I'm wondering if any one has a suggestion as to how I can teach my dog to stay when I'm out of sight. He's an 8 month old GSD; he does great with the "stay" command as long as he can see me. If I walk behind a building and he can't see me, he immediately follows me. As long as he can see me he holds the "stay" for as long as 30 seconds so far. This is done off leash. This dog is from a German line, is hard, and has great drive.
I start this with the dog very close to where I will step out of sight. I use my Aframe at first - dog in a down just 10' from the Aframe, I walk around, pass by the dog and feed, walk behind the Aframe and immediately come back out and feed. Gradually increase the time, return and feed in the down. Then I can increase the distance and vary where I hide. I don't want to stick my head out to watch him cuz then he can see me, but if you watch his shadow, you can tell when he starts to move and interrupt it by stepping back out and speaking to him.
That's a good tip Lee. My dog tends to do the same thing, but I never wanted to correct him for following me. My mistake was staying out of sight maybe a few seconds too long in the beginning, and sticking my head out <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> , which I think only motivated him to follow me even more. I guess they think you're playing hide & seek when you do that, and it frustrates the hell out of them.
I wouldn't even start working on out-of-sight stays until you have longer, more dependable, in-sight stays, especially since he is for all intents and purposes still a puppy. Some things that you could work on...
Increase the duration of the in-sight stay. SLOWLY work up to stays that are up to 5 minutes in length.
Increase the distance between you and the dog. Again do this slowly. As he gets used to you being further away, he will be less likely to try and follow you when you leave his sight later on in training.
Introduce distractions during your stays. I tend to train in parking lots. I started at the far end where it's not busy and slowly moved up closer to the stores where there are more distractions. Some stores like Home Depot, Rona, etc. will even let you train inside the store if you ask permission.
Once you have reliable in-sight stays, then you can start working on the out-of-sight stays. Place the dog close to something that you can hide behind and come back right away and give gentle praise. Work on the duration of you being out of sight and the distance of where you go out of sight separately from each other.
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