Obedience.

Perfect these 3 skills as a minimum.

In the early days of Roxy joining us, I had a flight to catch. At that time, I lived on an island where there were no cars and everybody walked their dogs off-leash. That day, I took Roxy out for her daily morning walk, only to end up playing “chasies” with her for 4 hours straight. Flight time came and went and the leash remained empty hooked. Roxy had the time of her life that day, me possibly the worst.

Prematurely walking your dog off-leash can lead to problems. Before granting your dog such freedom, make sure you master the Super Recall. This skill, along with the Super Sit and the Super Off Leash Walk, are the 3 minimum skills you need to perfect with your dog to promise a stress-free life together.

The Super Recall

There’s something very joyful about watching dogs play happily together off-leash. What’s less joyful is the experience of chasing after your dog to get them back on-leash when it’s time to go home. There are many ways to teach a good recall, but the fastest way involves a team of two:

• Volunteer a helper. Stand at opposite sides of a room.

• Ask Person 2 to hold your puppy back a bit. From the other side of the room, say your puppy’s name and call them to “Come!” very enthusaistically.

• When your puppy comes to you, take them gently by the collar, then praise and treat. This teaches your dog to come close enough to you, instead of frustratingly just out of arm’s-reach. It also helps with collar touch desensitisation.

• Take turns calling your puppy from one side of the room to the other.

• Tip! Many people simply call out their puppy’s name and forget to actually give the instruction, “Come!”. The purpose of saying your puppy’s name is only to get their attention. After you have their attention, always tell your dog what you want them to do, in this case, “Come!”.

• Tip! Call your puppy in as exciting a tone as you can muster. Pretty soon, you will be competing with many more interesting stimuli in the outside world, so you need to condition your puppy to understand “Come!” as a really great thing. If you want them to bound back enthusiastically, you need to sound enthusiastic! Praise and treat generously each time they come back to you.

• The Super Recall needs to be super reliable, meaning your puppy has to come back to you every time in every environment. To proof the skill:

  • First master the Super Recall indoors, at short distance, with few distractions.

  • Then gradually increase the distance between you and your puppy.

  • Next, head into the backyard or somewhere outside with minor distractions. Perfect the recall in this low-key outdoor environment, gradually increasing distance.

  • Finally, work on this skill in a public or dog park, gradually increasing distance.

  • If your puppy regresses at any stage, take it back one level.

• Tip! When you progress to practicing the Super Recall in a public place such as at the dog park, make sure you release your dog to “Go Play!” every time after it comes when called. This ensures that your dog doesn’t associate “Come!” with “end-of-fun” which is the ultimate buzz kill for recall training.

• Tip! In a public environment, with so many things competing for your dog’s attention, you need to increase the reward stakes by having some Super Treats ready. These are goodies that your dog simply cannot refuse. If your dog isn’t food motivated, find out what does motivate them. Roxy, for example, is not at all food motivated but goes mad for sticks. For other dogs, it may be a ball or a special tug toy.

The Super Sit

The Super Sit solves 90% of behaviour problems because a dog that sits reliably on cue, until released, is a dog that isn’t jumping up, running off, humping, chewing, digging, lunging etc. The easiest way to teach the Super Sit is like this:

• Hold a treat in front of puppy’s nose.

• Say your puppy’s name and tell them to “Sit”.

• Move your treat hand up starting at the puppy’s nose and back over its head. As your puppy follows the treat with its nose, it will sit naturally.

• Once its butt touches the ground, praise and treat.

• Tip! Once puppy is getting the hang of “Sit”, introduce a release word. For example, after they sit, wait a few seconds, say “OK!” and encourage your puppy to get up and play. Only then do you praise and treat. Teaching your dog to sit until they are released means that there is no need to teach them how to “Stay”.

• As with the Super Recall, the Super Sit should be done with 100% reliability. Proof the skill by gradually increasing: a) their time sitting before releasing, b) their distance from you when you give the command, and c) level of distractions in the environment.

The Super Off-Leash Walk

A lot of people think of leash walking as a pre-cursor to off-leash walking, however, on-leash walking is a skill to master on its own. Going on walks with your dog is great for bonding, fitness and relaxation. Many places request dogs to be walked on-leash so for this daily ritual to be fun, your puppy needs to know how to walk with you in a polite manner. A pulling, lurching dog is zero fun to walk and risks being stuck at home or banished to the backyard, where there’s a good chance they’ll end up engaging in other naughty behaviours like digging, barking, scratching the fence/furniture etc.

An easy way to teach your dog to walk politely off-leash is like this:

• Put your puppy on leash and head outside. Your untrained puppy will likely get very excited and pull, jump and run ahead.

• When they do this, stand still, do not say anything or move a muscle until your puppy calms down and there is slack in the leash. Say “Good Boy/Girl” and take one step forward.

• Your puppy will most likely get very excited again and hop about all over the place.

• Again, stand quiet and unmoving until your puppy is calm and the leash goes slack. Praise and take another step forward.

• Repeat until you can take two steps forward, then three steps, then four steps etc.

• Eventually, your puppy will understand that the only way that they can get you to move is if they stay quiet, calm and close to you.

• Tip! Notice how there are no treats required using this method as the act of you stepping forward is the reward in itself.

• Tip! Your dog may understand what’s happening in just a few short minutes or it may take them longer to catch on. This method calls for patience. Stand still, quiet and unmoving for however long it takes for your dog to go quiet and leash to go slack.

Tips On Treating

• With food treats, it’s the number not amount that’s important. Better to use tiny pieces in obedience training and do lots of repetitions. The exception is in recall training where we don’t want to be a miser!

• As your puppy gets better, up your standards before rewarding. If you are confident they know the skill and just aren’t doing it properly, withhold the reward - only treat excellent responses.

• We want to use food to reward rather than bribe so aim to phase out the food lure as quickly as possible. Eventually, your dog should respond simply to your voice or hand gesture. As soon as your puppy gets the hang of a skill remove the food lure but keep treating for good performance.

• Once you’re confident your puppy knows what a command means, treat your puppy intermittently so that they don’t know when a treat is coming. Intermittent, slot-machine, rewarding is proven to be very effective at causing behaviour to stick. Treat only for excellent performances.

• Food is superbly effective when teaching a skill as it gives us many opportunities to provide repeat, rapid feedback. However, it actually sits on the lower rungs in terms of value from many dogs' perspectives. More than food, a good number of dogs value toys, balls, sticks, games of tug or heading out for a walk much more. Integrate these higher-value rewards into obedience training in place of food when your dog becomes more experienced.

• Accept that skills get rusty over time. If you ever feel your dog is regressing, e.g. with the Super Recall, you only need to dedicate a few focused training sessions to get things back on track.

Over To You!

• Teach your puppy the Super Recall, Super Sit and Super Loose Leash Walk.

• Prioritise these 3 skills ahead of other obedience commands.

• Make some Super Treats and use these for recall training in public places.

• Put into practice the Tips On Treating above.

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