Distance Postion Changes

By slowly increasing the level of distraction and distance from your dog, you can create a super-effective verbal sit command that works anywhere, anytime.

With a combination of enthusiastic praise and timely reprimands, it’s easy to maintain your dog’s attention during a sit stay.

It’s much better to teach a rock-solid distance sit, but a good distance recall can also be very useful.

A reliable sit-command that works anywhere and anytime, at a distance and with distractions, is the most valuable tool in training.  But training is very context dependent, so it takes a lot of practice.

Introduce distance commands slowly, and don’t push your dog too hard too fast.  Maintain a level of training which is challenging, but allows your dog to succeed the majority of the time.

Teaching distance commands can take a lot of focus.  You need to concentrate on the dog, and you may need a lot of energy to keep their attention from farther away.

If you challenge your dog too much, they may go floppy on you.  This position of helplessness means you need to be gentle with them.  Getting angry will only further encourage their submissive posture.

Build distance commands literally step by step.  If they creep towards you, try practicing with them at the top of some stairs or behind a gate.

Exciting distractions such as other dogs will undermine your dog’s obedience training, so it’s important to incorporate them into training.

Practice your distance sits while your dog is roaming, sniffing, and not paying particular attention to you.  If you’re in an unconfined place, you can practice with a very long leash.