Over the last few years we’ve worked on a variety of skills and behaviors in the Doggy Business LLC play groups. This month, we thought we’d let the trainers in each play group choose what they want to work on with each of the dogs.
Some of the many behaviors and skill sets they have to choose from include:
Name Game
- The basic game works towards name recognition and attention skills.
- In the advanced game, the trainers teach the dogs to turn and move several steps towards them when they say their name.
Recall
- Basic coming when called skills. This is a fun one to work on because we have so many distractions to work with!
- Rolling Recall – this is a fun game where we call the dogs 3 times in a row and ask for a more complex set of behaviors each time.
- 4-Corner Recall – the game incorporates a stay with the coming when called exercise.
Stay
- Duration Stay – this is the most basic skill, where dogs learn to stay for a second or two and the trainer does not move.
- Bungee Stay – in a sit or down, the dog stays while the trainer takes several steps back and then returns to the dog.
- Circle Stay – in a sit or down, the dog stays while the trainer walks around the dog.
- Stay at the Gate – this is one of the most advanced stay skills. The dogs stay in a sit while the trainer or another dog moves through an open gate or door beside them.
Targeting
- Hand targeting – the dogs learn to touch a trainers hand with their nose.
- Object targeting – the dogs learn to touch an object like a target stick, pole, or specific spot on the wall with their nose.
- Targeting a space – the dogs learn to run to a specific area, in this case the landing at the top of the stairs in the play room, and sit.
Sit, Down, Stand
- The dogs learn these basic skills in response to a variety of prompts including hand signals and verbal cues.
As you can see, there are a lot of fun behaviors to choose and work on, so we’ll let the trainers make the choice this month!
