Hector
Well-Known Member
The first thing I noticed between the videos was that she was sit/stay much farther than the last two attempts. I would have placed her at the location of the first video. When you try to sit stay a dog closer to a distraction (food in this case), you're actually increasing the difficulty of the task. Definitely try to use a mat to make it a distinctive spot to sit/stay until she gets really good at it and you can then remove the mat. The second thing I noticed is that the man did not follow through with his commands. I understand this is hard for any dog, but the people giving commands needs to follow through. Otherwise it becomes a habit of repeating commands before the dog complies. Also if you don't follow through then the dog starts thinking, I'll just wait him out and doesn't actually try to work it through in their brain. Also since she is struggling a bit, I would suggest training sit/stay around food before meal time. I don't know if you use treats or you can even split her meals into smaller pieces so you can use that to train throughout the day. Another thing to remember is to help the dog out as much as possible. Use verbal cue, but don't over repeat yourself, use hand signals, body pressure, a leash, etc to help them succeed. You should also try to get her to offer some degree of eye contact before she gets food so she doesn't just focus all her energy at the food.