Reinforcing good behavior is an important part of dog training, which is why the dogs at Stone Manor are constantly being put through their paces.

They need to sit when Mama’s in the kitchen working, they lay down when we eat dinner.  We practice recalls in the yard and when we’re walking we work on heeling.

Delilah and I take the occasional training class just to keep us on our toes and help keep her mentally sharp.  So when the Train Your Dog Challenge, hosted by Something Wagging This Way Comes, Rescued Insanity and Alfie’s Blog came up, I wondered, just what exactly am I going to train the dogs to do?

 

Some of you may remember that last year, I heeled Delilah with a chick pea.

I know right?  Amazing the things you can do with a highly food motivated dog.

But this year was a bust.  I had no idea what to do.  And then Sampson came down with a partial ACL tear and my vet suggested pet steps for the bed, couch and car.

How hard could it be?  We use stairs every day.  There are stairs into our house.  Stairs down from our deck.  Stairs up into the back yard.

The dogs use stairs in one form or another every single day.

This was going to be cake.

It took a while but I finally found a set of stairs that could hold a dog over 50 pounds and I set them up in front of the bed.

 

I called Sampson in and using some treats coaxed him up the stairs and back down.  I did this about three times and each time I did it I said, “Stairs.”

The next time we went into the bedroom I said, “Stairs.”

And Sampson jumped on the bed.

I asked him to get off the bed via the stairs.

He jumped over them.

I’d bring his night time treat in and hold it in front of the stairs and he walks past them and jumps on the bed.

I’ve seen him use the stairs on his own without being coaxed, once.

ONCE!

Dammit, this is my easy dog!!

So once again, we busted out the treats.

He does fine when I’m coaxing him with treats, which I will continue to do at least three or four times per day.  My goal is to get him so comfortable he uses the stairs without being coaxed.

Hubby and I have decided that even when Sampson’s restrictions are lifted, we will keep the stairs.  Sampson will be ten this year and Delilah will be nine and odds are at some point the stairs may be permanently needed.

Did you participate in Train Your Dog month?  What were your goals?  Did you succeed or did you struggle like I did?