how can I teach my puppy to sit,down,etc from distance?

3164 Views 24 Replies 14 Participants Last post by doggiedad, Sep 22, 2010

Helios

Discussion Starter · Sep 18, 2010 (Edited)

My puppy will be 6MO tomorrow and im wondering how can I teach him to 'Down' even when hes not right next to me or in front of me.
If i leave him in 'stay' and walk away a few steps off him he'll get in front of me after saying 'Down'.
He always stands in front of me when I say the command IF he's not near me.
How can I make him understand that theres no need to get closer in order to do the command?.

1 - 20 of 25 Posts

Stosh

· #2 · Sep 18, 2010

You can put him on a leash and tell him to sit and stay, then back up- praising him for staying. Each time the dog gets up, you'll have to calmly go back, put him in a sit and stay, then slowly back up again. Eventually you'll be able to get farther away. He's pretty young to be able to do this off leash, give him time

Helios

Discussion Starter · #3 · Sep 18, 2010 (Edited)

Stosh said:
You can put him on a leash and tell him to sit and stay, then back up- praising him for staying. Each time the dog gets up, you'll have to calmly go back, put him in a sit and stay, then slowly back up again. Eventually you'll be able to get farther away. He's pretty young to be able to do this off leash, give him time

He actually sits/stay/down and stays like that when I tell him to, i can move around him, walk away and he keeps the down/sit/stay command unless I dissapear of his sight but that's okey.

What I want to know is how to make him sit,down, when im not in front of him or near him.

Helios

Discussion Starter · #4 · Sep 18, 2010 (Edited)

EDIT: how can I teach him to SIT or DOWN even when hes not right next to me or in front of me.

Example: When I leave him in 'stay' and walk away a few steps off him and then I say DOWN first he'll get in front of me and then do the command after saying 'Down' instead of doing the down command in the spot where i left him.

How can I make him understand that theres no need to get closer in order to do the command?.

Hope you can understand me xD..

Cassidy's Mom

· #5 · Sep 18, 2010

I do understand what you're saying, and what he's doing is pretty typical - most of us start training our dogs with them right in front of us, basically toe to toe, so that becomes part of how the dog learns the command. If they're a few feet away they run to us and sit in front because they've learned the command in a very context specific way, which is why generalizing is an important step with any command. Once he's reliable in one context, change it up. He sits in front of you? Great - how about at your side in heel position? How about when he's in the car, or you're sitting on the couch, or laying on the floor? Standing on a chair? With your back turned? Use your imagination!

When you feel that he understands and has fully generalized the command you can start working on it at a distance. Keep in mind that any time you change the criteria (adding distance, duration or distraction) it's new to the dog, so you may have start at the beginning again, using hand signals as a reminder even though he's consistently responding to a verbal cue at that point.

There are a couple of ways to teach distance commands that I know of, others may know of more. I usually have a pretty strong stay command so I can combine that with whatever else I'm teaching - I have the dog stay, (it sometimes helps to use a hand signal here, like a traffic cop would signal you to stop) back away a few feet, and then command sit or down or whatever I'm working on. Work pretty close at first before adding distance, and if he starts to move forward, step in and back him up to the original place. I like to use a negative marker (often referred to as a "no-reward" marker) which lets the dog know that they've done the wrong thing and will not get a reward. So as I'm moving towards the dog after he breaks I say "ah, ah" (or "oops" or "wrong", whatever you want to use), and put him back in place.

Another way is to tether him to something with the leash so he CAN'T move towards you. In either case, step in to reward him and then step back again.

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Helios

Discussion Starter · #6 · Sep 18, 2010

Cassidy's Mom said:
I do understand what you're saying, and what he's doing is pretty typical - most of us start training our dogs with them right in front of us, basically toe to toe, so that becomes part of how the dog learns the command. If they're a few feet away they run to us and sit in front because they've learned the command in a very context specific way, which is why generalizing is an important step with any command. Once he's reliable in one context, change it up. He sits in front of you? Great - how about at your side in heel position? How about when he's in the car, or you're sitting on the couch, or laying on the floor? Standing on a chair? With your back turned? Use your imagination!

When you feel that he understands and has fully generalized the command you can start working on it at a distance. Keep in mind that any time you change the criteria (adding distance, duration or distraction) it's new to the dog, so you may have start at the beginning again, using hand signals as a reminder even though he's consistently responding to a verbal cue at that point.

There are a couple of ways to teach distance commands that I know of, others may know of more. I usually have a pretty strong stay command so I can combine that with whatever else I'm teaching - I have the dog stay, (it sometimes helps to use a hand signal here, like a traffic cop would signal you to stop) back away a few feet, and then command sit or down or whatever I'm working on. Work pretty close at first before adding distance, and if he starts to move forward, step in and back him up to the original place. I like to use a negative marker (often referred to as a "no-reward" marker) which lets the dog know that they've done the wrong thing and will not get a reward. So as I'm moving towards the dog after he breaks I say "ah, ah" (or "oops" or "wrong", whatever you want to use), and put him back in place.

Another way is to tether him to something with the leash so he CAN'T move towards you. In either case, step in to reward him and then step back again.

Thanks for the idea, imma start doing that

The idea of tethering him to something with the leash came to my mind but yet i wanted keep reading other ways of teaching him that.:laugh:

Ucdcrush

· #7 · Sep 19, 2010

Tie him to something. Start the known commands right in front of him as he's used to, then a step back, another step back, back and to the side, 20 feet away, etc.

For this training using a marker such as "YES!" or a click at the moment he does the right thing will be useful. That way as soon as he goes down from 20 feet, he knows he did the right thing when he hears the "YES!" and you can bring the treat to him a few seconds later.

Rerun

· #8 · Sep 19, 2010

As I understand it, your dog is technically responding to your commands. You give the command, and the dog performs it. The issue here is that your dog doesn't have a solid stay, so that is actually what you need to work on.

Each time the dog gets up when you give the command down (or whatever command), you need to take the dogs leash and return him to the spot he was supposed to stay in. No talking to him, no coddling. Calmly and quietly return him, tell him to stay, and walk off again. If he tries to get up, give him an "ah ah" and initially, another "stay" command (from a distance). If he does stay, give him a second, then tell him "down" again.

Repeat as necessary.

If he gets up, return him, and try again. Persistance is the key.

If the issue was actually with giving the command "down" from a distance; he wouldn't be laying down at all. Your dog does listen, and does "down." He just doesn't "stay."

Helios

Discussion Starter · #9 · Sep 19, 2010

@Ucdcrush Imma do that !
@Rerun that makes sense now! Imma so doing that too.

doggiedad

· #10 · Sep 19, 2010

teach him hand signals.

Cassidy's Mom

· #11 · Sep 19, 2010

Rerun said:
If the issue was actually with giving the command "down" from a distance; he wouldn't be laying down at all. Your dog does listen, and does "down." He just doesn't "stay."

From his description, I don't think stay is the problem. It's not that the dog gets up from a down and follows him when he walks away, (which would be a stay issue), it's that when he gives the down command and the dog isn't right in front of him, the dog comes to him before complying with the command rather than doing it right there. At least that's how I read his posts.

I agree that having a solid stay will help you teach distance commands because you can get the dog to stay where he is while complying with other commands such as sit, stay or stand. But this sounds like it's about generalizing the down command so that the dog understands he's to lay down immediately, right where he's at, rather than coming to his owner first.

Helios

Discussion Starter · #12 · Sep 19, 2010

Cassidy's Mom said:
From his description, I don't think stay is the problem. It's not that the dog gets up from a down and follows him when he walks away, (which would be a stay issue), it's that when he gives the down command and the dog isn't right in front of him, the dog comes to him before complying with the command rather than doing it right there. At least that's how I read his posts.

I agree that having a solid stay will help you teach distance commands because you can get the dog to stay where he is while complying with other commands such as sit, stay or stand. But this sounds like it's about generalizing the down command so that the dog understands he's to lay down immediately, right where he's at, rather than coming to his owner first.

Yes , that's what i meant

Mrs.K

· #13 · Sep 19, 2010

doggiedad said:
teach him hand signals.

I would be very careful with hand signals. I used to teach with hand-signals they can pretty much bite you in the behind if you do it wrong. Been there done that.

I used a handsignal to get yukon into the downstay and they were so solid that whenever I reached for a treat in the treat-pocket he went into the downstay.

So be careful what signals you use.

Uniballer

· #14 · Sep 19, 2010

The other issue with hand signals is that while you can use them without penalty in AKC obedience, they are considered handler help or additional commands in schutzhund and result in point deductions. So whereas if you are headed to an AKC UD title the dog must know them, if you are headed towards a high scoring SchH3 you must fade them out of sight. Train accordingly.

kidkhmer

· #15 · Sep 21, 2010

The GOOD thing about hand signals for household companion dogs is if one person is doing most of the training ( like me ! ) and that person is a male ( like me ! ) and uses deep voiced commands ( like me ! ) then the primary trainer's wife ( like mine ! ) who may not be able to lower her voice sufficiently can use the signals to command.

Jason L

· #16 · Sep 21, 2010

You can teach it like the way ring people do it: first, make sure you have sit, down, and stand on VERBAL ONLY (test this by turning your back to the dog and ask for sit, down, stand), next teach the dog to go to a particular spot and stay there (could be a box, a table, a touch pad, a blanket, a PVC square). Once you got that, put the two together. Tell the dog to go to his spot and then ask him to sit, down, stand. Gradually move the "spot" further and further away from you.

Helios

Discussion Starter · #17 · Sep 21, 2010

im going to try to do what jason said to see if he understands the commands. I've tried with both hands behind my back, hidden and he does the commands.
And when it comes to hand signals I need him to understand them which he does perfectly because I've taugh him commands in english and my sister which is deaf always use hands signal since english is really hard for her.

selzer

· #18 · Sep 21, 2010 (Edited)

Helios said:
My puppy will be 6MO tomorrow and im wondering how can I teach him to 'Down' even when hes not right next to me or in front of me.
If i leave him in 'stay' and walk away a few steps off him he'll get in front of me after saying 'Down'.
He always stands in front of me when I say the command IF he's not near me.
How can I make him understand that theres no need to get closer in order to do the command?.

Your pup is young yet. I always use a hand signal for sit and down, I teach with words and without them. Then I will say STAY and move out into the front. Then I will give them the DOWN Command. Praise. Gradually take a step or two from him, and then give the command DOWN.

After the down, learn the sit from a distance. Praise liberally, treat intermittently, punish not necessary.

Once the dog is solid with hand signals, I start working either verbal or hand. I have not had any troubles phasing them out when I need to.

Mrs.K

· #19 · Sep 21, 2010

Jason L said:
You can teach it like the way ring people do it: first, make sure you have sit, down, and stand on VERBAL ONLY (test this by turning your back to the dog and ask for sit, down, stand), next teach the dog to go to a particular spot and stay there (could be a box, a table, a touch pad, a blanket, a PVC square). Once you got that, put the two together. Tell the dog to go to his spot and then ask him to sit, down, stand. Gradually move the "spot" further and further away from you.

The easiest way for me was to do it on a table pretty much from the beginning. Some people at my old club laughed at me for table training because they thought it was only ment for people that want to go to championships but honestly... I really don't care what these people say anymore because the result is what counts and the results are solid commands.

I've trained Yukon, Zenzy and Indra on the training on sit, down and stay. It's the easiest way because you don't have to bend over all the time, they have it easier to make eyecontact and you can correct them easily.

I can highly suggest the table. Plus let them go into the down position before you feed them. Request commands while you take them on a walk.

Before you cross the street, let him go into a sit first. When you wait at a light, let him sit, when you talk to somebody, let them sit or go into a down-stay and whenever they get up, correct them and most importantly, NEVER GET FRUSTRATED!

Before you go through doors, let them sit or go into down. That all helps to imprint the commands into their mind and at the same time you teach them manners.

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LaRen616

· #20 · Sep 21, 2010

I taught my GSD hand signals.

He will sit, laydown or speak when I do a certain hand signal.

It comes in handy. There were people in my yard and I was outside with my GSD and he wasn't close to me I gave him the signal to sit and the signal to bark so those people were aware that he was there and that they should get the

out of my yard.

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