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Training To Stay On Matt


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whats the best way to train my puppy to stay on his matt. I want to take him with me to friends houses, but I wont be able to unless he'll stay on his matt when told.

He stays, but then when you walk off, or after about 2 minutes he gets up and walks off.

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In that case you should be able to get some time in the stays, but it won't be totally reliable, so keep that in mind.

The way to start is to pick a 'mat' that you can carry around easily. Place the dog on it and give the command, which ever word u want to use, bed, mat, place, etc.... As the dog moves off, u could give an ah and then the command and place back on the mat. Keep doing this till the dog starts to realise it's not allowed to move off it. What position it's in doesn't matter as long as it stays on it.

With repetition and time you'll get there. When the dog is showing u it is understanding u want it to stay there, move the mat to another spot and show it it's the mat not the place u want it to find and go to. Once you have it under control at home, don't think that when you go to another place it will be same, you will have to back track a little bit, and if there's heaps of distractions it will take longer.

Key is patience and repetition. Once the dog gets to 10-11mths the stays should be getting pretty solid, it all depends on how soft you are with the dog.

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You don't necessarily have to train a stay for this, it's just a matter of making staying on the matt more desirable than moving off it. Now that I'm expecting I wanted to confine my dogs to a section of the loungeroom without actually having them in a stay every time they were in the room. It was simply a matter of teaching them to go on the matt and rewarding them for it and as soon as they move off the matt they are told to leave the room. The premise is, if they want to be with you in the room they have to be on the matt. My dogs are older and more experienced with training so it was probably a lot easier for me than it will be for you, but if you are consistant you will find that your dog will pick up the pattern very quickly and choose to stay on the matt (if she wants to stay in the room) simply because it is in her best interests.

Where most people go wrong with place training, be it with a stay command or with the method I've described above, is they tend to ignore the dog when it is on the matt doing the right thing until it gets off, then rush over and start interacting with and paying attention to the dog - which is desirable to most dogs even if it's a telling off and a recommand that they are getting. Don't make this mistake, make a point of reinforcing your dog often when they are on the matt rather than taking their good behaviour for granted until they make a mistake!

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she is by far the best teacher i have seen for free..

dont expect that just because your pup did it in the bedroom it will do it everywhere, you need to bombproof your dog. Which means take it everywhere with you, markets, cities, shopping malls, parks, schools, beaches, the tip, bushwalks, footy training and train them in these situations, even just standing behind them, having a sausage on the ground, a towel on your shoulder or on the dog are all disctractions and are reinforcements to create a reliable command.

Everytime you go to a new area with new things you need to train from square one again.

I REALLY suggest you also watch this one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1U4rOFBPhk

its how to teach a reliable stay, it pretty much shows you the whole process you need to do for every command you do to make it bombproof.

btw she taught her puppy Splash who is now 7 1/2 months and knows more tricks than most dogs do. a few she has taught her dog are sit, down, fetch (specific items), paint, weave through legs, nod, shy, bow, catch your tail, flick the switch, go to your mat, say hello, say goodbye, touch, backwards weave, leave it, walk backwards, heel, skateboard, spin, hold hands, rollover, crawl and much more. Most of these the puppy learn at 12 weeks which proves that with hard work and patience pays off.

Edited by kyliegirl
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