STOP!!!!

;D ;D

it is never too soon to start the stop – on a par with the recall it is the most likely behaviour to breakdown and the training has to be re-enforced through-out life.  i start mine off at 16 weeeks when they have the basic sit, down, stay etc fluent to 70% and the recall to 75% – i don’t take it outside until the recall and sit/stay is really fluent so it is one of those that is on going through out the whole training period.  gun dogs and herders need it not just for emergency but to get them to stop long enough to see/hear a change in direction cue.  it always fascinates me that people don’t consider this as important as a recall and it is rarely taught in the training clubs but whenyou got a really high driven dog like gunner for instance, then it is a life saver – the other week gunner and his mum were walking along the footpath by the railway line just as she realised that there was a hole in the fence gunner flushed a bird – the stop possibly saved his life one of many examples of dog’s needing this cue that i know of.

this is a long hard one – so 5 mins at a time is enough, but good for you to start right the way ;D

;D u welcome :-*

[quote author=poodle link=topic=2699.msg26468#msg26468 date=1143241864]
i have been trying to teach emergency stop/sit for some time.  firsly i make him sit and wait, then call him and try to make him stop at distance.  he can do it in the house, but when we try it during the walk, he changes his pace from run to walk, but he continues to walk quite a bit before he stops ans sits.  how can i improve his performance? 
[/quote]

this is classic – so let me try and explain, bearing in mind that i have been trying to catch up all day and the arthritis in my fingers having been around wet dogs for a week is being a bugger ;D

each behaviour is individual  – that is why the clicker works so well because we now understand this, the traditional training methods move things on from a humans point of view but not from a canines point of view.
so;
sit – 1 behaviour, wait – another, recall another, stop another, sit another etc etc  – at what point are you rewarding him and for which behaviour, from his point of view, is the reward for?.  what you have to do is get each behaviour firm, fluent and reliable at each stage and at each criteria – then and only then can you chain them up – teach the stop the way i have said – that way you are only working on the one behaviour and it is that that is being rewarded – when it is fluent at that level then test it by doing a recall (assuming you have a fluent recall) and introducing the stop when the dog is on the run. you don’t say what your cue is – but all you need for a good stop is a whistle as explained above.