Steps to Success L2 & L3 Sit.

Purely for your enjoyment; a picture of Luna at 3 years old.

Haha, we're on a roll this week!

Tonight I tested Luna on L2 & L3 Sit. My plan is to test her, and if she fails at something, it goes into the Teaching category and we work on it until she CAN pass.

First, L2 Sit.

L2S1	Dog Sits while trainer walks 5' away and returns.	Pass
L2S2	Dog Sits while trainer walks 5' away, stays away for 30 seconds and returns.	Pass
L2S3	Dog Sits while trainer walks 10' away, stays away for 1 minute and returns.	Pass!
L2S4	Dog Sits while trainer walks around her.	Pass
L2S5	Applying Sits to life. Well, we've been doing that for nearly six years!	Pass!

Then, on to L3 Sit.

L3S1	Dog Sits up from Down. Easy peasy.	Pass
L3S2	Dog Sits up from Down 2' from trainer.	Pass
L3S3	Dog Sits up from Down 5' from trainer.	Pass!
L3S4	Dog Downs from Sit 5' from trainer. Again, easy peasy.	Pass
L3S5	Applying Sits to life. Again, been doing that for nearly six years!	Pass!

This was actually a surprising outcome for me. Not so much L3 as we had been working on Sit from Down a couple of weeks last summer, and I know she really gets that. I was surprised that Luna could do a 1-minute Sit without whining and without lying down WHILE I held a clicker. A couple of years ago - see how good I am at procrastinating - I tried teaching Luna about Stays with the clicker. She could do them without, but adding the clicker made her want to MOVE! So I quit that endeavor. And now, after a year of consistently using clickertraining, I have a dog who is becoming quite innovative at inventing behaviors, AND she has learned to trust that she can hold the position I've cued until she hears the click, and the world won't end. A - W - E - S - O - M - E!

I will be testing these behaviors more regularly, and in different locations. Just to keep the skill and generalize the Stay to places with more distractions. Tonight we worked in a wide alley, we come through there several times a day on our walks. There's a playground on one side, a perpendicular path on the other side, and we worked in the dark. It was quite windy, so distractions where leaves across the ground, cars passing on one end of the alley, and the ever-present possibility of a dog showing up. Better yet, CATS! I will say I was glad that neither of those disturbed us tonight. ;-)

Anyway, I am PROUD!

Tomorrow we'll work on L2 Down - and possibly - L3 Down. She might just surprise me again!

Luna's updated Progress Chart again!