This course will focus on all things related to the stand behavior!!! We will look at teaching a stand, and getting ready for an exam whether that's in obedience, conformation, or even being measured for agility!!!
*Note: while the lectures will be relevant for conformation in terms of getting your dog comfortable with an exam, I do not do conformation and will not be able to give advice on how to stack your dog.
Exams:
Do you have a wiggle butt dog who can't wait to smother the judge with love? Labradors out there, listen up as I'm talking to you!
Or is your dog a little suspicious of being approached when working? He seems fine around people until he gets in the ring and then whoa who is that person coming up?!
We will discuss laying a foundation through games so your dog has a solid understanding of freezing in the stand position. Much of the foundation work will not require the use of a helper, although one will be needed at the actual exam stage. We will not only build a positive association to being approached but give the dog an opt-out system to let us know if we pushed things a little bit too far with their comfort level.
While lectures will primarily be focused on obedience, the same steps will be used for those wanting their dog comfortable with exams in conformation or for being measured for any sport.
Note: If your dog is very anxious around people, the Boogeyman course by Amy Cook will be a better fit. This class will assume that your dog is comfortable around people, but just doesn't want to be directly touched. You can still take this class with your "Boogeyman" dog, but will likely work on mastering all the exercises that don't involve helpers.
Here is Wren's first session with a wicket!
Teaching a Stand:
What style of stand should you train?! A kickback stand? Rear feet still? A pop up stand?! So many choices! Let's talk about what type of stand you should train for the dog performing it in heel and at a distance! While we're at it, we might as well get a solid stand in motion too!
Here is a quick visual guide as to the different ways a dog can perform a sit to stand!
Is the new AKC command discrimination exercise in open really all that difficult? Let's talk about what parts we should prepare the dog for in gearing up for the formal exercise!
Teaching Approach
Lectures are released at the start of each week with all lectures released within the first 4 weeks. The lectures are broken down into roughly 3 categories: teaching a stand and moving stand, teaching a solid freeze in place with distractions, and introducing an actual helper for your exam work.
I have written objectives and then written instructions for each step followed by multiple video examples for each step. The videos are usually between 30sec to 2min long and are taken from training sessions of a variety of dogs. I do not use voiceover or subtitles in the video. At the end of each lecture is a homework summary with the steps quickly summarized in order.
Several videos will depict training being done with the handler sitting on the ground. These steps can be modified to be sitting in a chair, and may also be modified to have the dog at a higher level such as up on a tall platform or on a bed.
Laura Waudby (she/they) trains and competes in obedience, rally, and agility. She was halfway to her OTCH with her UDX corgi, Lance, before his uexpected early retirement. She also has championship titles in USDAA and UKI. By day...(Click here for full bio and to view Laura's upcoming courses)
Dogs of all levels are invited to train! Even puppies can get started on learning a solid foundation, although I recommend at least 5 months old so that it will be slightly easier for them to learn how to hold still!
While the following skills are not required as we will discuss how to teach them from step 1, it will go faster if your dog understands the following skills:
Stepping on various targets such as front foot targets, rear foot targets, and a platform for all 4 feet
An introduction to "zen hand", at least the don't mob food in your hand part.
There will be 2 pre-lecture before class starts on teaching foot targets and on teaching a chin rest
Equipment Needed:
A helper will be in the lectures for the later weeks, although much of the initial foundation can be done without. A helper is not required to participate in this class and we will advance what we can without one.
Only a small room is needed for space as most exercises will be stationary. Enough room to heel about 15ft will be beneficial for those wanting to work on the moving stand and starting distance work.
Foot targets of various types depending on the dog: platform (large enough for all 4 feet on), front foot target, rear foot target
Wicket or item we will use as one such as a coat hanger. Here is a homemade "wicket" made from pvc pipe!
For most of our dogs the approach is the hardest part of an exam. Even if the dog likes and is comfortable with greeting others in everyday situations, the context of being formally approached when they are working feels very different. The dog even sees the judge giving orders to their human and having an aura of authority!
Other dogs get excited and then conflicted! They think everyone is their best friend and they just know how much they want to greet the judge. But the dog also knows that this context is a little weird. They know they are working with their human, and they see that this judge isn't approaching in the normal ways of human culture. Perhaps the dog thinks that they should wiggle harder to appease and relax this judge! Or maybe the dog is torn between their responsibility to work with their owner and between not wanting to be rude to the judge!
In both cases of the nervous dog and the excited dog, the result is that the dog you're training has a high probability of being stressed when the exam exercise is performed. This stress happens well before the judge actually touches your dog!!
This is why we want to break down this exercise and focus purely on getting our dog used to another person entering the picture of this exercise. We want the dog to know the helper is there and to not see any pressure to interact with them. Build their confidence and focus!
In the meantime, you can also work on the dog's ability to see being touched as a normal part of this exercise by working on the other lectures where YOU are the ones working up to touching your dog. I do all of my dog’s exams until they are 110% solid. I want my dogs completely bombproof in their job so that all that is left is adding in one final distraction - another human being.
Prerequisite: Make sure you and your dog have an understanding of the "consent cue" you wish to use! Eye contact? Chin rest?
Introducing Walk-Bys
First, pick your helpers wisely. People love to be “helpful” and can act in some unpredictable ways!!! Give full instructions to your helper before you begin and structure their job for success by providing them with some concrete markers.
You might want to have a line drawn on the floor or use landmarks around your training area to structure exactly where they should stand at the start and where they should walk to. Give them additional instructions for backing away whenever you say “yes” and for stopping movement whenever the dog does a specific behavior such as coming off their platform or I tell the helper to retreat.
For the first lesson my plan is to work on approach and walk past the dog. My dog will be on a platform or foot target the first time I try this to structure my dog for success. My goal is to break it down into super tiny steps so I can reward my dog for maintaining eye contact with me 100% of the time or give only the briefest glance to my distractor. I don’t care if my dog looks at my helper as they approach, but if that glance turns into a stare I always abort and reset. My dog is just letting me know that the distraction is too hard to give me their complete focus.
***I use eye contact here as the consent cue. A chin rest would also be a fabulous consent cue for their first several lessons!! You can also use the dog's willingness to get onto their foot target/platform at the start of each rep as a mini guideline to how they are feeling.
Feel free to do this work with your dog in a sit or even in a down if their stand is not ready for distraction work.
It will look like this:
Helper starts off to the side, roughly a few feet behind me and 10 feet to the left or right. I am directly in front of my dog, no more than three feet away.
Helper begins walking parallel to our path (not directly towards the dog!). I mark and reward the dog for keeping eye contact/chin rest with me or for giving no more than a "1 Mississippi" look at the helper. I can reward in place (room service marker cue) OR release the dog off their target to chase a reward. There is no right or wrong answer how to reward. Keep in mind that rewarding in position will encourage more of a calm demeanor and will keep arousal lower. But it also serves less as a release of pressure. Rewarding by getting the dog off their target relieves the pressure, is more fun but also adds arousal, and gets the dog anticipating moving versus being still. A nice compromise is to reward in place, then throw a reset cookie while your helper is returning to the start.
Every time I mark, my helper is instructed to do a U-turn and head back to their starting point. The heading back to the start relieves pressure for the dog (yay!) and also sets up for a new repetition. The helper also retreats whenever my dog moves, does a long look, or I instruct them to restart. Usually, I need to verbally tell the helper the instructions of "forward" and "retreat." For minor glances, I might have my helper just pause forward movement or retreat only a step and see if that's enough to help the dog. For longer glances, I prefer my helper back up several steps so we can fully restart.
Continue training by delaying the reward until the helper can walk completely past the dog. Remember this is parallel walking, not approaching the dog. I still mark as soon as the helper gets past the dog's butt, no need to add in more duration than that right now!
If you are not releasing the dog forward on the reward, make sure to periodically release them from their stand and play with them! You do not want to work on super long duration, nor do you want the pressure to keep building.
Make sure to practice with your helper on both sides of the dog.
Have your helper gradually get closer to the dog on their walk by
If this was easy, great!!! Do not feel pressured to rush this training. We want to set the dog up for success, form a solid foundation, and completely erase any bad habits that may have already formed.
IF the dog had no problem, keep working on this exercise until your helper can walk by within two feet from the dog. No direct approach yet, just walking by.
Reward your dog for sustained eye contact (or their chin rest) with you or with only a brief break in focus, and have your helper back away anytime your dog moves or loses that focus. Ask your helper to not even look at your dog.
Here Emilie is working on this skill. What I like is how Mom has a clear hand signal on when to start! This takes training (we've worked on it in the Zen Hand movement lecture!) but works out well to make sure the dog is ready. I also like how she marks and starts feeding as soon as the helper gets past Emilie's shoulders! She continues to feed the whole time until the helper is back in position and Emilie is ready to start again. This is perfect. After rep #2 they aren't quite as smooth, but Mom recognizes that and tosses a cookie to reset before starting again.
Here is Wren working on this with my helper. The first 35sec are my instructions to my helper! Then we begin. Wren glances at first, but it's a quick glance. She improves but since she's a bit wiggly while waiting for my helper I use a chin rest on the next reps.
Here is Stella working on her human distraction getting closer and closer to her. This is not her first lesson, we are fairly close distance now. Stella is doing this in a sit position as her stand stay is not ready yet for this level of work.
And here is Sydney working on this in a stand position. She is standing on a perch to help her choose to remain put. Note how I (the helper) pause my motion when she looks at me and then back up when does a sustained look. Andrea switches to feeding quickly to help her out!
And finally, your next step is having your helper walk around the dog, forming a U-shaped path. You will again back off on distance to 10ft away. Give clear instructions to your helper and consider placing a small landmark on the floor on both sides of your dog and behind your dog at the distance you want them to maintain around your dog!
Increasing Difficulties!
Super easy?! Add in increased distractions. The more you vary the helper in these early steps the easier the next steps will be. Ideas for your helper include:
Weird clothing: big hats, carrying an umbrella, a cane, full snow suit and cold weather get up (think the little kid in A Christmas Story or whatever you can get your helper to actually wear)
Weird gaits: Skipping, running, crawling?, hobbling, with a cane
Weird noises: coughing, mimicking Santa (Ho ho ho!), quacking
Just keep in mind that the goal is to build your dog’s confidence! If your dog is nervous, abort! And at this stage your helper should not be looking at the dog if the dog is excited by that.
Here is a fantastic example of a helper being very creative in their walk bys!
Overview
No touching!!! Work purely on the helper walking by your dog.
Start at a distance where your dog can look at you as your helper walks by, completely ignoring the helper.
Work on getting the helper closer to the dog (no touching!) and adding "weirdness" so that while the structure remains the same, the dog isn't too put off if the little details change!
Reset if the dog does more than a quick eye flick! Have the helper retreat and consider resetting your dog with a cookie toss to release pressure.
A sampling of what prior students have said about this course ...
This class is a really comprehensive education for both dog and handler on all of the elements that make for a great stand behavior. My dog and I had been stuck in a rut when it came to stand, and not only did we get past that quickly thanks to the course materials, I now have a complete plan for getting this behavior rock-solid and trial ready! --Katherine O.
Stand with Me is an excellent class working on an exercise that can be very stressful for a dog. Laura had great ideas to break down the components to help explain the exercise to the dog and feel confident about it. Ann S.
I loved this course and i love the acadamy set up. This was my first online training course and i wasnt sure how i would go with not only learning online but doing it through mobile data and then a tablet. Very very good.
Laura, I signed up for this class last minute, and almost on a whim. I am *so* glad I did! Kiyo & I both learned a lot & our confidence levels also increased. You are patient, thorough, detailed and kind. Looking forward to taking more classes with you. "Ring confidence" if we can get in it! Nancy Almann
This class was fantastic! We were able to start getting a really nice freeze in stand and my wiggly butt one year old maligator will freeze to let my husband touch him in a stand without moving. I didn't think it was possible for him (we're eyeing Over greeters anonymous he gets so excited)! These are skills we will keep working on but the improvement has been incredible already!!
Thank you! I learned a lot from this class. Lots of good tips for how to train a Stand and my dog's skills improved! Lectures were excellent.
We made huge progress, and my wiggly dog can now actually stand still for the Novice SFE!
Registration
This is a self-study class. The lectures will appear directly in your library, under the "Self Study classes" heading. Self Study classes do not have class homework forums. You will not have any access to the course instructor for questions or feedback. Please note there are no refunds on self-study classes so review all the information provided carefully before purchasing.
You will have access to these materials in your library for one year from the date of enrollment. You can keep your library pass current by enrolling in at least one course or workshop a year. Alternatively, you can purchase a library pass for $25 per year for as long as you wish to have access to prior class materials.
OB590 Self Study
OB590: Stand With Me
OB590 Retired
$50.00
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Instructor: Laura Waudby
