Success in establishing a new behaviour has as much to do with where you train as how you train.  It’s fabulous if your dog can do a stay at home, but really, it’s far more use to you if they can do a stay while you are out on a walk and have to help a little kid that just fell off their bike!  Hmmm, that sounds like a challenge doesn’t it?  It’s not really that hard, it’s just a matter of working up to it.

The first place to work a new behaviour is a familiar place with no distractions... it’s enough that they’re trying to figure out what you want.  That means in your kitchen or family room with no one around, no TV on, just you, your dog and a bag of treats.  Help them figure out what you want, then after a few repetitions with luring, fade the lure and see if they figured it out. (Hint, don’t keep repeating a command – say it once and give them a second or two to think about it.)  If they haven’t figured it out, lure it a few more times, then try without the lure again.  Once they have it – you can go straight to asking for a behaviour without the lure and get it successfully nine times out of ten – you need to move to step two.

Step two is working in a familiar place with distractions.  You’re working in the same kitchen or family room, but now you have an audience.  Your family is home, or you have a guest over. You may need to go back to luring the first three or four repetitions before you ask for the behaviour on a verbal cue.  If you find they can’t do it on one verbal cue, again, resist repeating yourself.  You’ll only teach the dog that they really don’t need to listen because you’ll tell them again and again.  If they don’t get it on one cue, break away, (step away from the dog to “stop” the game), then come back with a lure and lure the behaviour a couple times.  When it’s easy to work in a familiar place with distractions... onward and upward!

Step three is working in an unfamiliar place with no distractions (no, not the dog park).  Look for a place that your dog hasn’t been to before, but there’s nothing going on.  The back corner of the shopping center parking lot (where no one wants to park because it’s so far from the doors) is perfect.  Obviously, keep your dog on leash – safety first!  You will be amazed how hard it is to re-establish reliable responses at this step!  You may have to go back to square one and spend a couple sessions luring and rewarding.  It’s worth it!  This is where your dog learns that you are really a team and working with you is fun anywhere, anytime!  I always like to start sessions in strange places with things my dogs love; tugging, hand targets, easy behaviours – that gets the ball rolling for working on the harder stuff.

Now it’s time to get back to the kid on (or off) the bike.  An unfamiliar place with distractions.  If you’ve done your homework on the first three steps, your dog will sail into this level without too much trouble.  Just remember, you’re still “training” for a while – be aware of your dog and ask for behaviours they know how to do.  After a couple months of diligently looking for new, distracting places to work your dog, you’ll have a dog that can do anything, anywhere... and that’s what training is all about!