I tried teaching Danni stand again, but she just doesn't stand up. And she tries very hard to pry the treat out of my hand. Whether I hold it between my thumb and finger in a cupped hand, or just a closed fist, she will gnaw on my hand with her incisors and it's really rubbing my skin raw. Sometimes I have to stop because my hands are hurting!!

As far as the stand goes, I have tried literally every method on this website.

I feel like a failed dog trainer! This should be easy!

Dont feel like a failed dog trainer, your great! She is just teaching you more ways to train! Think of it that way. I dont have any training advice but I dont want you to feel down about the great work your doing. Stay strong...maybe go "back to kindergarden" a little and teach her not to mouth your hands. I am not sure how the luring would be effected my this but its all I have. Good luck!

Thank you Tiffany! I needed the boost. This girl's giving me a run for my money, that's for sure!

It’s not traditional ME methods, but what about free-shaping it a bit first. Echo is not your traditional pup either and I pretty much have to free-shape everything before I start luring. He’s got a great stand now and it was just a matter of him knowing what I wanted.

When I was training it, he had a pretty solid sit and down. He knew marker training and that these actions generated rewards. He’d offer them up willingly and was doing doggy push-ups. The day I started on the “stand”, I let him offer up his bag of tricks and I just stood there. After a minute of his struggling, I took a step back. He got up to get closer to me and the minute all fours were on the ground in an upright position, “YES” and I jackpotted him. Didn’t take long, in fact, was one of the easier commands.

Note: I stopped the step-back almost immediately; you don’t want to have this triggering it in any way. It’s a pretty powerful body cue. Just used it the first couple of times to help guide him to what I was looking for.

I’m sure there are much better methods; this is just what worked for me, with this particular pup.

 Quote: Tiffany Holtfreter

She is just teaching you more ways to train!

Oh, and I love that Tiffany!! What a great way to look at it.


Edited by CJ Barrett (01/13/2011 10:49 AM)
Edit reason: Tiffany's comment

Thanks CJ! I will try it today when I get home at lunch.

Does Danni know the touch command?

I just recently taught my pup the stand command by encouraging him to touch the palm of my hand while he was in the sit position. I simply positioned my palm slightly beyond his reach and told him "touch". We initially had a little bit too much forward movement when he stood., but removing the touch command and phasing to a hand signal took care of that.

If he was reluctant to move in the learning phase from touch command to hand signal, I would also use my foot to give a gentle pressure upwards on his abdomen or a tap to his foot. I, of course, marked the moment he stood with a click/treat (I like to use a clicker rather than my voice to teach new behaviors).

Good luck! I find "stand" to be a challenge to teach!

I love all the responses here! It's helpful to find so many creative people.

I'm NOT a trainer. But....what about putting the food under the dog's nose and stepping in to her forcing her to back up and stand in the process? Suggest holding one hand over the other fist then opening up the hands for the treat when she stands.

I had a lot of difficulty with this myself, I found pushing in and down almost like your luring the chin into the chest slightly below the collar. Question are you teaching it from a sit or a down. The lure motion is much easier from a sit because of the position of the dog's spine pulling there chin down pulls there butt up. This is pretty much the M.E. method I did go back and watch that part of the food training video again and it helped. Hope this helps ya good luck.

I totally agree with that method too Kyle! It's M.E.’s and works like a charm. However, it sounds to me like Katie is struggling with the high food drive mixed with a high energy pup. The luring has become a bit of challenge and she’s a little disheartened by the lack of success so far.

Standing still, keeping her hands safe, until it’s time to reward, will at least get the pup thinking about the position she’s in when the reward comes. Once she understands, up on all fours, is a rewarded position, she can start shaping the upward rise and kick back.

Much easier when they already know the basic rewarded position. Kind of like the touch pad. The first few times doesn’t really matter how they land on it, just getting the feel of their feet underneath them, on a raised object, gets rewarded.

What CJ said. I do appreciate the comments though! But when I push food into her and even lean forward, she just leans back. She never stands up. She leans back as far as she can go, and then gives up and looks at me with a face that says, "I don't get it..."