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 4 of 4: Putting it all together.
By now you have probably figured out that teaching
your dog to get into the basic position takes
a lot of work. Now you might think that getting
this behavior from your dog on command - quick
and reliably - takes even more work. Not really.
If you have followed my advice, you and your dog
should have had a lot of fun going through the
basic position exercise. This is your foundation
for any future practice. In the following part,
I would like to offer some tips on how to reinforce
this learned behavior while still keeping our
dog excited about the basic position.
Concentrate - for more than a second:
This exercise continues where we left off in part
1. We have trained our dog to look up to us by
feeding him treats from our mouth. Now its time
to increase the time in-between treats from just
a few seconds to up to several minutes. This does
not just happen overnight and we want to take
it slow. Eventually, our dog will get to a point where he gets distracted or looses some interest. He will look away - and exactly at that moment will remind him with the "Look" command in a firm but friendly spoken voice to tell him that he should not do that. If he looks back, we praise him calmly and give him his treat after a few more seconds (we wait here because don't want him to think he gets rewarded whenever we "remind" him to look at us again). Then, we gradually expand the time between our "reminder" and the treat over the next few days. Eventually, we will phase out the treat, but we will continue to praise our dog whenever he corrects himself. Depending on your dog and the frequency of practice, this can take from a couple days to a couple of weeks. The goal is to teach our dog to look at us until we release him by feeding him a treat. Tip: You dog will learn this lesson much quicker if you randomly change the length of your training sessions. Don't wait 15 seconds, then 20, then 30 and so on. Instead, have your dog wait 5 seconds, 20 seconds, 3 seconds, 15, 20, 5 etc. This way, your dog never knows what to expect.
If you are showing in competitive obedience,
you should also train your dog to continue to
look up at you even when you are not looking back
at him. There is just one problem, how do you
know if your dog is looking at you if you don't
look at him? The solution is simple: Take an old
mirror and position it in front of you so you
can see the reflection of your dog's head. I actually
had quite a bit fun with Andy when I did this
for the first time. He probably thought that he
can look around while the boss is not watching
- and his confused look was quite amusing when
he got caught for the first few times.
Don't feed your dog without it! One of
the best ways to practice the "getting into basic
position" exercise is to do it every time before
you feed your dog. If your dog is like mine, he
probably can't wait for his food. My dog Andy
always sits behind me whimpering when I prepare
his food. So take your dog's food bowl, go to
the spot where you usually feed him and ask him
to get into the basic position. Think of the food
bowl as your treat, he gets it when he sits next
to you and looks up. Practice this for a few days
and you will see!
You are more important than food: As add-on
to the food bowl exercise, try to put the bowl
on the ground in front of your dog while he is
still waiting in the basic position. Initially,
you may want to hold him by his collar so he does
not just "reward" himself. Ask him to "Look" at
you and when he does, mark his correct behavior
and then allow him to feed. I use the German word
"Los" as Andy's release command which translates
into "Go" in English. If your dog is not familiar
with being released on command, read
my lesson on how to teach your dog to wait.
You can also practice this with a treat: Take
a treat, but instead of holding it close to your
head (to encourage your dog to look up) extend
your arm and ask your dog to make and hold eye
contact ("Look"). When your dog looks at you,
mark his behavior and reward him. This way, your
dog will learn to make and hold eye contact.
Adding distractions: I am sure you have
noticed a huge difference between obedience practice
at home and in public places. The difference is
distractions. At home or in a quiet location,
your dog can and will focus completely on you.
If there are other people or dogs, your dog will
probably look around to see what else is going
on. It is possible to train a dog to ignore any
and all distraction, but most of us don't need
that. What we do want our dog to do is to stay
focused on us when we ask him to while there are
other people or dogs around. This needs to be
trained. A good way to start is to ask a family
member to be with us when we practice. At first,
ask the other person to quietly wait near you
when you practice the basic position. Whenever
your dog turns his head away from you to look
at the other person, remind him with the "Look"
command that he is not allowed to do this. Reward
him when he looks back at you, wait a second and
then release him. Once your dog does this reliably,
ask the other person to make sounds or to call
your dog's name. If he looks away, remind him
again with the "Look" command. You can watch me
practice this in part 4 for the "basic position"
videos. My wife Sandra is calling Andy to distract
him while I am watching him through a mirror.
Poor little thing Eventually, you will be able
to keep your dog focused when there are other
dogs around - but I need to warn you that you
won't be able to accomplish this overnight.
Getting up to speed: If you are showing
in obedience, you want your dog to perform the
getting into basic position exercise with great
accuracy and speed. I primarily use treats when
teaching my dog a new behavior. This keeps him
calm and focused so you can work him all the way
from a basic understanding of the exercise to
performing it with great accuracy. To get to speed
however, you want to work your dog in play or
prey drive. That's where a prey-toy comes in handy.
When you train the basic position, keep your dog's
toy in your left hand. If you hold it in your
right hand, your dog might try to forge in front
of you so he can be closer to the toy. Keep in
mind that you can not work on two issues at the
same time - so don't try to improve your dog's
accuracy while working on speed. To get speed,
step in front of your dog and call him into the
basic position. When he is circling around you,
throw the toy straight forward so he can chase
after it. Make sure he can see you throwing it.
Use you release command (such as "go" or "get
it") at the moment you let go of the toy to tell
your dog that it is okay to chase after it. If
you have used a different method to get your dog
into the basic position (such as to swing his
rear end into it), the flying toy won't work.
That's why I always teach my dogs to circle around
me. Make sure your timing is right. Sometimes,
dogs anticipate the flying toy and try to turn
right in front of you to go after it. No shortcuts
here! If your dog tries that, keep the toy in
your hand and start over. Once your dog has built
enough drive, start to alternate this exercise
between the immediately flying toy and a complete
basic position before the toy flies. If you keep
your dog guessing whether the toy will fly or
not, he will get next to you sooner because he
can't wait to find out...
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