Mama's Monday - Stay, Leave it and Give

It's a Mama's Monday - so this post will be written by The Mama. (That's me...)

We have been working this week on the commands Stay, Leave it and Give.

Stay is an important doggie skill. It makes your dog more flexible socially - you will be able to take him more places if he has a strong stay - and it makes him a safer dog, because you have a command that you can use to help keep him out of trouble. To teach stay I have been putting Pooka in a sit and then saying "Stay" with a hand held flat in front of his nose. I take a step away from him, turn and face him, and wait five seconds. If he doesn't move he gets Yes'd! and I step back in, give him a cookie, and then touch his shoulder with my hand and say Okay! very happily and bounce him out of the sit with my body language and another cookie and once he is standing he gets that next cookie. That step is important because it teaches the release word for the command as well. He must learn that even when he hears the word "yes!" it doesn't mean he may get up. It just means he's getting a treat at some point in the near future. If he gets up, at any point before he hears "okay" and feels my hand on his shoulder he gets an "eh eh" and I step in and put him back into the sit, and say stay again. I gradually lengthen the amount of time he stays, and the distance I step back. Eventually I will leave the room or his line of sight. (When I do this I put a bell on his collar so I can hear him if he gets up so I can immediately trot back to him to correct). Once he's solid with that, I add distractions, like me playing with a toy, showing him a cookie, and rolling around on the ground making insane playful noises. That's a really tough one for a dog to ignore, but I believe for a dog to be safe they should have a rock solid stay. I try to train for a worst-case scenario so that should something ever happen I can do my best to keep my dogs safe, and they will also do THEIR best.

Once he can safely ignore me doing my crazy-mama routine, I will add the hardest distraction of all...I attach a leash to his collar and I pull. He is praised and rewarded if he leans back against the pull and doesn't move. If he gets up he gets "eh eh'd" and put back.

Nanook in particular has a strong stay/wait command response, (wait is different from a stay...a stay you release AT THE DOG'S SIDE, preferably with both a command and physical contact. I tap their shoulder with my hand when I release and say "okay" for a stay. A wait can be released from a distance, and with a wait the dog's attention should stay focused on you while during a stay they can look away from you and relax knowing they won't be moving until you get back), anyway, it was during class and we were practicing distance recalls - I put Nanook in a wait and walked to the other side of the classroom. Then I called him, "Nanook, come!" He didn't move, he stared at me and tilted his head like he couldn't believe what he was hearing. I was flabbergasted because he was always so good about his recalls and he was NEVER a head tilter - it was weird to see him tilt his head at all, AND with not performing the recall I was starting to worry, until my husband who was watching from the sidelines yelled, "you forgot to say Okay!" Sure enough. I said, "Okay Nanook, come!" and he came galloping to me.

Sometimes the dog is smarter than you are.

So we've been practicing stay with Pooka. I think the lightbulb of "oh, this is what I'm supposed to be doing" has gone off, now it's just a matter of building the difficulty slowly enough for his little baby attention span. We've also been practicing "give" which I use during tug of war and with fetch games for the dog to release whatever he's holding. I started with Pooka without treat luring - I said "give" and then I inserted a finger into his mouth and pressed up on his palate until he opened his mouth enough for me to slip the toy out. Then he was praised and rubbed and loved on until his tail started to wag, and then I held out the toy and said, "ready? GET IT!" the enthusiasm of the "get it" will make most dogs latch onto the toy even if they are confused with WHY the person took the stupid thing away in the first place if they were just going to give it back. In this case, since I am not using a treat to train the give, the toy and more tuggy games becomes the reward.

You can use a treat to train "give" - lay hands on whatever you want the dog to give you, and then show the dog a cookie in your other hand while saying "give" - the dog should drop the toy to take the treat. I use "give" and "drop" as two different commands. "Give" means release the toy into my hand, "drop" means drop it wherever you are right now onto the ground. That difference is why I usually don't use a treat to teach give - because when the dog sees the cookie they usually drop the toy immediately and sometimes you can't get your hands on the toy and get out a cookie without the dog realizing that a cookie is coming - then they drop the toy onto the ground. This is why I usually teach "give" during tug of war games when both the dog and I are holding the toy. I DO use cookies to teach "drop."

Tug is a very good game to build a relationship between your dog and you. Some traininers believe that confrontation or contest games like tug are not a good idea, but since I'm not a dog trainer, I can freely say I disagree. For timid dogs, it can be a really good confidence builder, and for alpha dogs it can be another way for the owner to take the lead. I play by introducing the toy and the game. For alpha dogs especially the owner should be the one to encourage the play - if the dog tries to interest you in a game, and your dog has alpha tendencies, it is best to ignore them. You should pick when and where games are played because you are in charge. I show them the toy and waggle it around and make puppy noises and play bow until they latch on and start tugging. I'll let the game go on for a bit before I give a "give" command. If the dog gives the toy then I praise a TON and then give them permission to grab it again "okay, get it!" With puppies I will every so often let them "win" the toy as a confidence booster, and make a big deal about how strong and brave and clever they are to have gotten it away from me, and then I'll grab a hold of it again and we'll play a while longer. If when you let them win turns away from you with the toy to walk away and hoard it someplace, give them a gentle tweak on their behind - it is the same thing another puppy would do to get them to turn back around and engage you again. Try to be playful and fun and happy with your body movements and your vocalizations at that point. Tug is teaching them that you are the best playmate they could have, which will increase their desire to pay attention to you and focus on you in all situations. Tweaking their bum and nibbling on their feet with your fingers simulates puppy play and will get them excited to play with you. I always make sure when playing that I end up winning the game when I end it, and I walk away with the toy. Usually I will put the toy in a pocket or tucked under my belt, visible to the puppy so he knows that at the end the toy was 'owned' by me.

I never command "give" when ending a game - I always win it outright by waiting for the puppy to try to re-grip and then stealing it while their jaws are open. I feel like the Tuggy Game has rules that the dog and I have both agreed to obey, and I shouldn't break them unless it is important. The only time I will command a "give" and not follow it up with an "okay, get it!" is if the dog has something that I don't want them to have, like a pair of my underpants. (It happens). Then the dog gets a cookie for giving up his treasure.

As for Leave It - Pooka is playin' with the big boys on this command. He will ignore it even if I put the treat on his paw until I say "okay." Like his brother before him, he is hesitant even then to take the treat unless I offer it to him with my hand at the same time, but I can totally live with that.

I have another post for today about Pooka's vet visit this morning, but the boys are starting to play tug with one another and I can't let them do that right now (thanks to the vet visit this morning) so I've got to run! I'll post later.