Week 5
This week your training objective is to teach your dog Patience and Resignation. You will find it very helpful to have read chapter XIII of the Koehler Method of Dog Training.
Heeling
Work your dog in an area of high level distraction. Allow him only six inches of latitude this week and insist on the automatic sit. Your dog must resign himself to you this week, and the easiest way to measure this is through his attitude and accuracy in the heel position. One way to teach the dog to stay within 6" is to do serpentine weave heeling which is done wherever there is staple footing and a series (3 or more) of poles or stationary items. Sometimes you can't find these stationary items at 8' apart, but it is fair to work the dog between any 4' stationary items.
Another way to increase dog paying attention is to work at a brisk pace where dog is 'striding out' and 'collected' while heeling. This means your dogs body is moving collectively while heeling (a brisk pace produces this type of moving) so dog has to pay attention, you are interesting to the dog (because of the brisk pace) and the dog can't get into much trouble eyeing everything else as it has to focus on you because of the brisk pace.
Stand-stay
In an area of low level distraction, bring your dog to a standing position in the normal way. Stroke him on the withers until you are satisfied that he is calm, comfortable, and relaxed. Give him the Stay command and move (right foot first) to a position one foot in front of the dog. After ten seconds you will return back to the heel position where you will again stroke him on the withers for the same ten seconds, then do an “Exercise Finish”. Proceed this week to increase the time and distance one foot a day and ten seconds per foot.
If your dog breaks, go back to the place where he was left on a Stand/Stay and correct by repositioning him on the Stand where he broke and by lightly slapping a foot that moved. If need be, do the Stand/Stay on a Place Board or with dog on the edge of an elevated surface like a curb. Then reinforce by stroking the withers and return back to your position. The dog owes you the remaining time. By the end of the week your dog should be standing for 60 seconds with you being six feet in front facing the dog.
Down Correction
By now, your dog has been placed in the down position at least a hundred and fifty times. He has associated this placement with the command 100 times. It is time to teach him that the command “Fido, Down!” means now, right now; time to teach the Down Correction.
With your dog sitting in the heel position place your left hand palm down on the leash about 9 inches from the snap. Place your right hand, palm up, next to your left. Lower this “package” to about ear level on the dog as you immediately give the dog the Down command. If the dog drops into a Down immediately - praise with a long, slow stroke, stand up into Heel position - tall and straight and do an Exercise Finish.
HOWEVER, if the dog doesn't immediately to the Down, here is the Down Correction.
If the dog's front feet are not perfectly even (they rarely are), one foot will be slightly more forward than the other. The foot FORWARD is the stronger position while the foot CLOSER to the dogs chest is the weaker foot. You will do the Down Correction on the side of the dogs body that has the WEAKER foot. Why? Because if you try to muscle a dog into a Down, and the dog resists by bracing both of its front feet - you can injure a dogs shoulders for forcing the Down. DON'T FORCE.
If the dog's weaker foot is the right foot (closest to dogs' chest, not forward), step forward with your right foot about shoulder width and square your torso to the dog’s line of travel. Take a step back with your left foot an equal distance so that you are now in front of your dog and at a 45 angle. Command, "Down" as you bend over at the waist and jerk straight toward your left toe. Praise with the long, slow stroke the length of your dog's body.
If the dog's weaker foot is the left foot (closest to dogs' chest, not forward), step forward with your right foot and go all the way around, in front of the dog (remember your right foot forward movement clearly told your dog to hold its Sit, until your right foot is close to the dogs left shoulder. You will be at a 45-degree angle, on the dogs left side. Command, "Down" as you bend over at the waist and jerk straight toward your right toe. Praise with the long, slow stroke the length of your dog's body.
Do either a Step Back to your Dog or a Return to your Dog, stand up tall and straight in Heel position, command "Heel" as you do an Exercise Finish. Praise.
Spend two days on teaching your dog the Down in this manner. By end of Day 2, your dog should 'read' your mechanics to mean "Down." If you start to do the Down mechanics and your dog melts into the ground, QUICK AS A WINK say "Down" as though it was your idea all along. Really important you 'help' your dog succeed.
Days 3-6 Your dog should begin to do a Down on command and drop like a rock to the ground. If so, change your mechanics, just slightly, to your left hand, palm up laying on top of the leash, approximately 6" in front of snap bolt. This puts downward pressure on the leash as well as becoming the visual cue for the Down. Remember to praise with the long, slow stroke and to stand up tall and straight, in Heel position, and then do an Exercise Finish, after every Down.
Down/Stay
This proceeds exactly as the Sit/Stay or a Stand/Stay. One foot per day and ten seconds per foot. As with Stays, never give your dog a second command if he breaks, just correct him. And always complete each stay with an exercise finish followed by praise.
Sit/Stay- Diminishing Spiral (your dog should be solid at Sit/Stays @ 15') + OUT of SIGHT Stays
This week increase the tension/release of Sit/Stays by putting your dog on a check cord approx. 50’, do a Sit/Stay and walk away from the dog and then turn and make several diminishing spiral circles around your dog coming closer and closer until you are in heel position. Praise, do an Exercise Finish, praise again.
Always the same method and sequencing is used. *IMPORTANT* What changes? When you increase the distance, you must start over with the shortest time and the lowest level of distraction. As dog gains understanding in what you want it to do, then you increase time and distraction levels.
TO ADD an out-of-sight Sit/Stay, make sure you have your dog on its Place Sit Board, is backtied (if in a public location) AND you have some way to confirm your dog holds its position. You can use a mirror to watch your dog as you disappear or have someone else watch your dog as you disappear. REMEMBER, start with a 1-2 second disappearance, then reappear. Your dog will be experience Tension and Release, both in the Diminishing Spirals and as you introduce the Out of Sight Stays.
Approach by a Stranger
Same as last week but use people unfamiliar to the dog. Let me refresh your memory of the sequence days 1& 2 - no contact with the dog; days 3&4 - touch on top of head only; days 5&6 touch on top of head and down the back. Your stranger is to make absolutely no verbal or eye contact with the dog. The strangers should be of legal age to consent to approach your dog. They must competently follow your instructions. They must be unfamiliar with your dog.
Place
Make sure your hand and foot mechanics are correct. Left hand, left foot. Begin to expand your dogs understanding of the Place command by adding new Place locations, i.e. anything with a raised boundary such as a storm drain, a front porch stoop, a tree stump, a solid park bench (with no slats so dog has solid footing), a blanket (recommend it being a light color like white/beige as it is easy for a dog to see and target).
Remember the rules, start very close, send the dog from each side, call off, or do a Return to your Dog and praise. The only correction, if the dog gets off the Place location, is simply to command "Place (one of the few times you can repeat, repeat and repeat, etc., a command) and put them back on the Place location any which way you can get them. Easier to use an elevated surface when introducing a new Place location.
Recall @ 15'
Your dog should know that in response to your command “Fido, Come” he must report to a position (SSIF) straight sit in front. Continue to work to that end. Be sure to use lots of verbal praise as soon as he starts toward you and use physical praise only after he has sat straight in front of you. Basically, the same as last week except add the following:
The Finish
Days 1 & 3
Once the dog has come to the front position, assume the position pictured on page 122. Gather up the slack and place the package behind your right leg. Shift the leash from right hand to left hand. Make sure to give no pressure on the leash as you are shifting from one hand to the other hand. Make sure the leash position on your leg is parallel to the dog's neck height. Give your dog the command “Fido, heel” and take a step back with your right leg followed by two steps forward to an Automatic Sit. Praise the dog. Repeat this several times per session. The first three days the step back is meant to guide the dog.
Days 4 thru 6
Same as days 1&2 except allow the dog two seconds of “decision making” time to start around you after you have given the command “Fido, heel.” If he does not start within the two seconds make the correction by quickly throwing your right leg back, since the leash is bundled in your right hand and placed behind your leg, the leg moving back so quickly will affect the correction (chap. XII). Repeat this several times per session.
Patience
Punctuate your normal heeling routine by leaving the dog in a sit-stay with you six feet directly to the right of your dog. You and your dog will be standing side to side, both facing in the same direction. Leave him in this quasi sit-stay position for 2 to 3 minutes. If he should break, correct as if a normal sit-stay and return back to your position for an additional two to three minutes. HE MUST HOLD THIS POSITION PATIENTLY, UNTIL YOU RETURN TO RESUME YOUR HEELING.
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