DOG Training TOYS

The stays

When training your dog to stay in the sit position, which is an extension of the sit in heelwork, as soon as the ‘stay’ command is given you should step around to face your dog. This keeps him looking at you and in the same straight line on which he had been walking at heel. Having returned and praised your dog, heel it forward in the same straight line. You should do exactly the same with the drop stay and later the stand stay position.

After so much experience, dogs get to know what the next part of an exercise is likely to be. When these three stays have been firmly instilled in your dog’s mind, i.e. to keep straight without turning or flopping over to one side or the other, you can then start moving around in front of your dog and they should remain with their bodies facing in the same straight line. Don’t hurry into it. Do it very gradually. When returning to your dog, return by the same way you left it.

Don’t return by walking around the back of your dog until you know it is quite stable, otherwise it is likely to twist around and get up. Basic training for a guide dog It may interest many to know that the first exercise a guide dog learns is to lead out slightly ahead of the trainer and walk in a long straight line, crossing over side roads without stopping at the down kerbs. After a few days it is taught to stop in the stand position at a few down kerbs, where it is praised gently then commanded to go forward again to cross the side street and continue. As the days go by the guide dog is trained to stop at…