Today was the eighth straight day of Bud and me working together to learn the “stay” command. Reviewing the videos has been a phenomenal training tool for me, because I am seeing my mistakes and shortcoming. Which are many.

Training Labs and border collies has been easier for me because they can focus for long periods of time, and are motivated by several things. Also, I’ve had them and worked with them for years. Bud rattled me, he is so different.

Bud loves food, but he is hyper-reactive to every sound and movement in the pasture, as you can see. He loses focus after about five seconds. I’m not sure how far I can take that. We’ll see. Dogs have their own worldview and it’s risky to mess with it at an older age.

I am dedicated to being positive with him.

My biggest problem has not been where I stand or move, or the distance between us, the biggest problem has been my anxiety and the use of far too many words.

Bud was trying, but he couldn’t always differentiate the real command from all the chatter coming out of my mouth. He’s getting it now.

I think, thanks to the videos, I’m fixing  that (this is what they mean when they say it’s almost always the human’s fault).

Bud is staying two or three times longer than a few days ago and at a far greater distance. His recall is excellent. I don’t know But that well, I didn’t raise him as a puppy, so I don’t know what other experiences he has had with commands.

Certain movements and words frighten him, I’m learning which. I know he had a brutal male owner. So I’m very careful with him.

Notice how Bud is learning to work through the distractions, of which there are many (deliberately). If he gets it in the pasture, he’ll get it anywhere.

If he makes a mistake, I simply get him back to where we started and repeat it. It takes about 2,000 repetitions for a dog to really grasp a command. We’re not even close. Training is a never ending thing, you can’t do it in four weeks at a pet store.

My plan now is to solidify what we have done and work on the length of stay. I believe that a dog must stay for up to three minutes to really understand the command.

Thanks for following this process, your comments have been helpful to me. I can’t say enough about watching your own training videos. Been good for me.