View Full Version : Sit/stay question
Rubylove
08-11-2005, 02:30 AM
As some of you may have read, I've been clicker-training Ruby and she's responding really well. I'm now at the stage where I'd like to extend her `sit' to `sit/stay' and I'm not really sure how to start.
She will sit and stay for a certain amount of time (say, two seconds) and look straight into your eyes, little tail wagging like mad, ready to do whatever you want her to next.
So...would that be when I would click and treat next? After as long a pause as she can manage? I obviously want to time the click before she gets bored and stands up, but not too early or she'll get confused...
Any advice? I don't necessarily have to use a clicker for this command but I thought I'd try and be consistent with her.
Fran27
08-11-2005, 09:26 AM
I'm not sure how to use a clicker with stay to be honest, but I haven't used clicker training. Maybe just make her sit, take a step away, then come back, click and praise? Then you can gradually extend the length of the stay, and move farther away, turn around her etc.
Adrienne
08-11-2005, 09:59 AM
What you are doing is exactly right, build her up to longer and longer sessions but do click and treat/praise before she has the chance to screw up. After you are sure she understands the stay command if she breaks the stay before you release her no click and no treat. Then do a command she does well, click/treat and try again at the stay.
Rubylove
08-11-2005, 10:12 AM
Well she just learnt `down' really quickly and I thought that was a more complicated command than `sit'. So I'll definitely do that with `stay'. I think it will take longer but in the end no less effective and lasting.
bridey_01
08-11-2005, 10:39 PM
Have her sit by your side and shuffle your feet a little. If she doesn't move, click and treat. Move on from shuffling your feet to taking a small step to the side, returning immediatly to click/treat. You can build up to more steps and longer stays, just remember the three D's of stay, Distance, Duration, Distraction. Only work on one of them at a time. Say you are working on distraction, have really short stays with you close as someone walks past or calls her.
Rubylove
08-11-2005, 11:06 PM
That sounds like great advice - will give it a try! Thanks.
Doberluv
08-12-2005, 03:46 PM
That's all great advice I think..nice and gradually. Once she gets really pretty good, you can step away the length of the leash and remind her again to stay..."gooood stay" and cause a tad bit of tension in the leash. See if she'll hold the stay. Just do it for a very short couple of seconds and go to her and reward. If she doesn't, replace her and get the stay better reinforced. Don't call the dog to come from a stay for a long time yet. Just go to her, walk around the back of her to her right side, stand there a few seconds, then praise and release....and that will help reinforce the stay. Now, I can proof Lyric. I pull with a steady tension on his leash really quite forcefully while he's in a stay and he'll stay planted.
Mordy
08-12-2005, 08:07 PM
rubylove, if you are interested in working on obedience with the clicker, i can only highly recommend the book Clicker Training for Obedience (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0962401781/qid=1123891524/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/002-4843492-3393611?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) by morgan spector. it's a brilliant, brilliant book, even if you have no plans for getting into competitive obedience.
i got it just recently and wish i had bought it much earlier. i was reading it and started wondering where this book had been all my life. lol
Rubylove
08-14-2005, 03:39 AM
rubylove, if you are interested in working on obedience with the clicker, i can only highly recommend the book Clicker Training for Obedience (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0962401781/qid=1123891524/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/002-4843492-3393611?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) by morgan spector. it's a brilliant, brilliant book, even if you have no plans for getting into competitive obedience.
i got it just recently and wish i had bought it much earlier. i was reading it and started wondering where this book had been all my life. lol
Awesome thanks I'll get it! So far I've just been using techniques I've read about on the net with clickers, so to have a book would be really helpful.
bridey_01
08-14-2005, 06:42 AM
It sounds like you are using it right. Some people do alot of silly things with it without knowing it's use. One of my clients was very excited when she learned that I clicker trained because "she did too". When I came and watched her training, I realised she was using the clicker to call her dog, it was a come command!