This puppy training technique was developed by the late Alan Lourie who in his latter years after an active farming life lived in Palmerston North NZ.
Alan Lourie won many dog trials, gun dog trials and obedience trials. He trained his dogs to do all sorts of tricks to keep their minds active and was a master of animal behaviour. To prove a point about the ability of his dogs to stay till commanded to move – he once left a gun dog (spaniel) in the stay command position all day and went back to get it at night to the amazement of his critics. He retired at 63 Fitzroy Street in Palmerston North where he died in his 80s. He taught many famous dog trialists their first basic skills.
Alan never published any of his ideas, but after interviewing him, he was happy to check what I had written below and happy for it to go on my blog. It appeared in the “New Zealand Farmer” March 24, 1983 edited by the late Neil Rennie as editor.
The initial problem
It’s easy to build a bond with a pup and get it to follow your every step. It's when you have to leave it to 'sit' or 'stay' that it gets very upset and confused as it sees its pack leader disappear leaving it in what it sees as danger. So its natural instinct is to do what it's learned - follow it's
It’s the ‘sit’ and ‘stay’ that can be tricky with strong-willed and smart pups as they interpret ‘stay’ as 'the pack leader is leaving me in danger', so it wants to follow to be safe.
Steps in the method
The approach to training is a simple
step-by-step approach and should start no later than three months old. I do not teach the “Down” command as it
is not necessary. The basic
exercises are taught on a narrow stool which prevents the pup making any
unnecessary movements. It also
saves the handler bending down.
Step A
Lift the pup on to the stool and praise
it. It is best to start off with
the stool against a wall. The
exercise should be done three times a day for no more than two minutes each
time. Praise the pup only after
you have lifted it on to the stool and while it stays there. Do not praise it after you have lifted
it backwards off the stool.
Note that you never take the pup off the stool in a forward
direction. When the pup is quite
happy to be put on the stool and taken down again, teach step B.
Step B – “Sit”
Put one hand under the pup’s chin and gently
grab a lump of skin. With the
other hand pressing down on the pup say “Sit” in a high-pitched voice, give the
command quietly but push down quickly on the rump while lifting the head. Hold the pup down and praise with “Good
dog”. Do this for tow minutes then
take the dog back to its run.
Repeat three times a day.
Praise only while it is sitting.
Release it backwards off the stool and do not give more praise.
When the pup is sitting on the stool when
commanded – then teach C.
Step C – “Stand”
The stand is taught by raising the pup from
the sitting position by putting you hand on top of its head and the other under
its belly with the command “Stand”.
On the command, slowly and quietly lift the hindquarters while pushing
down on its head. Praise only when
the pup is standing. Release backwards
off the stool with no more praise.
Do this exercise three times a day for
spells of two minutes each. Make
the word for the command have a long “Staaand” sound to contrast with the
short, sharp “Sit” command sound. Never let the pup fight you. Use your strength, pressure and do it
quickly. Hold the pup in position
and praise it. Then when proficient at this exercise – teach step D – the most
important “Stay” command.
Step D – “Stay”
Stay means stay!
The “Stay” command will soon be understood
by the dog as meaning – “Stay where I put you for ever until I give you the
command to move”! This is vitally
important because on the is command a dog will relax and even go to sleep, and
not get into a state of agitation and stress wondering where it’s boss has
gone, getting up tight and move away to look for him/her if they have gone out
of sight.
Returning to the pup
The “Stay” command is perfected by you
always going back to the dog and relaxing it backwards from the spot you
have left it. But how you return
is critical.
Return to the pup as previously and stand
perfectly still by its right shoulder.
Slowly count to 10 or even 20 to teach the pup to be patient and then go
down on one knee and hold the pup in that position while quietly praising it
before relaxing it backwards from the spot.
There are two important “don’ts”. First o not return to the pup and give
it immediate praise or it will anticipate this and jump off the stool to meet
you. Then do not call the
dog to you from the “Stay” or it will encourage it to break when it becomes
concerned about where you are or what is going to happen next.
How then do you move a dog from the “Stay”
position? The answer is to teach
the dog to “Wait”.
Step E – “Wait”
“Wait” is a completely different
command. The pup has to learn that
it means “stop, stand still, but stay alert because another command is coming
very soon”. The dog will learn to move forward to you from the “Wait” command
but it should never shift from the “Stay” command until you go back to
it.
Benefits of the stool
It’s now that you can see the benefit of
the stool – in the kitchen, in the woolshed away from any other distractions
for the pup. Under these
conditions the pup will learn ten times faster than when running around on the
ground picking up bad habits from other dogs and being distracted during the
lessons. By this stage with the
stool, the pup has learned no bad habits and has accepted you as its master and
team leader. It has developed the
habit of looking for you two or three times a day. These exercises can even be started from two months old and
by three months it should have learned all the A,B,C, D stages.
The stool lessons can then be changed by
moving the stool outside into the paddock. The pup will learn that these commands are you definite
instructions. If it breaks from
any step – then go back to the previous one. Do not move on until each step has been well learned and the
pup reacts on the first command without question or delay.
The “Get up” command
If you put a block at the back of the stool
to act as a step, then it’s easy to teach the pup to “Get up” on to the stool
when it is big and strong enough.
You can’t expect a little put to do this too soon. If a robust pup is reluctant to jump
up, then a short sharp pull on a lead up on to the stool with the command “Get
up” will fix it, along with plenty of praise once it has arrived. He’ll be surprised to suddenly find
itself on the stool getting great praise and soon forget about the pull that
got it there.
When older this “Get up” exercise can be
done on to anything around the place – and eventually on to the bike and the
backs of tightly-held sheep. It
all starts on the stool.
Some key points to remember
- The top of the stool should be 750mm long, 200mm wide and 25mm thick. It should be at least 400mm above the ground.
- A young pup when on the stool and looking down sees it as too high to jump off, but it is wide enough to make it feel reasonable safe without moving.
- You never ever take the pup off the stool in a forward direction – always backwards.
- When you go back to the pup – always wait standing still before you complete the action. Otherwise it will not wait for your command and will anticipate your praise and move – and as it gets bigger jump off.
- If you praise the pup as soon as it gets off the stool, it will then learn to jump up to get praise all over you (and other humans) and this is hard to correct later.
- To stop it jumping up for praise, give it a smart pat on the head with the command - “That’ll do” and walk away ignoring it.
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