Teaching "Stand" (sillysally)

    • Gold Top Dog

    Teaching "Stand" (sillysally)

     I have recently started seriously thinking about trialing Jack in Rally.  We are in a Rally class now and jack does pretty good with most of the material, but I am not sure how to go about teaching him "stand."  Any advice?

    • Gold Top Dog

    Really nice stands have the dog pop up rather than step forward into a stand.  My breeder teaches it by bringing a treat to the dog's nose and then down into the chest (counter-intuitive I guess, but it works for her).  I teach mine by luring with a treat (or rather, using a treat to keep the dog's head and front in one spot), and then tapping under the belly with my foot to get them to stand.

    You won't need a stand or stand out of motion for RN so you can start trialing without it (Kenya doesn't even know a stand out of a sit, only the stand out of motion, and she has an RE leg).

    • Gold Top Dog

     I also used a treat to teach them. For Ena, I held the treat in front of her nose, and said, "Stand" then "let's go!". "Let's go!" is her cue to move. It worked, great, LOL. It's a little weird sounding, but she popped up, and she learned it FAST! For Emma, I lured her to take a step forward, from a sit. Her stand isn't nearly as nice, and she doesn't stay as well, but I only showed her to an RAE. She will not be trialing in traditional obedience, so it worked just fine!

    • Gold Top Dog

     Tootsie has no need for a "stand", but she has one. This is what I do: "Sit, down, STAND. Works everytime.

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    • Gold Top Dog

    I've learned both the step forward and pop up stand.  For me, having a bigger dog, it was just easy to get a step-forward, but I know if you go into Obed after rally, they prefer the pop-up.

    I realized early with G, that I had to keep a consistent hand signal, so I would flatten my hand out, squeeze the treat between my ring and middle fingers as they are outstretched straight.  Then I bring that hand in front of the dog, so it looks almost like I'm telling her "STOP", but my hand is horizontal as opposed to vertical.  I reach across my body with my right hand, as opposed to the left hand, so she wasn't searching the hand closest to her for the treat.  The only downfall is with a step-forward, you have to put the hand out farther, and I get G looking back at me over her shoulder, so keeping her from moving a foot while she turned needed to be finessed.

    Others talk about gently putting some pressure on the back foot closest to you,  if you can't get the dog to stand up to take the treat.

    the one thing made clear to me is that once you're done with the stand, to be very sure to heel forward for a few steps before halting, otherwise, the dog will default to sit out of a STAND, and you don't want that at all.  Keeping them moving straight out of the Stand reminds them that SIT is NOT the next thing in line.  (Unless you call for it, but don't practice that way while you're still teaching - have to make sure the dog understands STAND first.)

    • Gold Top Dog

     Here's a nine week old pup doing "stand" and a few other behaviors:

    http://www.howcast.com/videos/190145-Splash-9-Weeks-Clicker-Training