Welcome to Pawprint Academy, your blueprint to
raising better dogs. My name is Ryan, and I'll
be your host for this journey. I've got my trusty
co -host here, Brianna. Hello. And together,
we're bringing you real -world training insights
built on leadership, structure, and proven methods.
We record this podcast with live clients on the
line in one take with live, unscripted questions
and answers. At the end of the day, this podcast
is a lot more than just teaching your dog to
sit or stay. creating calmness, and becoming
the kind of leader your dog truly needs. We do
that with our three pillar method of trust, obey,
and perform. Together, we'll show you how these
three pillars shape every step of training. Thanks
for being here. Let's get started. Alright, hey
everybody, this is episode 16, Sit Down Stay,
building duration without frustration. You like
that? Yep, love it. Love it. Tonight we have,
tonight's a little bit of a stranger night because
apparently there was some crazy outage with cell
phone towers. pretty much all of Verizon on the
East coast. And, uh, so our invitation with the
links to dial in and such, uh, did not go out
to very many people today. Um, so it is what
it is, but we'll make it work and, uh, and we're
going to drive on and we always have these things
recorded and, uh, all of our clients can kind
of download them later. For the call side and
then on the podcast side, it'll go live on Monday.
Yeah. So today we are talking about sit down
stay is like what I titled it. Yeah. But it's
kind of the most basic commands. Oh, yeah. That
you that most people think of when they're talking
about. dog training when someone is like oh i
when my friends show me videos or um give me
updates on their dogs they're like they sit so
good or oh they they down and they can hold it
down and i can go all the way over in the other
room it's always a source of pride to get dogs
listening right and any sort but in that sit
down stay is is kind of the the great trio of
dog training yeah and so tonight we're gonna
talk about it all right let's do it okay so sit
down and stay They create a dog who waits calmly
and listens under some amount of pressure, right?
And we can kind of like dial that pressure up
with distance, duration, and distraction. But
they also respect boundaries. It's the first
few commands where we can kind of start to teach
a dog those boundaries and the expectations,
what we expect from them. Yeah, and I think increasing
the ask in those basic commands is where you
start seeing your dog kind of change and adapt
and build in impulse control. So a lot of people
are like, well, sitting down isn't important
to me. I don't really care. But sitting down
are so many different other things than just
sitting down. Right, right. No one I have yet
to ever be hired to teach a dog sitting down.
Right. And we can have dogs that come in and
they're aggressive and we're still going to first
off start by teaching that dog all of the basic
commands. Correct. Because you can't ask a dog
to do something else unless they know something
else to do. Right. It's like an implied skill
to get at the heart of other things. Yeah. proofing
dog training is distance, duration, and distraction.
And we're going to talk a little bit about duration
today and how we build that. But duration is
built through clarity, structure, and fair expectations,
not randomly elongating the amount of time that
they sit down or stay. I want to add that it's
not just about repetition and it's also not about
haphazardly doing it. It's about adding those
three in small increments. We talked a little
bit about that last week in how to increase both
duration and distance kind of hand in hand. But
today we're going to apply it to some other commands.
our first to start let's talk about teaching
it and uh in order to teach it we've got to be
super clear to the dog and we also have to really
dial in our accuracy yeah because dogs have this
concept of generalization that all dogs are going
to relate the whatever that is that they've been
asked to do whatever it is that they do they're
going to relate that to a whole bunch of variables
and those variables are they could be all sorts
of things that you don't even realize right it
could be the tone in your voice that they they
locked onto it could be the fact that they sat
facing the sliding glass door yeah and And every
time that you have had them sit, they've been
facing that sliding glass door. And so when they
hear sit, they immediately relate that sliding
glass door somehow to the equation. And so to
achieve generalization, we've got to be accurate
in our variables. But then we have to start adding
in other variables and changing the stimulus.
So we move them to other rooms. We take them
outside. do all sorts of different things. So
let's, let's jump into it. So right off the bat,
we've got to use really clean food lures. Food
luring is our first language that we always teach
clients. And it's the first thing that the dog
is going to understand. And usually when we're
talking about a dog that we're teaching to sit,
that is. far and away the number one thing that
everyone teaches their dog oh yeah it's one of
the simplest and easiest and also the the proudest
moment in most people's lives yeah they're like
yes i taught him to sit uh when you get a new
dog that's like the very first thing that people
usually tend to practice yeah so there is an
unlikelihood that we're talking about If we're
talking about teaching a sit, we're probably
not talking about like an older dog that you
had for a long time. But so it's probably like
a younger dog or it's a new rescue or something
that happened. And now you're teaching it to
sit for the first time. So when we first start
working with a dog, we always use food lures.
And we lure a dog into that position until they
are used to it. Until they start offering it.
And then we can start naming it. Yep. But what
if. So here's a side note. But still goes very
much along with that. Go for it. What if you
can't use a food lure? So I ran into this today.
Right. So there's some dogs that aren't super
food motivated. Right. Or under pressure just
really are not going to do it. So today, in the
instance, I was working on a place bed. Dog's
totally used to it. And I start working on a
down because we had already gotten in a sit.
So we're working on down. Dog will not food lure.
Also, a smaller dog, super close to the ground.
And so I could tell that we were just going to
have a hard time on the place bed. Although she
had been on the place bed, was comfortable with
it, no problem. moved her to a different platform,
did the same thing, still doing nothing, right?
And at this point, I was trying leash pressure
because she was used to leash pressure. Just
not going to do it. Super uncomfortable with
it. So went to the next thing. I went to her
bed that she loves, soft, comfy, warm bed, waited
for her to lay down and marked it with a clicker
as soon as she did and tossed the food away from
her. And so she got out of the bed and went to
go get it, went back to the bed, laid down again.
I marked it with a clicker. Nice. So there are
some things that you can do kind of and will
have to do for different dogs to shape those
behaviors before you can even go through like
a food lure or leash pressure or any of that.
Yeah. So fun story for today. Awesome. Yeah,
because for most dogs, you're going to use a
food lure. Most dogs are going to be food motivated
enough. And if you're teaching sit. Typically,
it's going to be a younger dog. And the younger
the dog is, the more food motivated the dog is
going to be. So luring a dog with food initially
into a sit position is going to be as simple
as raising the food up most of the time above
the dog's head until they bring their butt down.
Naturally, that's a movement that dogs do without
kind of a lot of guidance for the most part with
the typical dog. If it's an older dog, they may
be a little bit confused at first, but the key
to most things that we tell people is patience
and just waiting for your dog to kind of figure
it out because them figuring it out builds their
confidence that they can and will do new things.
So let's talk about some of the... basics that
we want to have in place in order to start this
sit down stay process so um food luring super
easy and important on dogs that are food motivated
we can build that food motivation by teaching
a dog to work for their food there's a bunch
of different ways to do that but we can slowly
increase the amount that the dog kind of works
for that food in order to get it then Once we've
established that food motivation, we can use
that food to lure the dog into these positions
and then use marker words or a clicker. A clicker,
which is some sort of auditory command or sound
or stimulus to tell the dog that, hey, you did
the right thing and that's something that I want
you to repeat. The timing for that is going to
be super, super important. We have to mark, the
science says that we've got about one to one
and a half seconds to mark a behavior that you
want the dog to repeat. Or you have to mark the
behavior you don't want the dog to repeat. So
we have to have balance, our good and our bad,
our yes and our no. With that, we want to use
some sort of auditory cue to tell the dog that
they've done the right thing. For us, we use
free as a terminal marker, meaning you're done.
You did the right thing and you're done. Come
to me and get a treat. And then we use yes as
a continuation marker, meaning. That good job,
you've done the right thing, but I want you to
continue to do it. So at the point where we get
into our markers, we have to have established
a pattern of the behavior that we can then reinforce
with our words. What that means is that I need
to... I need to get the dog to be able to do
and repeat the behavior a few times before I
can start relating a word to it. At that point,
at the point where they're offering the behavior,
they're doing it over and over, like what Brianna
was talking about, where the dog was going back
to the place bed, then she can start relating
and tying a word or a command into that. At that
point, we start reinforcing that word with our
terminal marker. And we put it all together.
So now I'm luring the dog towards me. I bring
my hands up. The dog's nose comes with that food,
comes up. Their butt goes down. They sit at the
moment that their butt hits the floor. Then I
can mark it. Sorry, I'm still out of order. I
don't know what's going on in my brain today.
At the point where their butt hits the ground,
I can reissue that command. I can say sit so
that I pattern the word sit with the actual action.
That's how we start naming the command. We don't
name it first. We don't say sit. And then we
just hope that they're going to sit. We pattern
it as they're doing it. So now their butt hits
the ground. And right as it hits the ground,
I go sit. And then I follow that with my marker
that I've already charged. We did a whole podcast
on charging those markers earlier. But I charge
up a marker, some sort of word that has that
value that they know a treat is coming. then
give them that terminal marker after they've
sat and I've named it. Typically, that terminal
marker will cause the dog to break their command
and go and get their treat. And that sets you
up for that next repetition. Yep. All right.
So we want to avoid repeating the cue. Because
repeating the cue, if I just go sit and then
the dog doesn't sit, I'm stuck. Because either
now I repeat the cue, which lowers or lessens
the value of that cue, or I have to correct the
dog somehow. Whether that is some sort of, no
matter what. That correction is it is too early
in the process to be correcting the dog because
they don't know what you're doing. So it doesn't
even matter what the correction is. A correction
could just be spatial pressure where you just
step towards the dog and you're like, no. But
at this point, the dog doesn't even know what
they did or didn't do. So it's not fair. And
so we shy away from that. Instead. You just got
to be brilliant in those basics. And you got
to not repeat that cue. You have to be patient
and you got to wait. Right. I have a dog that
I'm working with right now that will stare at
me for like 30 seconds straight, just staring.
And I just stare back. And then finally I get
the behavior and I throw a big party. But it's
all about letting the dog think through it and
letting the dog process. Did they ask me to do
this? Do I really have to do this? It seems like
I have to do this. And then you get the behavior
that you're looking for without going back and
forth with your dog. Yeah. So then we reward.
We've got to reward the dog. Also, at the same
time as for the command, we can also reward calmness
through the whole process. We use a terminal
marker. That marker that says, OK, go ahead and
get up. We use that one to build speed and enthusiasm
and excitement. But we'll use a continuation
marker or yes marker to build calmness and duration.
Even the way that we say it can be different.
Right. When I'm using free, I'm going to be real
excited about it free. And when I'm using yes.
I can calm that voice down a little bit, calm
my tone. And what that does is it kind of leads
the dog and guides the dog, even with your voice
and your tone, to know kind of what you're expecting.
And then the last piece of this is that we want
to build stability first. Before we layer in
that duration and the distraction and the distance.
Right. So you've got to get the dog really good.
Really good at first on the command. And so what
that looks like is 30, 40, 50, 60 repetitions,
right? Yeah. are awesome we have to start there
because you can't just go oh wow they're sitting
over here now let me change the picture we've
gotta we've gotta really build that um that brilliance
in those basics and so before you move on you
need to have that sit at the verbal level right
there's three languages that we teach our food
luring then our leash pressure, and then our
verbal commands. In those orders, so that we
can layer those and ask the dog for the command,
but use different levels of guidance and different
levels of accountability. Right, because that's
what's important is if you don't rep it out enough
times and you're not successful enough times
with even just strictly verbal, then if you move
on to like stepping outside and the dog fails,
then is it the dog's fault or did we just move
too quickly? Yeah. All right. What's your favorite
way to teach down? shaping is one of them just
capturing it when the dog does it naturally because
dogs it depending on the dog a lot of dogs will
just lay down wherever you are if they are standing
there long enough um so one is shaping and capturing
two is going to be um I don't even know what
to call it, but like the little rock game where
you put your hand over the food and they just
try to get it. Typically that will lead a dog
into the position of down and they will lay down
while trying to get the food. So you're not really
putting a whole bunch of pressure on the dog.
They're just kind of having a good time and trying
to get at what they want. And then as soon as
they plop down to inevitably work on getting
the food in a more comfortable position. um you
can mark and release the reward nice um so i
typically will take that food and i'll draw them
towards me right so that they're in a stand and
they're walking kind of towards me and as their
body is moving forward i'll drop that food with
my in my hand drop it right between their paws
and because a lot of dogs learn to do down By
after a sit. Yeah, right. So biomechanically,
it's really hard for dogs to do that the like
a competition down you want the dog to fold actually
backwards and so There's kind of two different
ways of teaching it depends on whether the dog
is You know brand new or if they already know
the sitting down so but typically I have a lot
better efficacy in drawing the dog forward because
they're used to it if if they've never done it
before then going from a stand and kind of giving
them a little bit of pressure right into their
nose right and then dropping it down in between
their paws oftentimes gets that like they automatically
kind of back up just just a tad yeah And as they
kind of like loosen their, I mean, like the muscles
that are like holding them up. Right. And then
they just kind of fold backwards. And that helps
a lot. Yeah. And then the same thing. Once we've
got that food lure down there a couple of times,
then we can start naming the command by as soon
as they go. into the down i can name it down
and then i can start slowly each time naming
it just a little bit earlier yeah slowly but
surely until eventually you're pre um i don't
know what the right word is but you're saying
it before and then yeah prefacing their their
movement with the With the command. Yeah. For
stay. This is really, really easy. If you've
built in terminal and continuation markers before
this point, because our stay, the way that we
teach it and the way that I use it and my dogs
is implied. And it's implied that if I haven't
given you the command free. then you're not free
and you're not doing it. You're not moving. So
I go down and then I use yes. Yes means, hey,
good job. Here we go. I'm going to give you a
treat, but stay right there. Stay in the position.
If you haven't taught that, and this is your
very first time doing stay. then you've got to
do the same process, but you're going to start
building a tiny little bit of distance each time
that you're issuing the stay command. So you're
going to go stay, you're going to take a little
half step away, and then you're going to come
back. And I'm a huge supporter of the contact
release. when you're trying to teach stay because
it makes it very, very crystal clear for the
dog. And what that means is that you're just
going to reach out and just touch them on the
nose or on the head or something like that nicely.
Right. And you're just reaching out and then
you give them the okay or the free or the release
or whatever at the moment that you're actually
touching them. Yeah. That builds the dog's nervous
system to look for that proximity. to you rather
than for you to just randomly issue a command
like free right also great for a multi -dog household
so they know which dog you're talking to exactly
yep yep really good um what what are some of
the like common mistakes that you see when we
go into down really sit and down um Not marking
it at the right time, either too early or too
late. Most of the time it's too late. Right,
so that's a good one. Let's talk about that for
a second. I said it earlier, before I got all
twisted up with my words, that we've got about
a second and a half. That's what the science
books say. I didn't make it up. But they say
that the dog understands what you're marking.
For about a second and a half. Some dogs will
be longer. That's fine. And especially once they're
trained, once they know what's expected, you
can get a little longer out of there. But when
you're first marking a brand new behavior, you've
got to be quick about it. Yeah. And my second
one was making a dog hold a duration sit or down
for too long too soon. Yeah. Or adding too much
distraction. Right. And I think both of those
go hand in hand. Right. So because that's why
people are usually late. People are late because
they're like down and then the dog goes down
and then they just stare at them for a minute
or two. Not a minute or two, but like a few seconds.
Yeah. And then they're like, yeah, great job.
Well, that was duration. Yeah. If you're not
marking it immediately as soon as they're going
into a down, then you are already working on
duration. And duration is a variable of proofing.
And you can't proof a command if the dog doesn't
understand it yet. If you haven't taught it and
you haven't taught it thoroughly, you can't proof
it. Right, so when we're teaching it, the first
20, 30, 40 reps, however many, are always down
free. Right, we're always using the terminal
marker first. Immediately, as soon as all the
elbows touch. Yep, yeah, 100%. If you're not
using that terminal marker and you're starting
with a continuation marker, you're setting yourself
up for failure and you're setting you and the
dog at odds right off the bat. Right. Duration
will always be part of the proofing process.
All right. How about creeping? Creeping is a
hard one. It's so annoying. So creeping creeping
is where a dog sits. Right. And they are on a
hardwood floor and they're like paws are like
slipping out from under them and they. go to
like you know move in order to um in order to
stabilize themselves but then you don't correct
them because you are like oh well they were just
sliding right and then they're like cool i can
get a little closer and then i can get a little
closer i can get a little closer and then they
find that oh i can just i can just creep up on
you or they spontaneously Try it. Yeah. Right.
They're in a down and then they kind of do the
little army crawl. Right. Because they want to
stretch out their back legs or something. Yeah.
So one, train on a different surface. Yep. We
have like a rug we pull out for training dogs
on so they're not slipping around everywhere.
On the hardwood floor. Yeah. And then two is
I usually use like a little bit of leash pressure
and some body pressure to push the dog back.
Or just correct them back with body pressure
to the original location. Yeah, spatial pressure
is my favorite. Right, because that's the problem
is if you ask a dog for a down and they army
crawl two feet, well, they're going to do it
again if you don't correct them back to the original
spot. So if you don't do that, then they're just
going to start moving around wherever. And a
down is a down until a dog is down way over there
and not where it's supposed to be. Yeah, exactly.
Anything that you don't correct or re -require,
your dog will find acceptance in it. And then
they'll, if they liked it or it was useful to
them, like they got closer to you, it was convenient,
then they're going to do it again. Yeah. So,
all right. So now let's talk about building duration.
So now we've taught the commands. We've reinforced
the commands. The commands are now on a verbal
basis, at least in their most simple form. Now,
how do we build duration? So I usually start
with duration. Oh, is that a question or you
want me to jump into? Yeah. Oh, okay. So I always
start duration on a place bed. Because a dog
doesn't have to be in a sit or a down. It can
be standing on the place bed. So I like to do
the equation of like three yeses equals a free
at that point. So I will stand by the dog and
it depends on the dog. So some dogs super like
frantic, excited, like you have to go yes, yes,
yes, free, like super fast. Some dogs are. understand
pretty quickly and are more patient than others
and are just a little bit calmer to be honest
um and you can kind of yes step back yes step
forward step back yes step forward and then free
off of it um but it is very dog dependent how
fast you have to go from the beginning right
sometimes you can't even step one foot away from
the bed before the dog is like no no where are
you going So my trick around that is usually
I will drop the reward on the place bed, kind
of on the like opposite side of me so that the
dog turns to eat it and I can kind of sneak one
step away while they're being rewarded. But that
is my favorite and my go -to. Yeah. So I think
it's super, super important to reward periodically
while you're doing, while you're. While you're
building this duration, right? So there's this
big concept or there's this conversation in the
dog training space about, well, do you really
need these? Like, do you need these marker words
for the duration that are like treat based? Or
can you just use them as bridge words? Well,
I think there's, there's room for conversation
on both, but the way that we do it. is that we
have a word that we charge up with a marker that
means i am asking for that duration but i'm still
going to give you a treat in the interim and
the reason we have that is because i've found
efficiency in teaching that duration with that
rather than and it's not that I think that the
dogs are incapable of delaying that gratification.
It's just that I've found that they, they relate
that quicker. Yeah. And so that's, so I've just
kept it in there. Right. And, and we keep using
it to explain what I'm talking about. Cause some
of these concepts are like dog trainer esque,
right? If there's, Dog trainers listening, they're
like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know what you're
talking about. And no one else does. So let me
break it down real quick. Our word, yes, is something
that we use to tell the dog to stay in the position
that I'm going to come to them and hand them
a treat. And then I teach them free means they're
going to stop what they're doing and they're
going to come to me and get a treat. The dog
doesn't learn or understand anything about that
other than where is the treat. So free means
come get the treat. Yes means freeze. I'm coming
to you to give you the treat. Yep. And if you
teach the dog that with where is the treat, it's
really easy. Yeah, real easy. Because by the
time that they've, they've understood that the
marker means don't, don't move. Don't move. Just,
just hold here. He's coming to me. Yeah. They
will stay there. Right. And that's why I use
place because place is a comfortable spot for
a dog. Right. And they're automatically at some
point going to sit and then lay down. Yeah. If
not just straight lay down. Right. I worked on.
Place earlier with a dog and within five reps,
she was auto downing and I was taking a video
and I was like, oh my gosh, you're auto downing
already. But most dogs understand like, man,
I get rewarded here. So I'm fine to sit here
and hold it. Like I'm fine in this position.
This position's good. I get rewarded here. And
so teaching it in that way just leads the dog
to want to do it more often and hold it longer.
And as we increase that time slowly, then we
can then move on to mild distractions. And when
we talk about distractions, the number one mistake
that I see is people use $100 distractions in
an environment where they needed like a $10 distraction.
Yeah. So we've got to start slow. You can't get
the dog's favorite toy. And be like, cool, we're
going to work on distraction and then zing that
thing across the room. Right. On the first go.
Yep. That's not what we're talking about. Good
examples of distraction is just like stomping
a foot. Yeah. Or sitting down, changing position.
You change position. Right. Sitting down and
standing up and sitting down or taking a knee
on the ground. Or sitting down on the ground.
Right. Pretend to tie your shoe. Right. Right.
Those are good distractions to start with. We're
not talking about, oh, I'm going to just toss
this treat. Yeah. Right next to the place bed
and see if they'll hold their place. Right. It's
it's probably not going to work out because they're
going to want to get the treat. Right. And the
faster the item is moving, the. quicker the dog
is going to break that position. And that's why
I call it a hundred dollar distraction because
it's a $20 treat with $60 worth of speed on it.
Right. And then, you know, like there's all these
other little variables that go because movement
always will attract a dog. Yeah. It turns on
prey drive. It turns on their like genetics to
be like, oh, my goodness. And it's something
that the dog will always like pay attention to.
Movement will always draw their attention. And
so that's how we work on like impulse control
with dogs. We do. Branches into like. But later.
Later. Yeah. That's that's what I'm trying to.
Yeah. And so. One of the other things is like,
yeah, just try rolling the ball slowly away from
your dog versus throwing it in the air away from
your dog. Yeah. And before you even do that,
just place the toy on the ground next to you.
Yeah. Right. Then place it away from you. Yeah.
Then place it near them and away from you. Then
worry about rolling it. Right. Yeah. So it's
just. All of those concepts, they're kind of
self -explanatory. But the number one thing that
I see that goes wrong on that front is usually
that we increase distraction too quickly for
the amount of proofing that we've already completed.
Yep. So how about towering over the dog? Right.
I think that's one of the things where people
kind of spend too much time practicing is When
we're teaching a dog to sit her down and we're
backing away from the dog, a lot of the times
the dog will end up breaking more after you've
repped it out a couple times because you're still
like facing them and creeping away really slowly,
trying to get that distance in to build some
duration. And most of the time your dog is like,
I don't know what's going on. I'm going to follow
you. Right. Because you're being a little bit
weird. But you do have to do that to start off
with. But eventually you need to turn around
and walk away from the dog because that's a real
life scenario is you turning around and just
walking away from the dog versus walking backwards,
staring at the dog. What do you think is a higher
distraction? You walking away, looking at the
dog or you standing right next to the dog and
looking away? I think that depends on the dog
for sure. I guess it does depend on the dog.
But you probably walking away, I would think,
because the dog always, name a dog that doesn't
want to follow you to the next room. Right, and
that's kind of the point of dog training in general
is that you're trying to build a better relationship
with the dog. So the dog wants to hang out with
you. Yeah, it's like, no, no, come back. Where
are you going? Yeah, where are you going? I want
to be there. Yeah, I want to go. So the way that
I recommend. doing some of that is that you you
should be close to the dog but turn around yeah
turn your back right go sit down on your couch
across right exactly see if they do some of these
different things right first before we try to
get all the way across the room down the hall
into the other room outside all of these things
we talked yes not yesterday last week uh about
Teaching place. And I kind of said the same thing
is that the number one thing that people get
wrong is they try to add way too much distance
and distraction in there too fast. Right. And
they're like five times. The dog has stayed for
two whole minutes. All right. Now I'm going to
walk out of the house and close the door. And
then they're like, man. They didn't stay. So
also, I think one thing that might be confusing
for people is I keep referencing place a lot,
even though this is a sit down episode. But I
use place for sitting down because a dog is always
usually going to be more comfortable on their
place. Most dogs already have a place, whether
it's a soft one, whether it's a rug, whatever.
But most dogs, when you're starting sitting down,
if you start on like a hardwood floor or some
like weird. material underneath them you're gonna
have a lot harder time than you're going to have
than if you choose their place bed where they're
used to already sitting and and laying down usually
yeah uh one more question i wrote down was why
do dogs break before their release and how do
you fix that the number one reason that they
break before the release is because you release
them at random times across the room yeah so
what that means is i've got my dog in a stay
or or an implied stay sit a down right and let's
let's get away from brianna's place bed uh that's
over there in the corner and we'll just say that
they're just in a down in the middle of the room
and they're just laying there they're being good
but i'm i've increased my distance All the way
across the room. And then I'm like, free. And
then they pop up and they get super excited and
they run to you to get their treat. Okay. So
what I just did there was I patterned the concept
that that dog should always be paying attention
and listening for that release. Well, some people
would say, well, that's good. That's exactly
what I want. Okay. I understand. But there are
other words in the English language that sound
the same. If you're over there and you say something,
something, something, something three, when the
dog is listening for free, high likelihood that
they're going to come running. Second issue is
that sometimes a dog will start making it up
in their head. Being like, I think they released
me. And then tear off trying to come to you and
get a treat. And you're like, I didn't say any
of that. So instead of patterning that, that's
where that contact release comes into play. And
so if you have a dog that's auto -releasing themselves
regularly, then I would recommend that you teach
them a contact release. Or at least a proximity
release. Yeah. Where you always walk towards
them and get within one arm's distance before
you release them. All right. The last point.
Duration for commands in real life. How do we
bring it all together? So when we're talking
about building real. like useful structure in
the house we've got to not just use sit and down
as party tricks but we've got to use it to actually
teach the dog some emotional regulation yep and
some impulse control how do we do that threshold
manners threshold manners so right we use sit
at the door that is a great one right off the
bat yeah we can use sit Anytime we go through
a door, we sit, we wait, we ask for access. We
wait for that thumbs up. The dog waits. So I
go to the door. Before I even open the door,
I ask for a sit, and then I just wait. When the
dog sits, then I open the door. Not before. Yeah,
never before. And then... Go ahead. Oh, I was
going to move on unless you're ready. Okay. Use
down during meals or downtime to promote calmness
around the house. Down during meals is a big
one because I know a lot of dogs that beg for
dinner. Right. As soon as you whip out yours.
So giving them... a place to down or some time
to lay down gives them the indication that it's
just time to relax. So instead of pacing around
or rubbing up against somebody or barking at
you or pawing at you, get the dog into a down
and teach them that that's where they, where
they need to be when you're at the kitchen table.
Yeah. And we can build. Once we've got some of
that duration, we can use the stay or that implied
stay with any of those commands to elongate that
impulse control. So then instead of just sitting
at the door until I open it, it's sitting at
the door until I walk through the threshold and
then invite the dog. And then it's sit at the
door until I walk through the door and stand
on the other side for a little while. Same thing
with the down. Then they're holding it down while
you're eating and you get through the whole meal.
We're just increasing that duration regardless.
But we want to use that duration or duration
and stay are synonymous. They're the same thing.
so we want to use that duration we want to use
that stay as a tool to also teach a dog that
you're not going to forget about them so just
placing your dog in a stay until eventually they
break is shooting yourself in the foot yeah you've
got to build it slowly And if you get to the
point where you're like, oh man, they can't go
past this point, then you have to slow down and
you have to build it from there. You can't just
be like, it's the uninterrupted stay that's important.
And as you build that duration, you going back
and showing your dog that like, hey, I didn't
forget about you. Now you can get up. Let's go.
And throwing a party, not just, not just being
calm about it, but really throwing that party
is super important. Yeah. Because otherwise your
dog's like, well, why did I hang out here for
the last 40 minutes or whatever it is you want
to, you want to teach your dog that predictability
that you're going to come back. There's going
to be a reward. There's going to be something
worthwhile here. Yeah. All right. Then we can
integrate our short little daily sessions and
we want to prevent regression. Yeah. We have
to maintain consistency. Dog training is all
about consistency. And with that consistency,
we've got to build in those short little refresher
sessions. Yeah. So that we don't go backwards
and lose. or sharpness on those skills. It's
the only way you're going to make progress. Lastly,
we want to reward compliance, especially calm
compliance, rather than simply avoiding breaking
the position. When a dog is exhibiting or showing
that they want or that they're offering a behavior
that is far and above uh just us telling the
dog what to do so when they offer that behavior
that you have wanted them to do that's the best
party that you gotta throw you've got it you've
got to go 10x yep because if you don't it won't
explain to the dog what you're really trying
to accomplish here it's guidance is good leadership
is great but when they do it on their own that's
even better so don't miss out on those opportunities
to throw that party and or shape their behavior
by rewarding them giving them food or a treat
or a bone or something like that when they offer
that behavior all right what What other type
of real life situations does sit down and duration
come into play? Taking your dog out in public.
Yeah. When you take your dog out in public, if
your dog is just like wandering around you, one,
it's probably anxious. And two, somebody is probably
going to reach out and touch it without asking
because that's the number one thing people will
do if you don't have your dog. People love to
pet random dogs. Right near you. Um, but if you're
like taking your dog out somewhere to eat, right,
your dog should be able to go into a down and
stay in a down for you to eat a meal. Like that's
one of the things that we do with our dogs. A
lot of the times, if one of the owner's goals
is to take the dog out in public, um, is to go
places with the dog and eat a meal with them
like they're, you know, their parents would.
Um, And let them know that they need to hold
that down the entire time. Obviously, making
sure your dog goes to the bathroom and everything
beforehand is a big thing that we teach at one
of our lessons. But that's one of the big things
where it's really important to have. Yeah. The
last question I had written down talks about
what's the difference between a dog that just
obeys commands versus a dog that truly understands
duration and uh to answer that question i think
that that concept of emotional regulation and
impulse control is what differentiates that so
a dog that obeys is a dog that you told to lay
down and they are laying down but they are ready
to pop up At any moment, they are going to pop
up out of there. They are ready. They are just
waiting for you to say free and I'm ready to
go. A dog that you put into a down who understands
duration and you give them that continuation,
a lot of times you'll see them kind of like roll
that hip, right? They roll that hip and they're
like, all right, I might be here for a minute.
I'm going to get comfortable. And they regulate
their own emotions. control their own thoughts
they're like okay i'm just gonna relax yeah i'm
just gonna turn off that is the value of duration
and that's really the end state that's the goal
yeah all right so uh before we hit that hour
mark we're at like 55 minutes or so i'm gonna
open it up for questions uh we don't have many
tuned in tonight uh due to the Cell phone disruption
issue here, but we will open it up here for a
couple for a minute and see if anybody has any
questions. Right. My phone still doesn't work.
It's been all day. Right. My primary or my personal
cell phone works and my business line is dead.
Don't know why. No questions, no questions. No
whammies, no whammies. That was a good show.
Right. That was a good show. I don't know that
good is the right... It was slightly entertaining.
I used to like it back in the day. The new version
is not as good. All right. Then we will... No
questions tonight. We will kind of wrap it up
there. The listener projects. So, number one.
10 second rule. Ask your dog for a sit or down
and hold that position for 10 seconds. Let me
make sure I got, yep. So hold that position.
Your goal is 10 seconds at the beginning. Then
11, 12, 13, 14, right? We add duration. But the
goal here for this project is just 10 seconds.
Mark with something, your marker words, that.
Build that continuation marker and give those
rewards so that you can kind of accrue that time.
And then release. We release with free and keep
the early reps upbeat and super fun. Repeat that
four or five times every day and see what kind
of progress you can make. Listener project number
two. Down stay with movement. So the movement
we're talking about is yours. Put your dog into
a down. And then take two quiet steps backward.
Then return to your dog. Come back to him. And
then mark that nice, calm holding of that down
with yes and reward. Or you can do the opposite
where you can go, you can touch them, right?
A little. Tap on the head and go free. And then
you can back up away from your dog, let them
pop up and be super excited to run to you and
get that reward. Gradually increase your steps
over the week in order to build that confidence.
All right. We got a, I was going to say short
and sweet, but it was still like 57 minutes.
tonight that is all we got for you we talked
about sit down stay both implied and uh um intentional
i'm trying to see i don't have anything else
to add here so i'm gonna say good night for tonight
thank you for tuning in i appreciate it if you
enjoy listening to us, uh, come at you every
week with some random dog training, uh, stuff.
I'd love for you to give us a rating on Apple
podcasts or on Spotify podcasts or Amazon podcasts
or all sorts of, we're on all of the different
networks. Uh, the RSS feeds are great for that.
Um, if, uh, We're always trying to get better,
right? I am not a professional podcaster by any
stretch. We're always trying to get better. So
if you've got a comment, leave us a comment.
Leave us a like. Let us know how we're doing
and how we can improve. All right. Thanks, everybody.
Good night.