Cindy and Kya have been doing fabulously with their training – Cindy in strengthening her teaching mechanics, and Kya in learning to sit and down/stay, come when called, leave things on cue, walk on a loose leash, and other behaviors. Kya has shown her new skills in a variety of settings; however, the other day when we went into their garage to practice (it was a very windy day), things were different.
Even after giving Kya time to investigate the area first, she was still delaying sitting on cue and popping up quickly – definitely not how things had been in other settings. So, I worked with Cindy to go back some steps in their training – taking off the cue while working on building lots of repetitions of Kya quickly going into a sit, and then staying in that position. Once the behavior was looking good again, then they could move forward again with the cue.
It is a reminder that when you change environments (or behavior criteria), the behavior and lesson can look differently to your dog, and there may be added distractions. Your dog may get stuck. It isn’t a case of your dog being stubborn or obstinate or dumb, it is just simply a sign that your dog needs some extra help in remembering what the lesson is. You may need to go back to the basics in teaching that behavior to help your pet succeed.
What can this look like?
If your dog is not responding to a cue that your dog knows, you may want to go back to capturing and reinforcing the behavior before adding back in the cue. Or it could mean that, if you were able to walk five feet away from your dog indoors while she is in a stay position, that you go back to teaching the stationary behavior standing next to your dog, working back up (in second increments) in duration and slowly adding in distance again. It could mean that, if your dog comes to you quickly when called indoors, that you practice the behavior on a leash, calling your dog from a very short distance away with high value reinforcers outdoors.
Add environmental difficulty (distractions) as your dog can continue to focus on the lesson and do the behavior.
