Teaching your dog how to get into
the "basic position" is
not an easy task. Watch the YouTube video
and follow my step-by-step instructions
to learn how it can be done with ease! [Links to Part 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 ]
The "BASIC POSITION".
Part 2 of 4: Teaching our dog how to
find the basic position.
Now that our dog pays attention to us when he
sits in the basic position, we are going to add
another element: How to make him get into the
basic position by himself.
At first, we want to keep it simple.
Step 1 |
Get your treats, your clicker and a toy.
Put the treats into your right pocket (I
suggest you wear a training jacket or a
belt pouch to keep your treats handy.) Initially,
you want to keep them out of your dog's
reach so he does not get distracted.
|
Step 2 |
Make sure your dog can focus exclusively
on you. Avoid any disturbance. Training
indoors or in your backyard is a good idea.
|
Step
3 |
Give your dog the Sit command and praise
him calmly once he sits down correctly.
|
Step
4 |
Position yourself a few steps (~4 feet)
ahead of your dog. You and your dog should
be facing in the same direction. Your dog
should now sit behind you - ideally slightly
to your left.
|
Step
5 |
Take a treat out of your pocket and put
it into your left hand.
|
Step
6 |
With the treat in your hand, turn your
upper body to the left and extend your arm
with the treat towards your dog. It is okay
if you move your left leg slightly backwards
so you can stand more comfortably. The treat
should now be just about a foot away from
your dog's nose.
|
Step
7 |
Call your dog. When he gets up and moves
towards the treat, close your hand around
the treat and slowly turn your upper body
back into a straight position. Try to do
this in one smooth motion while keeping
your arm straight. Ideally, the treat should
stay right in front of our dog's nose during
the turning motion. It is actually desirable
if our dog pushes his nose into our hand
to get the treat. We want him to follow
our motion precisely.
|
Step
8 |
Once you are back in a straight and upright
position and your hand (with your dog's
nose "attached" to it) reaches your leg,
pull your hand up. We want our dog to get
into the Sit position right next to us.
If he does not sit down by himself, it is
okay to give him the Sit command the first
few times.
|
Step
9 |
As soon as our dog sits correctly in the
basic position to our left, we release the
treat as his reward. Remember, don't reward
your dog before he sits down AND looks up.
|
Step
10 |
Keep your dog in the Sit position and repeat
this exercise from step 4 a few more times.
End the training session with playtime.
|
Note: the 4 feet distance works well for
larger breeds such as retrievers or shepherds.
If you have a smaller dog, you may want
to reduce the distance between your hand
and your dog by getting into a slightly
kneeling position. Your dog needs to be
able to stay close to the treat during this
exercise.
There are several different ways to teach
the basic position. Some trainers start
with luring the dog into position while
others (like me) start with getting our
dogs attention by teaching them to look
up. There are also trainers who use "shaping"
as their primary method (the dog needs to
find the basic position by himself), but
I found the luring method more effective
especially for inexperienced handlers. We
will use shaping at a later stage to "fine-tune"
the basic position exercise.
Once our dog has learned to follow our
hand into the basic position, we can start
to make this lesson a bit more challenging.
|
Step
11 |
Repeat steps 1
through 10, but this time, get into the straight
and upright position more quickly. Eventually,
your dog will learn to follow the motion of
your hand even if it is not right in front
of his nose. Don't rush it though! It is important
for your dog to clearly understand where the
basic position is before we reduce any physical
help (such as our body motion). |
If you limit your training sessions to a few
minutes several times per day, your dog should
be able to reliably get into the basic position
after no more than a week or two. Once that is
the case, we can move on to the next step.
|