Location, location, location
Even though we try to dress them up and treat them as licking. wagging, fur kids, dogs still process things differently than we do. They don’t think the same way we do. They don’t generalize well. Especially our younger ones or our wild adolescents.
Hey, who you calling wild???
We teach them ‘sit’ in the training center and they do just fine. Then you get them home, and you have to teach them all over again. Just because they know ‘sit’ in the kitchen, doesn’t mean they know it in the dining room. Really really. You have to practice in lots of different locations till the idea ‘clicks’ into their brain, “ohhhhh, that word means the same thing Everywhere! Who knew???” Its a Concept.
You want me to do what where? Is there food involved?
On the flip side of that, I hear a wailed, “but he does it at home!” many times a day. I say if I had a dollar for every time I heard that, -I’d – be doing it at home, with my kids, instead of working. BUT OH WELL – no one pays me for That. So. I go to work every day and people don’t understand why their dog will do it at home Just Fine and not in front of a dozen other dogs and The Teacher. Stage fright? No. Excitement and Location.
LOOK! Its Another Dog!
A silly little game I play after we’ve done ‘sit’ for a while in class is to take a dog to the middle of the training ring, have their mommy or daddy sit on a chair a few feet away, and then just tell doggie to ‘sit’. Almost all of them lunge to come. Didn’t ask ‘come’ doggie – SIT! With about half of them, sit will happen after a bit of focus time. A few look at me, and think, “She gives me treat for sit! I’ll sit for Her!” But that doesn’t really count. The others won’t sit till mommy/daddy stands Up at the very least. Often they have to take a few steps forward. We usually tell our dogs to sit while we are standing directly in front of them, or with them on the leash by our side. Not sitting down with a couple feet separating us.
I, of course, understand everything perfectly the first time!
As they get older, as you train more, practice more, they will begin to understand this idea. “sit means sit” no matter what or where. That is why service dogs can figure out how to act in any location, why they can think things through and device a plan of action. They were drilled in Many locations.
Look at that other dog! He's so silly....
Your puppy needs the same thing. Haul them around the town. Practice wherever you can. If nothing else, train in many parts of your own house, yard and neighborhood. That is where you want/need your puppy to behave, anyway, right?
We've found if you are adorable, no one cares if you behave!
I thought so.