Teaching Stand

One of the Rally Advanced signs that Ella needs to learn is the Stand Walk Around Dog sign. At this sign, Ella sits in heel position, then stands and remains standing while I walk around her. I resume heel position and we continue on.

Stand is a behavior that has been problematic for us. Ella has never been shown in "breed" and does not know how to do a stacked stand. This type of stand is not required, but she has to stay in place and plant her feet while I walk around her.

We started working on stand about a year ago. It is fairly easy to teach a basic stand from a sit. You hold a piece of food in front of the dog's nose and move it forward slowly. As they stand to get the treat, you click and release the treat. Ella picked that up very quickly.

The problem is that she won't stop shifting her back feet. And, she will not hold a stand. There could be a few reasons for this:

1. She thinks that the behavior I am looking for is actually a touch, so she follows my hand.



2. She has been taught to orient to me and moves her body so that she faces me.



3. She is too food oriented and following my hand in the hopes of a treat.



4. She is responding to body pressure and moving her rear away from me (like with the pivots, which is a natural behavior).

Some of the same problems that we experienced with these two signs are cropping up now. We eventually fixed the problems, but it took some extra practice (and patience).

One of the things that we did for those signs that worked was to increase the duration of the behavior. So, I have begun working with Ella on long stands. She is at 3 seconds right now. That means, she will hold position for 3 seconds before she starts moving her feet. I have to be sure to click her before her feet move, so that she will begin to learn that stand means plant her feet and do not move them.

Then, once Ella realizes that she should hold the stand for as long as I ask, we will start to work on holding that stand while I move around. I might back up on step (or, even just shift my weight to begin), step to one side, back up two steps and so on.

Some trainers suggest that I hold Ella where I want her and walk around her. While this might work for some dogs, it is aversive for Ella and she will get worried and I will have to stop the session (she will not participate any more).

Note: This is another behavior I would like to have ready for the April trials, but if we don't, then we'll just have to take our chances!