# sit/stay down/stay help?



## solinvictus (Oct 23, 2008)

I think you are on to something here. He has to be rewarded when in the correct position.
It may sound silly but you may have to practice the mechanics of delivering the treat (without the dog) so you can deliver faster. Practice looking in a mirror.

You may want to use a different treat that fits better in your hand or smaller so you can experiment with that also. Some may be harder to manipulate because of size, shape, soft or hard making it hard for you deliver fast enough.

You also may want to start with teaching him restraint.
Hold the treat in your hand at knee level. When he paws or licks or attempts to get it out of your hand do not give it to him. Keep your hand there. As soon as he backs off in any way give him a marker word such as yes and stretch out your hand and give him the treat. Do this over and over and over. When he automatically leaves your hand alone, try other restraint games such as putting the treat on the floor when he goes for it cover it. When he backs off use your marker word such as yes and then give him a treat. 

With the sit and down you really have to give the marker word and the treat really fast at first. Once you both have the mechanics down pat then you can move on and extend the time of the sit in very small seconds building up the time. Do not give the reward if he is out of position (gets up out of the sit/down) If he gets up give him a release word such as too bad or okay and start over.

It really would be beneficial for you and your pup to join in a basic obedience class. The class (trainer) is there to give the owner the skills to teach the dog. 

If you teach a sit and a down where the dog learns he can only get up when you give the release word you won't need an actual stay command as sit means sit until I tell you otherwise and the same with down.

It really takes many dogs a lot of repetition to get the behaviors solid and a 9 month old who hasn't learned a lot of restraint yet will need tons of repetition.


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## Sally's Mom (Sep 20, 2010)

One of the ways I have taught stays is using oppositional reflex to my advantage. So with my dog in sitting position, I put one hand on the point of shoulder and with my other hand pull on the collar, while pressing on the point of shoulder. It creates the oppostional reflex and helps to teach the dog to stay. You are not using a clicker to teach stays? And if food gets your dog out of position, I might just try praise.

My OTCH trainer friend in her classes teaches the dogs "food refusal". You start by putting the dog in a sit and then placing food around it The dog is not allowed to get the food on the floor... sometimes you have to facilitate it by holding the dog's head up. Anyway, when the dog understands it can't eat the food on the floor, you reward it with a treat from your bait bag. She helped me train one of my dogs to a UD with that method, only we used a ball because it held higher value than food for her. The point is, it teaches "self control" which carries over into the rest of the training. And with food, make sure the dog is still sitting or lying, when you give the treat.


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