Day One - Target and Sit

So I started reading the Barron's Dog Training Bible this afternoon and we started working on target training and sit.

Target Training

They recommend target training which can be used as a foundation for other behaviours like walking on leash and coming when calling. So I followed the first exercise and started hand target training with Jake.

I started with Jake standing in front of me and I held my hand within 5or 6 inches from his face. It took him a few seconds but he got curious and sniffed my hand. When his nose touched my hand I used the marker word 'YES' and rewarded with a treat. I kept the first session short and did 10 repitions with him touching my hand with some reliability.

Sit

In the same session we moved onto working on the sit command. This is a command that we tought Jake early on and he does fairly reliably. But as the Barron's book recommended I had Jake stand in front of me and waited for him to sit. The first few times he wasn't sure what I wanted him to do so he jumped on me. I would take a big step backwards to prevent him from jumping. After doing that a few times Jake finally sat. So I used the marker word YES and rewarded him with a treat. We practiced 10 more times and he caught on quickly.

The first session lasted maybe 5 minutes. After cooking dinner and cleaning everything up I had time for a second session. Jake easily remembered. I switched back and forth between getting him to target to my hand and sitting. He reliably did the targeting and sitting.

Being that Jake is a German Shepherd, a very smart breed, I have no doubt that if we keep up with the training and remain consistent we will have a better behaved dog.

I will likely do a few more short target and sit training sessions tonight.

Tomorrow we will work on target training from more of a distance and do more work on his sit.