Layla is back in obedience class. She's almost 2 and hasn't been in a class in about a year. Although she is progressing, I see we have spoiled her.

She wants instant gratification for doing anything, and gets frustrated when she doesn't get it (starts "talking"/complaining). Her worst thing (which was her best thing) is "stay." She gets totally bored and you can watch her thinking, "This is stupid! I don't WANT to stay here and I WILL NOT stay here. I'm getting up. I am the decision maker here" (or something like that).

It's hard watching her have to take me more seriously without the lovey-lovey back and forth between us. By the end of each class, we are both drained! I'm hoping it just gets better from here.

(She didn't growl at any other dogs last night -- that was a first!)

Simply take her back to the spot she moved from and calmly replace her. Don't need to say anything except remind her to stay. You might shorten the distance you are leaving her and/or the amount of time you are asking her to stay. Most dogs really do not intentionally disobey IF they understand the requirement and know they will eventually be rewarded.

Sounds like she may simply confused as she has not been in training for awhile. Give her the benefit of the doubt and help her be right and then genorously reward her with food and heart felt praise. She will get it right the next time.

I agree with Kathy. Doing this in class is much more difficult than doing it at home or wherever you've been practicing with her, so lower the criteria so she has a chance to succeed. Even if she had a perfect stay for 2 minutes with you across the room at home, she may only be able to do a 30 second stay with you a few feet away in the distraction of a class environment. How often are you returning to her to reward in place? It's best to end the exercise before she self-releases, so only work at the level where you're pretty sure you can release her before she gets up on her own, and build gradually from there.

You are absolutely right. The distractions are MANY -- there are 4 other classes going on around us, and I'm estimating about 60+ dogs in the general area. We were told not to reward until the absolute end of the exercise (I got caught rewarding early).

Well, that's crappy advice they're giving you! Don't be afraid to stand up to the instructor if what they want you to do isn't working for you. Results and success speak for themselves.

With advise you don't like, you can always act stupid. (ie ignore it & so "oh, sorry!" while you phase your more frequent rewards out.)

That's a lousy way to teach stay. No wonder she keeps getting up. If the dog doesn't get rewarded until the end of the exercise, all she'll want to do is hurry up and finish the stay. Far better to treatduring the stay so she'll want to stay in the position she's being rewarded for.

i understand your frustration. whe i went to an akc class for ob that is how they taught it. i prefer the "treat during the stay" way. i use marker training and a bridge word to encourage the dog to keep doing what you are doing and you will get a reward soon methoed. i would even op in after a few seconds of a great sit stay if i liked what the dog was doing. when the dog has more confidence in itself (could be another reason she breaks in class, she is a bit uneasy with you so far away) and understands 'the game" you will not have to pop in to reward som much... you can use your bridge word. if she breaks i would say no, and put her back into position with a sit, or stay or whatever you say. now, this being said, i talked to the instructor first about how i was going to do it, i think if you do not tell the teacher what you are going to do and why you are going to do it, they may think you dont know what your doing. and if you plan on "popping in to treat for event he shortest duration" try to be on the outside of the group so you dont disturb anyone.


i realize that you want to wean her off treats, but, if she is so head over heels in love with treats USE them but USE THEM TO YOUR ADVANTAGE. treat for only the best of the behaviour you have asked for. make precision count! there is no time frame to wean a dog off of food. although sometimes your trainer may say there is. i have recently gone back to food with fritz and have gotten wonderful results.

Yep, crappy advice. Most AKC type classes no longer teach stay that way. The object is to reward the dog for staying and build up slowly not correct a broken stay. That does not teach the dog anything except this is a scary exercise.

I think that (like me) you have a lot of compulsion in your past. Compulsion does work but it also can create a lot of unwanted behavior and a lot of stress, especially in the stay exercises which is just not a natural thing for a dog to do.

Have you thought about going out to buy a good all around positive training book and just read through it? At least you would be able to know enough ahead of time to respectfully disagree with your instructor - or play dumb with a straight face when you get caught rewarding early. Would be interesting to see who learns faster and more confidently, Layla or the other dogs that are only rewarded at the end? A good esy fast reading book is Shiela Booth's "Purely Positive Training."

Thanks for your input. I will talk to the instructor before class next time and tell her I am going to reward earlier because I think that's what will work better for us. (What is a good bridge word? If I say "good," she'll get up.) I don't think the class will mind the distraction, as there are major distractions during most of these exercises (the dog next to us last time would not sit, so it became this huge ordeal).

I have to say one of the things I don't enjoy about the class is it seems to be focused on competition, and 95% of us are not in there with the goal of competing. I sometimes feel like it's a military-style atmosphere and I can see "the looks" of judgment (matched with whispers to each other) of some of the helpers when any of the dogs act up, and I see the preference for the perfectly behaved (e.g. been through the class 4 times) dogs. One of the helpers grabbed a boy's lab when the lab barked aggressively at another dog, and corrected him quite strongly. We'd be having a serious problem if she dared do that with my dog.

This is why my husband doesn't come anymore. He said he would end up cussing someone out

Oh, well, we are still learning, and Layla is starting to enjoy it.