We’ve been teaching 8 week classes based off of the “Canine Life and Social Skills” (CLASS) program. One of the exercises is “Wait for the food bowl.”
Training Plan:
Stage 1: Holding Still: Dog is able to sit or lie down and hold the position for a few seconds.
Stage 2: Moving a Cone: We take a neutral prop, such as a plastic soccer cone, and work up to lowering the cone to the floor. Handler picks the cone up from a table or chair. If the dog is still, click and deliver a treat. Repeat a few times. Handler lowers the cone an inch. If the dog is still, click and deliver a treat. Handler lowers the cone two inches. If the dog is still, click and deliver a treat. Handler lowers the cone three inches…. and so on. If the dog makes an error, the handler picks up the cone and tries again or goes to a previous step.
Stage 3: Moving a Bowl: Repeat stage 2, using an empty bowl rather than a neutral prop. Run through all the steps.
Stage 4: Moving a Bowl with Food: Repeat stage 2, using a food bowl with some food in it.
Stage 5: Release: Hold dog by collar. Do not ask for a sit or position. Put a few treats on the floor or in a bowl. Give the release cue and let go of the collar. Repeat. Minimize handler movements to be sure the dog is responding to the verbal cue.
Put it together! The dog will wait as the bowl is lowered to the floor and the dog holds position until the release cue is given.
Notes:
- We don’t need to use a stay cue. Early on in the training the dog does not know what it means. He might make mistakes. We don’t want him to hear “Stay” and then make a mistake. The bowl ends up being the signal to stay.
- Even if the dog can do it at home, we repeat these steps. Doing it at the training building is different than doing this at home.
- If a dog is excitable, we will do the fourth step very often, even after we have sometimes put the whole sequence together. If the dog is not excitable, we do a lot of the releasing-to-food stage. We want to balance out the dog’s response and work on his weaker area.
Tomorrow: Instructor notes for this exercise.