Thursday, May 6, 2010

Understanding Place


I will venture to say that the place behvaior is one of the most under used behaviors out there. You'll see traditional leash and collar trainers use this behavior all the time, but the positive folks...not so much. I jsut don't get why!

Let's think about what we could accomplish by teaching our dog to sit or lie down on a spot for a given amount of time...no more door rushing, door bolting, jumping up on guests as the enter, just to name a few. Are you starting to see the potential now??? Some dogs need help with their off button and this is one way to do it.

I love having the chocolate in the kitchen with me, but man o man does she pick the worst places to lie down! She's now got her designated place to be and I don't have to worry about her trying to quickly snatched up the things that I drop - many times they are things that I don't want her to have. No need to try to spit out a leave it before she hoovers that piece of onion. Yep, you guessed it! Place is a don't get off that spot no matter what kinds cue (if you've taught it right).

I've had a lot of fun with my place cue. I will ahve Kay jump up on just about anything that will support her body weight. It's made some great photos for sure! It's also an easy way to teach a stay - you can be very black and white. Helped when Kay was laying down on the long sit for Open Obedience! We have our CDX to prove it!

So next time you hear me talk about the place behavior in class let your mind wander about what nasty little habits this simple like cue can fix...think outside the box. There are tons of basic agility behaviors we use in our day to day life the we tend to overlook.

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