Within this series of articles I will be covering the beginning work
relative to raising a competitive working dog. The goal of our foundation
work is to raise a dog that is strong and confident, active in his drives
and highly motivated. In the previous issues I related an overview on the
type of temperament we search for in a puppy, the genetic background the
puppy should ideally possess and an overall opinion on how the puppy should
be raised and socialized as well as motivation of drives. In this article
we will begin teaching the basic obedience commands in our young
dog.
In Schutzhund there are a few different "types" of sit position.
The dog performs a sit in motion, at the halt in heeling, in front from recalls
and in basic heel position. Our picture of a correctly executed sit is the
dog sits quickly, securely and does it by tucking in their rear. It is natural
for most dogs to rock back to a sit. It is common for German Shepherd Dogs
to sit off the ground on their hocks or tail, like a kangaroo. These types
of errors can be avoided by correctly teaching the sit at the beginning.
We begin with a hungry puppy and hot dogs in a quiet area free of
distraction . You will use whole hot dogs, not cut up. Place the hot dog
in your hand covering it so the puppy can not get at it. You want him to
smell the food and try to get at it. He will be allowed to eat, rewarded,
as he performs the sit. You will do that by opening your hand to let him
nibble. Don't give up the entire hot dog, just give him the chance to nibble
at it with his front teeth. Practice at first feeding and not feeding, getting
him into the idea. Keep your hand in his reach so all four feet stay on the
ground. Depending on the age of the puppy if the hand is taken away he will
soon forget about it. Get down to the dog's level, either on the floor or
your knees. Do not stand over the dog.
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A dog's body follows their nose. With the dog standing slowly raise
your hand in front of his nose up higher, stretching the nose in the air.
As the dog's rear collects under his body to maintain this position, lower
your hand enough for the dog's butt to sit. |
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This will take a little practice on your part learning how to manipulate
the dog's body with his nose. As your hand goes up softly repeat the sit
command. Say it clearly and succinctly. The command must be said for the
dog to associate it with the hand motion. Your job is to correctly move the
food hand in a manner that gets the dog to tuck his rear in rather than rocking
back. ---Up then down---
The dog will pick up on the hand motion before the voice command.
Never reward the dog for sitting if you did not say sit. If the dog sits
because it was his idea or because you moved your hand without saying the
command - do not reward. Simply get him back to standing and begin again.
Once the butt is down open your hand to allow feeding. Keep your
hand in the same position so as not to make him stand up. You may repeat
the command softly as the pup feeds. Time in the position is not what you're
teaching at this point. All you want is the dog to learn the connection between
the command and the body movement/position. So reward shortly then release
the dog verbally and praise him madly. And begin again.
The duration of the session depends on the dog's age. If younger
than about 15 weeks keep to three or four sits in a row and then stop. The
attention span of a puppy will not be able to handle any longer. At that
age we are 'imprinting' the command with the position. The puppy is really
too young to do much thinking or complicated learning. If the dog is older
than 15 weeks I prefer to work until I observe some level of knowledge for
the exercise. What that knowledge is would be variable. Usually it would
be shown by the dog sitting with the initial hand movement rather than the
whole shebang. The dog is expressing an early understanding of what is expected.
If you are teaching correctly this should begin to occur within 4 sits after
a few sessions. If that is not the case, the problem could be you are not
using the verbal command or are feeding at the wrong time. Or both.
Each session should begin at a point the dog knows well and progress
from there. This is true of all training. Dogs learn through repetition,
patience, consistency and firmness. As you progress begin to wean off the
hand motions until you can stand with food in your hand, tell your dog to
sit and they sit immediately.
At that point you can start to add time onto the sit. With the dog
wearing a leash and fursaver collar, tell the dog to sit and stay where you
are. Begin to count in your head. Ten is a good place to start. When the
dog gets up, simply tell him to sit again - preferably in the same spot -
and begin counting again. No corrections. No movements from you while counting.
The leash and collar are there only to ensure the dog will stay with you
and assist in placing him back into the sit. Once you reach the count of
ten, release the dog and praise madly. No food yet. Then begin again. When
you can count to ten without the dog getting up feed him in the sit position.
Make sure he remains in that position while he feeds and then release him
with mad praise. Once you can make it to the count of ten three times in
a row that session is done. The next session you will build upon the previous
one by starting with the count of ten for the first sit. Count to twenty
for the second sit. And again three times correctly in a row and done.
Once you can count to fifty with no problem you can begin to move
to different positions around him. The dog will get up when you move at first.
It helps to repeat the command prior to moving. Be patient and firm. Calmly
place him back in the sit and try again. First move in front of him, then
in front to the end of the leash, progressing to his sides and going to the
end of the leash. Keep counting in your head so as not to ask for long periods
of time. I recommend starting with a count of 10. Different combinations
of time and movement should be tried. Walk to the end of the leash and tell
him "good sit". Walk to his side and tell him "good sit", count to 10 then
move again. Sometimes the dog will do fine with you stationary, but breaks
when the handler moves often or infrequently.
| Once movement is not a problem progress to slight pressure forward
on his collar using the leash. This tests the dog's ability to 'stick' the
sit. If you cannot knock him out of the sit with reasonable pressure you're
doing well. |
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Proofing can also be done by moving away from the dog, standing still
for a while then jumping around or some other interesting movement. If the
dog breaks, just put him back, give him the command again and repeat your
distraction. Be clearly pleased and excited when he works
correctly.
At this point in the teaching begin to work around distractions of
people and dogs. Always start with light distractions, such as a new location
or activity far away. Rules stay the same and you must continue to be patient,
consistent and firm. If your dog is easily distracted you will have to back
up a few steps before progressing forward again. Proofing your dog at these
final stages could include other people walking close by, standing next to
the dog, playing with a toy, eating in their vicinity, etc. Keep the leash
on to keep your dog with you and to keep you from moving too far away then
is realistic. Finally we have walking away from the dog to trial distance
of 30 paces. This should just be a formality if your dog has correctly learned
all you've taught up to this point. It would be wise to have someone working
with you to tell you if your dog moves. We don't have eyes in the back of
our heads and spotters are invaluable to correct obedience work.
Up to now we have concentrated on the manner the dog sits and learning
all the command means, except speed of execution. The motion exercises are
static and do not require drive. Because of this the dog easily becomes slow
and unimpressed. We teach speed by adding the toy to the exercise.
Tease the dog up with the toy, lots of movement and keep him from
getting it. Once jazzed up, quickly stop and tell him 'sit'. If he is slow
to the position, move once again teasing him with the toy. Again stop quickly
and tell him 'sit'. As soon as he sits release him verbally and let him take
the toy. When playing this game for the first time it takes most dogs a little
while to understand the command being given. Having never done the exercise
in this manner, that is understandable. So for the initial few tries you
may have to repeat the command to get the position. What we want the dog
to learn is that as soon as they sit they get the toy. This is accomplished
by the handler being very observant and having excellent timing. You must
make sure the dog is actually sitting all the way to the ground, you must
be sure that they don't get the toy from any other position. Dogs are very
quick to read us humans and they will be able to tell when you are going
to release them. The handler must be smarter, quicker and more observant
then their dog for this game to work. If you don't possess these skills it
is okay, there are different methods for quick sits and downs. I happen to
prefer this way. It is fun and exciting in a way the motion exercises rarely
are. And it can be used in conjunction with other methods.
The progression of this game is to allow you to keep moving, give
the command while moving and the dog follows through with it as you move.
Thus leading into the visual part of the motion exercise. You are in movement
with your dog, heeling, you give the command as you are moving and the dog
obeys as you leave him. The game allows the handler to break away from the
common crutch of hesitating when giving the command. The dog will always
pick up on the hesitation.... and so will the judge. The other usual occurrence
is that the handler does hesitate in training but come trial day is doing
a good job. However the dog is used to the hesitation and without it is unsure
of the command he was given, resulting in either hesitation or incorrect
work from the dog. Point deductions again.
We handlers can not think of the point by point break down as we
train our dogs. We would end up drill sergeants which never results in good
obedience work. Rather we must think ahead and plan our training methods
for our end results. If we think our actions out to the end, trial, we won't
need to think about the points lost or gained while training. Very importantly
keep the tone and manner of each command the same. Dogs pick up on inflection
of the voice more than the actual word. Maintain the same inflection and
tone for the sit command through out the teaching if possible. If the dog
had been doing well and now is not, perhaps you are giving the command
differently than usual. A very overlooked element of handling is the voice.
