Canine Good Citizenship

 

Week 4  

 

Watch Me

• Make sure that your dog can Watch while he is in leash-walking position by your left leg, as well as when he is facing you. 

Leash-walking 

•  Increase the number of steps per reinforcer.

•  Ensure that your posture, as you hold the leash and lure is natural, not awkward. 

• Is your left elbow up in the air, instead of by your side? 

• Is your lure hand dangling in mid-air, encouraging piranha-like lunging?

 Out-of Sight Stays 

• Continue to gradually add time, working up to 45 seconds to one minute out of sight.

• Remember to include the rehearsal of some short, easy, strain-relieving stays in your session.

 Sit-Stay

• Rehearse Dog to Dog approaches, starting with the dogs and owners walking towards one another but stopping 5 feet apart

• Coach and encourage your dog. 

• Use the Watch Me cue to refocus your dog as necessary. Don’t nag, though. 

• Click and treat the stay. 

• Repeat, decreasing the distance between the dog after 2 or 3 repetitions.

 Noises, and other Distractions

 In the Reaction to Distraction test, your dog will have to tolerate a running person, or perhaps something with wheels, moving rapidly by him, and he may have to tolerate noise, as for example, the sound of something being dropped.   

• This week, work on your dog staying as your training partner jogs slowly, then rapidly by, at a distance, then closer.

•  Can he “Stay” as a bike or skateboard goes by, at a distance?

• If your dog is worried by noises, expose him gradually, with the noise muffled, or in another room. Cheer and clap and offer him treats.  Repeat ‘til he is tail-waggy, then increase the volume of the noise just slightly. 

• Keep on gradually increasing the volume until it is at a real-life level.

• Repeat for each new sound that spooks your dog.