pet connection

Harper has a solid “Wait” at the front door. I can stand outside holding the screen door open, and she will not venture out until given the OK.

They all have this one down, thanks to frequent and strict practice during training and continuing to this day.

But “Stay”? Upstairs? Apparently in Harperland it means “Run down the stairs and look cute because for sure they wouldn’t want to leave me behind.”

This is one we haven’t put a lot of effort into correcting because, well, we’d never make it downstairs and out of the house if we tried. The only correction she gets is being left behind, and it doesn’t seem to have sunk in (probably because–once!–we changed our minds). But of course it would be nice to have a dog who actually responded to the “Stay” command, so last week Harper and I ventured out to Wags and Wiggles, where Harper went to puppy kindergarten. They have a series of one-hour classes where owners and dogs can work on a single issue, and one of them is called “Got Stay?” Sounded just like what we needed.

Working with the trainer and her Great Dane, plus about five other dogs and owners, we clicked and treated our way through all the facets of building a behavior (not in order): speed, distance, precision, duration, distraction and latency (the delay between a stimulus and the response it triggers, according to Wikipedia; I think I zoned out while she was talking about that).

We had a lot of fun with the exercises, although at least one thing I have taught all my dogs turned out to be a liability. For “Sit” and “Down,” I always combine a hand signal with the verbal command so the dog will respond even if I can’t or don’t want to speak or the dog can’t hear me. It’s hard to give a hand signal, though, when your arms are up in the air. Harper did OKwith that one, but when I gave the command with my back turned to her, she kept walking around so she was facing me. And when I was lying on the ground, she was more interested in climbing on me than in responding to “Sit” or “Down.” So we have some practicing to do.

And we’ll have to play the training games outside, or the other two will want to get in on the act (which they will). One game involves putting the dog in a “Sit” or “Down” and then clicking/treating for a one-second stay, then two seconds, then three, and so on until we reach 300. I think we made it to 10 during the two minutes that we practiced. Harper has the attention span of a kitten. A variation on that game involves working on distance: step back one pace, click/treat; step back two paces, click/treat. The goal was 20 paces during the two-minute practice. So, um, eight; it’s a start.

I think we’d better go practice. Later.