We're doing a lot of exercises with Sia on self control. She earns a lot of the things in her environment by displaying her self control and she's learning well how to turn in on and off.
With things like leash walking and recalls, I want her more excited and driven to do those things. She does much better with her leash walking if I walk fast with her, change direction and talk to her a lot. It's fun for her and she stays engaged with me. But most times when I'm working on self control, I don't want the fast movements. I want her to be more calm and in control.
She's been working on her stays and doing pretty well. I'd still like to see her relax into her stays a little bit more but she's responding well to the request and she is easily redirected if she starts to get out of position.
When we practice stays, I talk to her in a calm, soothing voice and I reward her with slow, soft pets to mimic the behavior that I want from her.
She's also practicing her "leave it." Food is a challenge for her but she's making it happen.
She particularly has a hard time when it comes to her meals. But, instead of jumping and whining, I'd like her to sit quietly for her meals. Sometimes the excitement of getting fed is too much so we have to break this exercise down even further. I start out during a non meal time and get out her food bowl and reward her for calm, quiet behavior. If she gets too excited, I simply put the bowl away. We are working up to calm approaches while I prepare the meal, stopping to reward frequently for calm behavior. So far so good, she's doing well. Training is a lot easier if you can break it down into smaller steps like that. It's much more satisfying to see a dog's progress when working on baby steps rather than continually working in an environment that is too hard for the dog.
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