1. Ask your puppy to sit.
Use your cue word and help with a hand signal if needed.
Startline stay - Distraction training
To trust your dog to hold a stay in different situations, it’s good to practice the skills you teach him with distractions as soon as your puppy can hold a sit for a few seconds. Your puppy learns that no matter what goes on around him, or whatever silly things you do, his job is to wait for his release cue.
What you need
- Small, soft treats that your puppy loves and can easily swallow.
- A room at home with minimal distraction.
- A cue word for sitting position, such as “sit”.
- A release word such as “OK” .
Goal for you
- You’ll learn how to add distractions to your training little by little.
Goal for your puppy
- Your puppy learns to hold a sit while you do a few tricks like moving your feet and clapping your hands. He learns also that even if you step a bit further away, you always come back to reward him, so it’s a good idea to keep sitting.
Summary
These are the main points of the lesson.
2. Praise your puppy with the word “sit”.
Keep talking to her in a calm, happy voice while her bottom is on the ground.
3. Feed your puppy treats when her bottom is on the ground.
Hand the treat from above the puppy’s head, so that she doesn’t have to stand up to get it.
4. Lift your hands.
5. Move your feet.
6. Do a couple of jumping jacks.
7. Clap your hands.
8. Give your puppy a final treat or a toy.
9. Give your release cue like “OK”.
10. Walk off.
Stay silent for a while.
Can't make it work?
Don’t worry. Here are some common problems and how to fix them.
1. These distractions are too much for my puppy. She stands up as soon as I try to do something else than stand in front of her.
Try adding these distractions little by little. The slower you move your hands and feet, while praising your puppy in a calm voice all the time, the easier it will be for your puppy to stay still. Keep rewarding your puppy for sitting all the time she is sitting.
2. My puppy doesn’t have the patience to sit still when I try these distractions.
Bring the treat back to your puppy’s nose as quickly as possible. Do your distraction so quickly that your puppy doesn’t have time to react to it.
3. I don’t get the point of doing all these tricks when my puppy is sitting.
You and your puppy are going to face a lot of situations where your puppy needs to stay calm and patient when something really exciting is happening around him. Distraction training will help your puppy understand that he needs to keep his position no matter what is going on around him.