Dog Training

One hand signal that can hit a bit of a snag is teaching down without bending over to touch or point to the ground. That’s because, when you just lower your hand to your side to signal down, without bending over, you’re actually asking your dog to move down and away from the treat, which[...]

No Treat in the Signal Hand You should only move on to stage 3 hand signals once your dog is by and large ignoring the treat in your signal hand, since she now knows that the treat reward will be coming from the opposite, hidden hand. In stage 3, you remove the treat from your[...]

Once your dog has mastered the stage 1 hand signals, and she can move through them as readily as she did when you were luring her around by the nose in the part 1 exercises, then you’re ready to move on to stage 2 of hand-signal training. In the second stage, you introduce a little[...]

Once your dog has mastered the foundational sit-down-stand routine, you’re ready to add hand signals. The use of hand signals starts to separate sits, downs, and stands into independent concepts in your dog’s mind, and they begin building the bridge from “exercises” to “commands.” Hand signals also change the way you use treats in order[...]

DOWN TO STAND Once your dog is in a down, keep the treat close to her nose and slowly move it away at a slightly upward angle. If you lose her interest, you’ve probably moved the treat away too far and too fast     Keep slowly moving forward and upward …      [...]

Stand to Down- Dog Training Stand to down opens the door to a number of advanced commands. In the beginning, people often gloss over this exercise because they don’t see the point. Don’t do that! Stand to down sets up down out of motion, which is essential when establishing distance control and emergency stops. While[...]

Sit to Stand You might ask yourself, “Why bother teaching my dog to stand?” The stand command is a useful exercise in its own right, one whose value you will appreciate later. It’s particularly helpful when using the stay command. For now, don’t gloss it over. Make sure your dog solidly holds the stand for[...]

Down- Dog Training The step is about introducing down. Often it’s helpful to introduce this exercise on slick floors such as tile, hardwood, or linoleum, as it’s sometimes easier for a dog to slide into down initially. Once they’ve understood the basic concept, work on whatever surface you like. Remember, say the word “down” only[...]

Dog Sit Training In dog training, the first step is to sit. It’s a simple exercise that not only teaches your dog to sit but also introduces the whole idea of learning. She’ll begin to understand that when you engage with her in a particular way — waving a treat around and making sounds —[...]