Standing Still

I've recently been working with Marshall on a "stand stay." He has to stand still while I walk away. Today, I wanted to test him while he worked the booth at the farmers market.

I instituted the help of another puppy raiser and the children of another. I got Marshall to stand while the "helper" touched or nudged Marshall with their knees, kind of pushing on him to get him to move. He is not allowed to move until I return to him and release him.

He's still a work in progress, but he did pretty well.

I even think this training spilled over to his "pr work". I would have him standing and a person from the passing crowd would be asking about him, and it seemed Marshall would look over to me as if to ask, "can I stop standing now?" I would tell him 'ok' and he would sit to be petted, as commanded.

It's times like thesethat offer great opportunities to work in a little training for more real-life environments to which he might be exposed--lots of things to look at, but learn to focus on the job.