Sit, Stand & Down

If you teach your dog to always sit before and after crossing the road, you’ll greatly reduce their risk of being hit by a car.  First practice at home, then hit the streets.

A rock solid, lightening quick “Down” (or “Sit” for that matter) solves just about every problem in dog training, and also happens to be very useful in agility competition.  Just practice it!

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

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.

Dogs are naturally inclined to follow our body movements.  If you want your dog to learn verbal commands, you’ll have to work at it actively.  If your dog only responds to hand signals, then you’re only in control when they’re looking at you.

A dog that doesn’t settle down on command is going to be a pain to live with.  It can be very useful to train several  down positions, depending on how long you want them to stay down.

This exercise is all about building off-leash control of your dog.  It rewards your dog for coming when called, sitting and having their collar taken, which makes them very easy to catch. The alternative is a dog that runs away when you go to take it’s collar.

Always reward a good recall.  However, as soon as their recalls are solid, you want to start adding a default sit at the end of recalls, so your dog is ready for the next cue.

Lures are very useful to show your dog what to do.  But make sure you start phasing them out ASAP, or else you’ll end up with a dog that only behaves when you have a treat.