[michaeldwilson]

Sierra has a dog bed in our living room that we use to train 'Place'. She knows the command and will go to her place and lie down.

I would like advice on how to train her to remain there for a reasonable duration until I release her (she has a release word and we train with it daily).

Right now she will go to her place and remain there for up to 2 minutes. We seem to be stuck at that threshold as she seems to lose focus and break without me releasing her. I do put her back into place (she is wearing a house line when we train this) and release her after a shorter duration, but we don't seem to be making much progress.

I would like her to remain in her place for 30 minutes or so for practical reasons, like when I am mopping the floor and don't want her walking on the wet floor. She is approaching 10 months old, and still is very much puppy-brained (i.e. ADD). What is realistic for me to expect from her in terms of duration at this age, and what can I do differently to train this? Is it a matter of just keeping at it and waiting for her to mature further, or can I do something else?

PS - I also have the same issue with a down-stay - she can hold it for a couple of minutes at most before getting antsy and breaking. I take the same approach of guiding her back into the down stay and releasing her properly with a shorter duration so she can have a success. But stumped on how to improve this as well.

A two-minute says for a 10 month old is pretty darned good, I would say. How effective is your verbal correction "no" command? Does it need more work?

 

[michaeldwilson]

She is on a leash, so I give a verbal correction marker ("eh eh eh") and guide her back to her place or down (no reward). Then I usually wait 30 sec or so and release her and reward.

I don't know how you'll do it, but I'm sure you'll figure it out. You're working on it and teaching the dog your markers.

I was thinking about your question today when my wife was leaving the house. I gave my dog the "up" (place) command on his canvas, raised bed, and he went there. I gave him a stay. I haven't asked him to stay anywhere for a long period of time, not even a minute. My wife and I talked for a bit, and at one point he wanted to get up, but I said ah-ah-stay and he stayed there until I gave him the break command.

What I think helps him is that I work on his stay command with a high-motivating object, his frisbee. He loves that more than anything, so at least for a few tosses each day, I ask him to stay before giving him the break command and letting him get his toy. I think that carries over to his dog bed and any other place I want him to stay. But my dog is 2 now, so he's been at a while.

So that's one possibility: work on the stay command whenever possible, before he can get out of the crate, before he can exit the front/back door, before he can chase the ball. And then the reward is huge.

Let us know how it goes! Best of luck!