www.arastos.com

Breaking Down Training - The key to training your dog any exercise is to break it down into small manageable pieces. This means your dog will be less likely to become distracted and lose interest because they keep going wrong. After all none of us like losing.
For Example, when teaching a stay gradually increase the time and distance you move away from your dog. If your dog moves you have progressed too quickly, go back to the previous distance/time that your dog achieved a stay.
However, don’t make every stay progressively longer than the previous one, your dog will notice the pattern and may lose interest. Be unpredictable – do 1 step away then 2, 3, 1, 4, 3, 1, 5 so that overall you are increasing the distance but in between you are doing some shorter stays.
Using this method of breaking down exercises will help your dog stay focused and improve their chances of achieving the exercise you are teaching. Next time you try to teach your dog something new, think about how it can be broken down and remember if your dog is struggling perhaps you are asking for too much too soon.
Image courtesy of Randy Robertson [Dog Training Dog Walking High Wycombe Bucks]