K-9 LifeSavers

One of the most basic and necessary commands your dog should know is "stay," unfortunately for some dogs, getting this one down can be tough. Here are a few tips to a great stay:

• Start with your dog sitting or lying down as he is less likely to move from those positions and use a leash to ensure control.
• Stand directly in front of him and in a firm tone say "stay" while holding your palm flat out in front of him (like a stop signal).
• Move a short distance away and return to him.  Praise him with "good stay," then give him a treat, ensuring he continues in the sit/down position. Then release him with "ok" or "free."
• Gradually increase the time you ask your dog to stay, as well as the distance between you and your dog.  As your dog succeeds you will want to go out of his line of vision and into other rooms while he stays.

Troubleshooting:

• If your dog moves from his stay before you have released him, gently but firmly put him back in the spot where he was originally told to stay.
• You want your dog to succeed at this, so make sure to increase your time and distance so that he is holding his stay at a rate he can still manage.  If he is breaking is stay, reduce the time/distance to one is able to achieve.
• If your dog continues to get up, check your own actions.  If you are talking constantly, moving your arms around, or showing him the treat, he may be getting distracted by your movement and voice.  There should be very little movement and talking, especially when you are just starting out.  Your dog will mimic your inaction.  Also, don't show your dog the treat until you are ready to give it to him.  Many dogs get too excited when they see a treat and lose focus on everything else.

Brigatta is only a few weeks old, but she is looking for a place to call home and someone to teach her all the skills she needs to know. We believe she's a Mountain Dog/Shepherd so she may grow up to be quite a girl, but right now she's just about the cutest fall of fluff you could ever find!

Agility competitions have been gaining popularity for quite some time, but we're also seeing dog dancing competitions become more prevalent these days.  In this addition of our trick series, we focus on "Circle Me" an exercise that is a basic skill in both agility and dancing.  Even if you and your dog are not in training, who doesn't love dancing around the house?

The idea: your dog moves in a full circle around your body.

• Start out with your dog standing in front of you with a treat in your hand. Draw your dog around you while saying the command "circle me."
• After several successful circles, change directions so that your dog is flexible enough to go both ways.  You may want to add a hand signal or "circle me left" and "cirle me right" commands to help cue your dog to the direction you want him to go to.
• Once your dog is comfortably circling you in both directions, begin to move forward do that your dog is circling you while you are moving forward.  This may confuse your dog a bit, and you may have to take a step back to drawing the treat around your body while moving forward.  This is not an easy exercise, but it should be a fun exercise that allows the two of you to play together.

Troubleshooting

• This is a bit of a challenging exercise for your dog, so you may want to start out by turning in a full circle with him, leading him with the treat just in front of his nose.
• As he becomes more comfortable with this, remain facing forward, but circle your body with the treat, changing hands behind you.
• Finally stand facing forward without moving the treat, so that the dog is circling you solely on command.

Advances practice:

• "Circle me" lays the ground work for a number of things, it focuses the dogs attention on his handler and improves his flexibility.  When you can move forward with your dog circling you in both directions you can start to create patterns of several circles, and then add on weaving between your legs and add that to your patterns. Before you know it your dancing!