Hi! Dog training question, if you don't mind? I want to improve my dogs' recall, so I want to use the recall command randomly throughout the day and give them a nice tasty reward. But if I am holding a treat and they are aware of it, they won't. Go away. For me to practice recalling them. They are just lazer focused on the treat and follow me around mournfully. How do you have treats on your person without having sad little shadows staring at you the entire time?
Oh, related: how do I convince my dogs to actually perform a stay? Despite like 3 years of trying, my older dog (he is 3.5) firmly believes that if a person tells him to stay and walks away from him, that person has simply made a mistake and he needs to follow them. He will follow the person and slam back into a perfect sit five feet behind them when they turn around. He is not rewarded for this with treats but unfortunately it is very cute so other members of my family are definitely rewarding this behavior with attention 🤦 for a pet dog that is otherwise reasonably trained (sit, down, various party tricks, not aggressive, kind of a weenie) and always on a leash and harness outside, is an actual stay necessary in your opinion??
So idk if you're on my insta but I've been posting stories about this with recall. I DONT require them to be at a distance when doing daily recall training at home (i do it during one meal and any time geting a bone or some other special treat). Recall is primarily about charging value in your whistle/word and not so much about the distance. So I let them know I have the highly desireable food, I let them dance around and be annoying little shadows. And then I blow my whistle or say my emergency cue and when they're body slamming me in excitement at that sound I give them the reward.
For practicing unexpected recalls for that FAST turn I WONT have the food on me or even prepare the food. I will be somewhere in the house, blow my whistle/say the emergency recall and then when they reach me we do a HUGE and DRAMATIC song and dance of excitement/goodboys/lets get the food all the way to where the food is kept and I keep it up while opening the food container. So I keep the arousal up and they stick with me.
and I only do this stuff for my whistle and emergency recall cue. My formal recalls only get practiced once or twice a week (have them sit then recall from the sit) because they're just not that practical. Different word, different body signals and all.
Eh i think stay is only as important as YOU want it. I like a stay for photos and obedience but as you said you have a leash and harness outside, if you want him to stay somewhere just tie him to the spot. I certainly wouldn't leave a dog untied in a stay unsupervised outside of obedience (relatively safe and controlled environment) or photos (short duration short distance). I'd just pop them in the car to wait or behind a pen or in a crate or on a lead... The fact my dogs CAN do a stay in a single position for excessive amount of minutes and distractions is just...it's really just not that necessary for life outside of obedience comps or if you want to show off on the internet that your dog can stay. So I never actually use it outside of those obedience trials.
If you do want to work on a stay I'd say go for a whole different word and hand signal to what your family are doing and look into 300 peck to teach it errorlessly from the foundation up: https://thatdogguy.co.uk/3oo-peck-method
