Chewie and I are making a lot of progress with her new stay behavior. (You can read about the beginning of this project in Chewie’s Diary #76.)
We first gradually increased the distance until I could walk about 12 feet away.
Why twelve feet? It’s about as far as I can walk away from Chewie in our current training set up in the barn.
Later, I would like to add more distance. But, right now, with the August sun beating down, staying in the shade is important for both of us!
Our next step has been to gradually increase the amount of time that I wait before I walk back to Chewie. I can now consistently wait 30–40 seconds before walking back to Chewie.
That’s a lot of time! Good girl, Chewie!
Here’s a video clip from one of our recent training sessions.
Watch on YouTube: Chewie practicing staying for 40 seconds
This behavior will be useful for many different things!
I plan to do more agility training with Chewie, and stay is an important foundation behavior for many agility tasks.
It’s also a really helpful behavior for many daily care tasks and veterinary tasks.
As we keep working on this behavior, I plan to add more duration. As well, I will start adding in some variations to my own behavior, such as standing in different places, moving around, and changing my position. We will also start practicing this behavior in a variety of different environmental conditions.
I will post more as we keep practicing!
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