specific stay suggestions. You say you use a
clicker. So do 300 peck. What is 300 peck? It's coined from work that
Bob Bailey and his wife used to do with chickens, but basically it's a
way to increase duration in a way that is logical and planned for the
human, and random yet reinforcing for the dog.

So. First start with you standing right by her and ask for the stand.
Count to 1, click, then treat. If she breaks the stand when you click
that's okay, but if you can treat in position that's super too. Now
sit her, count to two, click/treat. Count to 3, click/treat. Count to
4, click/treat. And so on. Your object here is to be able to count to
300 without her moving. You don't want to try to do this in a single
session. Five minutes at a time at most, see where you get.

At some point, she's going to break the stand by herself while you're
still counting and before you've gotten to your next number. Let's say
you are able to count to 25, but when you try going to 26, she breaks
before you get there. Now this is the really important part. GO BACK
TO 1. Start ALL over. Thus, the next time, you just count to 1 and she
gets a click/treat, and build her back up. This will really reinforce
her and keep her in the game. Now if you're up to 100 and she breaks
you don't have to go all the way back to 1, you can go back to, say,
50. It sounds really time intensive I think you'll be surprised at how
fast it goes.

Once you have DURATION, you can add DISTANCE. So you've got her
sitting to a count of 300 with you right by her. Now ask for the stand,
take a single step away, take a step back, click/treat. Two steps
away, two steps back, C/T. And so on, just like the thing you just did
except you're adding distance to the duration. You go away for half
the count and come back for half the count.

Once you can leave her, walk across the room, and come back, then you
can start leaving her, walking across the room, standing, then coming
back. So let's say it takes you 30 steps to walk from one end of the
room to the other. You'll be at that point on a count of 60. 30 steps
out, 30 steps back, C/T. Next time take 30 steps out, pause for a
count of 1, 30 steps back. In this example you'd keep that up until
you could go out 30 steps, pause for a count of 240, and return 30
steps.

One last note. When you're working on duration (vs distance), don't be
completely motionless. You can start that way, but then start adding
some body and hand movements in, and even start walking around the
dog, just staying close. You don't want the dog to cue that any
physical motion from you can release them.


It's Working!!! Yeah!

Sue J
01-21-2009, 02:11 PM
Yeah Jelly8bean! You are really putting in a lot of effort on this. I might have missed it, but are you simply training for "pet" obedience or do you plan to enter you dogs in events?

jelly8bean
01-21-2009, 02:24 PM
I am working on training two of my pups for events. My rottie is going to do Rally obedience and my Indigo (young blue dobie) I hope to do agility. Yes, it is alot of effort up front - but with 3 large dogs I have to have some serious paying attention going on around here. So why not go for the gusto and compete? Then I have a clear goal and it is also excellent exercise for their brains, gives me a great bond (spending one on one time with each) and is alot of fun as well.

Sue J
01-21-2009, 03:01 PM
I applaud your work and commitment.

SnuzerDog
01-26-2009, 10:41 PM
Way to go! I hope to be able to follow your example. As I've said in some other threads, just getting going with the clicker, although I guess it's been nearly two months now... but it's going good. Just came in from the nightly walk; still working on a good loose leash with distractions, and have also started varying speeds and throwing in random turns, circles, stops, etc. Kind of fun watching him sort it out and get excited when he gets it! That's my thrill right now.;)