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To begin with I am training Tess in the yard at the farm where our offices are.   The hard surface is less distracting for her than the grass,  more similar to our back yard at home.   I am using two slipleads tied together to give me enough length to teach the first simple ‘stays’ on the lead

You can see that she feels just a little unsure of herself and she licks my hand a bit for reassurance.   However,  she is very quick to catch on and happy to keep pace with me.  We do a few steps (literally just two or three) of ‘heel’  interspersed with  ‘sits’  and a few more steps of ‘heel’  etc. 

She is a tiny bit in front in the shot below,  so ...

....we do a little about turn

which brings Tess back in line with my leg in the position I prefer.  Sometimes,  when she sits, I give her a treat.  I will fade these over the next few days but may reintroduce them each time I add some distractions.

This is obviously a much easier process with a dog like this which has never got into a 'pulling habit'  and has had no opportunities to have fun away from her handler.  No force was needed, and by the end of the session I am very pleased with her position and her focus on me.   

Also in this session,  I introduced a short stay.  I don't use the word stay,  just my sit command 'hup'.   We did several 10 second stays with Tess by my side and then I began to step away from her.   Just one or two steps and then back again.  All very simple,  but quite a big new step for her.  

That is all we did for this first session, which I repeated again later in the day.  I will be repeating it several times more this week before taking this exercise to the grass paddock you can see just behind us.

At home we have now taken down Tess's crate and she has a basket in the kitchen instead.  She is not much of a 'chewer'  so far,  but we will review the situation if any problems arise. Tess now goes into her basket on command 'bed' and remains there until released.  Just a few seconds is all I am asking at present.  If I need to confine her for longer,  I pop her in my car crate or a kennel.  

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TRAINING TESS

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