Training

Long Sit For the difficult of unusual breed it is most often best to start with the long sit. It is a useful exercise because you can be in control of your dog early on, and it is achievable for any dog. Start by sitting the dog in the heeling position (beside your left leg). Encourage the dog to watch you while he is in the sit position. If the dog breaks the sit, pull up on the lead and collar, and gently push down on the rear to sit him again and praise when sitting. After the dog sits and watches you consistently at heel, try the watch me from other positions such as with the dog sitting in front of you. Also try the watch me when giving the dog a treat (you cannot fail this way, and then the praise is both verbal and the treat). Do the sit and watch me about 4 or 5 times a day. Its easy, and you can do it anywhere in your home or outside. The last photo in this series demonstates the sit command. This is with palm up, moving the hand up as you say the sit. Eventually, you will be able to use just the voice or the hand signal to sit your dog, from close by or from a distance. In obedience trial work you must never use hand and voice at the same time or you will use marks. But do start and continue with hand and voice for some while.
	Recall Once again, before doing any heeling, practice and perfect the recall. What puppy or dog won’t want to come happily to you when its a positive training session. With many breeds training the come on lead is a good idea, but if you have a lead puller, don’t fight it, do it on lead in an enclosed area. Practice often on lead by quickly backing up a few steps while heeling and call your dog to you. Then...In the house or in your fenced yard with no lead walk away from your dog (never over 10 feet at first) and call him. Remember the dog does not yet know a perfect sit in front or a perfect heel, the key is that he comes to you happily. You can use arm and hand gestures at this stage and all kinds of happy talk. The finer points come later, but for now, happy training sessions, and a happy willing dog will result. The recall can be boring for the non-typical obedience dog, so try to make it a happy game. Turn and run a few steps from your dog, and let him catch up and come to you. Praise each time he does. These methods for the recall can eliminate slow recalls from a bored dog and you will have a happy dog. Remember you have trained this exercise happily on a lead and with no lead, therefore no unpleasant pulling and need for corrections. Fine tuning if you are going to do obedience trials comes later. If your dog is your companion, the key is that he will come to you. As you can see here that Fuzz does such an enthusiastic recall, that a 5 year old digital camera cannot master a clear photo.
Heeling Now it is time to train heeling. Heeling is the key to being able to tell if your dog will every master obedience for trials, but you still must train your dog even if you will not go in obedience trials, so that you can handle your own dog. For the hard-to-train dog heeling is the most difficult. And the trainer must make a correction each time a mistake is made. This is why we are leaving this exercise to the last part of training, and with the successes up to this time, hopefully the dog really likes his training so far. You have to do your best to keep the difficult task of learning to heel to be as positive as possible. Try to work up the dogs enthusiasm to watch you with a happy voice, food, and body actions, all pleasant of course. If you use food, encourage watch me, always praise, but don’t give the food every time. By keeping the dog watching you, you will eliminate some of the lagging, forging, going wide crowding you, or sniffing. Keep your pace brisk, but still comfortable for you and your dog. On turns grasp the leash and hold it flush with your knee, which will encourage the dog to stay close to your knee. As soon as the turn is done, let the lead go. When halting make your dog sit, which is generally brought on by a quick but gentle tap or brush on the rump. Pet him and praise often during the sit at heel. Many new handlers pull constantly on the lead rather than quickly correct and then release the collar. Pulling makes the dog resist and pull in the opposite direction. Initial heeling can be done in a circle to the left, because this keeps the dog closer to the handler. A dog that pulls a lot, and needs a lot of correction can often be trained successfully by taking a lot of turns with just a few steps in between with a leash snap and praise on every corner. The multiple turns help the dog be more attentive to you. Kate is our heeling dog in this series of photos. The ultimate goal is with your dog comfortably away from you (about 12 inches from your left leg, depending on the size of the dog). Notice that Kate's body is directly perpendicular to mine, and this eliminates the rear swinging out on turns or the front bumping you on turns. Kate's lead is a little tight. She is a very young dog, and the ultimate goal is to move the dog with the lead very loose, in a j-pattern hanging down from the dog's left shoulder, just far enough that it is loose and not in danger of tripping the dog.
	Proper leash use The proper lead can make a difference for you and your dog. I like a leather lead, and it should be a comfortable width in your hand, but still not so large it will weigh down a small breed. I use a chain collar, because the noise the chain makes and not the tightening gets the message to the dog well. Some use a leather or fabric collar, but generally an attentive dog is most likely to be successful being trained on this collar. A dog that pulls likely won’t train well on a leather or fabric collar.
Heel position The proper heel position is with the dogs neck and shoulders even with your left knee. Don’t settle for anything less and the dog will quickly learn it. Ebony is our dog demonstrating the correct heel position in this photo.
	Off Lead Heeling Heeling off lead is a very difficult exercise for most dogs and trainers. If a dog has learned to stay in heel position on lead, chances are off lead will be easier. Do not start off lead heeling too early, before the task is mastered on lead. To do so will be frustrating for both trainer and dog. But the key is, do not let the dog get out of heel position, and if he does, correct, firmly but happily. There is an intermediate step between on lead and off lead heeling. This is the use of a short lead. This ensures the dog is under control, but the dog cannot see the long loop of loose lead. With the tiny dog, or course this cannot be used, but with the intermediate dog and large dog, this works well. Start by holding onto the short lead, but do not pull on the collar, but do correct as necessary with the short jerks as with the long lead. Then have the dog heel by your side with the short lead dangling. The dog cannot trip over the short lead. But the lead is there if you need to take it. If you dog is hopeless off lead, you have not done enough on lead training. Go back and practice on lead heeling and do not go back to off lead until you have found success on lead.
Front and Finish Front and finishes for obedience trials are hard to master with many dogs. I have had the greatest success using white fences placed close together in a tunnel formation. If the dog finishes wide, add a fence in back of you to ensure closer finishes. Praise much, because soon the dog will be doing this without the fences. The key is that you are pleased and you are showing the dog how to do the exercise himself, not just because the fences are there. Later on, you can replace the fences with two to four short white sticks as training aids for you and your dog.
	The Stand The short legged animal of course can sink very quickly into a sit when you really want him to stand. Loop the lead across the back and under the hindquarters in a half hitch fashion. You can then gently hold the dog in a standing position (do not jerk the lead). Praise constantly. Work on this until you can do it off lead.
The Down Stay This is often the most difficult position for many dogs, doesn't matter which breed. This is because the dog feels quite vulnerable in this position, because they are not in control of the situation. It is hard to get the dog down sometimes, and because the animal can be so apprehensive to go down, food often helps. Hold the food under your palm with your thumb like in the photo, and move your hand slightly down and away from the dog's nose. Praise constantly because your dog will be apprehensive. Pet the dog as it is down. Often times you might have to sweep the dog's feet forward. Be gentle. Another method is to gently push with your knuckles between the shoulder blades (while speaking gently and while using the food). Avoid coercion with the dog at all times. With a very apprehensive and/or stubborn dog I often start this exercise indoors, in a nice comfy spot to reduce the dog's tension, and so cuddling can result to praise the dog. This is a position that you must be in total control of eventually. The down command can halt the dog immediately from a bad situation, such as running out the front door, across the road, or before you open the car door to fasten a lead.
	In summary the so called hard to train breeds are not that hard to train. It just takes the same patience and consistency as with any dog, and a little ingenuity and a bit more time. Always finish on a positive note, even if it means going back to the dog’s best exercise and repeating it for success, playing with the dog, and/or giving it a special treat. And....treats do not have to be food, it can just simply be something special to the dog....a ride in the car, or a good cuddle in its favorite spot, or throwing its ball or toy. But with a basset....try food.