Marlane emailed me a few days back asking how to teach Mycroft (Ziva and Jordan puppy who is about 6 months old) to come in close enough for her to put his leash on.  He is one of the many dogs who is happy to come, but wants to get just out of reach.  This is very typical and something easy to correct with training.

The first thing you need to do is find something the dog values.  This could be a yummy treat, a toy, or both.  Typically I use both.  You want to work this when the dog is motivated (not sleepy and not right after a meal).  You want to do this in a safe place off leash until they are reliable and understand what you are asking.  You want to mark the behavior with “YES” or a click from your clicker when you just start out doing this training.

Watch this video of Jazz and Lina so you can see exactly what a “close sit” looks like.

Please note:  Both Jazz and Lina have done close sits before.  I wasn’t ‘marking’ their behavior right when they did it.  I was asking them to get in close and then “HOLD” eye contact before a reward.  This is more advanced than what you will be doing with your dog when you start.  I want you to reward them as soon as their butt hits the ground when they are close.  If they inch up and sit close say “YES” then drop the toy or toss a treat.  Release them and let them blow off a little steam (maybe a quick retrieve) then repeat.  After they are coming in close and sitting, you can build eye contact time like I was doing with Lina.  Remember the rules of training.  When you teach something new, decrease the time they have to hold that new behavior.  Reward right when they do it and release them at the same time.  You will build duration after they know what you want.  Another reason to do this is to insure the dog doesn’t think when they come in close you are going to leash them up and kill their fun.  Nine times out of ten you should release the dog to go back out to have fun.  Call them in, have them sit, give them the treat or ball, free them up to go have more fun.  When you do leash them, give them extra treats for being so grand.  Walk them a bit, ask them to sit, release them again to go have fun.  Lots of repetition, but broken up so they don’t get bored.

If you are doing this in an open field, let the dog drag a leash during training.  Avoid picking up the leash to pull your dog into position.  The leash really is just a safety measure.  It is far to easy to use the leash as a ‘crutch’ in training, which is way most of my training is done without a leash in my hand.  Dogs are smart, it is much easier for them to cheat when on leash than when off.  They can put just a tiny bit of tension on the leash and then ignore you, because they can feel where you are.   Smart dogs ALWAYS cheat and we all know Poodles are smart.  🙂

I hope to do more training video’s now that the weather is starting to cool.  If anyone has a suggestion on what to demo next or if you have a specific problem, post below!!!

~Becky