Frisbee’s Training Part 1 – Sit stay

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If you’ve read my previous blog posts you know that we’ve had some biting issues with our little man, Frisbee, due to fear aggression.  I won’t go into all the details here but I think you will enjoy the story and you can find them if you just look a little further back under the blog tab.

In the next 4 blog posts I’m going to share some of the training I did with Frisbee and my now son-in-law, Xavier (no I didn’t train him…he just helped).   Right after the first incident we had with Frisbee, I hired a trainer to come to the house.  I learned a lot about reading a dog’s body language and understanding stress signals.  In fact, she posted a youtube video running through some stress signals Frisbee was giving off at the moment that I would never have caught.  You can find that video on the first part of the series I wrote about his fear aggression or just come back and click here.

I received a ton of feedback about this video and understanding signs of stress as most people, like myself, completely misread these signals.  At any point, while this video was being shot if someone would have attempted to pet Frisbee or get too close, chances are high they would have been bitten.  It’s worth watching.

I worked hard with Frisbee in my effort to teach him some basic commands that I was told would help me with his obedience and managing situations that might arise from his fear aggression. None of this was just to do it for the heck of it so I could show off with him.

The first thing we worked on was sit and sit-stay.  Both of these are very important with any dog but even more so if you have a dog that reacts first and thinks later.  You need to be able to trust that when given this command they will easily be able to just sit and stay in that position until you release him/her. You can watch how well Frisbee has learned this command and exactly how to very easily teach your dog to do this in this video.  Just click here to download it.  It will just download to your phone or computer and after you watch it you can save it or delete it. Each video I show over the following 3 blog posts will be progressive from the sit and sit-stay commands.

In these videos, I do mention that I had been working with Frisbee for a short while already and you will see how he does it all pretty much on autopilot.  But, I also want you to know that it does not take long to teach a dog to learn these commands.  Just a little work and consistency and ongoing reminders. I try to have Frisbee follow these commands throughout the day as much as possible.  I make him sit-stay for his food, even go down and he’s not allowed to approach his food until I give him the release cue. I basically make him earn everything he gets from me.  And honestly, it just becomes a habit after a while. Finally, dogs love being trained.  Frisbee and I have formed a bond that I don’t think we would have had without the training.  He loves the sessions.  He loves the treats and the attention and he loves to please.  So, take a minute, download this video, and see how easy it really is to teach your dog a hard sit-stay command.  And stay tuned for the next post, part 2, the Down-Stay, where I show you how to teach your dog this command and why it’s so important.