Building Duration
When working on stationary exercises that require distance (i.e. stays or Go Mat), there are three separate criteria you need to work on:
- Duration
- Distractions
- Distance
It is important that you only work on one criterion at a time. If your dog has successfully sat for a maximum of 30 seconds with no distractions, then it would be difficult for him to hold that same 30 second Sit with distractions. View it as you would weight lifting: if 30 seconds is the same as 30 pounds, your dog's strength is limited to 30 pounds. If you add distractions (let's say another 10 pounds), you will exceed your dog's strength limit and he will break under the 40 pounds of pressure.
To set your dog up for success, you must decrease your Duration weight when you increase your Distraction weight and then build from there. So in the above circumstance, you would only ask for a 20 second Stay with the one 10 pound distraction, for a total of 30 pounds. If you were to add a stronger distraction or two distractions, then the distraction weight would now be 20 pounds. Your dog's strength limit will still be 30 pounds, so that means if you have stronger distractions you should only ask him to hold that Stay for 10 seconds. As in weightlifting, the more repetitions your dog performs at this 'weight', the stronger he will become in his Stay. Next training session, your dog could likely lift 40 pounds without a break. Once you add distance, you will be adding yet more weight, so it is important to consider your dog's Stay strength when you choose build on the three Ds of Stay.
Many handlers are anxious to introduce distance at an early stage in training: it is impressive and motivating to see your dog hold a stay while you are clear across the room! The problem with adding distance in the early foundation stages is that you are not only teaching the Stay, you are assigning value to it. Looking at it from your dog's point of view, if Stay means he will get delicious cookies, he is likely to assign a lot of value to Stay and he will be very reliable at it. If stay means that his handler is going to move away from him (and take the cookies with him), the dog is certainly going to assign less value to the Stay and he will want to be where the cookies are.
It is important that you build knowledge and value for the Stay through a lot of Distraction training before you add Distance. Your dog should be able to hold a 30 to 60 second Sit or Down Stay while you toss toys around before you even consider adding distance.
The other problem with adding distance too soon is that we human beings are lazy creatures. The further away you are from your dog, the less often you will feed him. Your dog will quickly learn that his chances of reinforcement are greatest when you are close, and he will lose interest when you add distance. Once you add distance, it is important that your rate of reinforcement stays as high when you are 50 feet away from your dog as when you are 1 foot away, otherwise he will begin to break as you add distance.