07/09/2024
Meet Stella! She is one of the 3 siblings I'm working with. All have different families. All have committed owners. All live in different counties.
Stella is quite a "livewire"! We let her play and investigate to release some of her energy before starting.
Stella already has a nice "down" command but doesn't understand that she has to stay down and pops right back up. I demonstrated to her owner that she needs to stay closer to Stella. Not to try getting any distance at this stage.
After giving Stella a down command I just stood in front of her softly praising the great eye contact she offered (we had previously worked on). Then swayed gently from right to left without moving my feet. Rewarded both verbally and with a slow touch. Then gave her a release word as I backed away a couple of feet. Rewarded her with touch and praise as she got to me and finished up with a SMALL treat. This first time was done in about 25 seconds.
When working with a dog, especially a puppy, you take what you want to accomplished and break it into small pieces and train each piece of the whole.