[debo]

What is the best way to accomplish the stay and come command? Debo is almost 7 months.

I tried working on stay today. I have him sit and then I point my arm out at his nose and say "Stay" and slowly try to move back. He follows me as I step back. He smells the treat and seems to be thinking "hey i sat, where's my treat?" lol. I kept trying to have him stay, and when he would walk forward I would say "No, stay...", redirect him to sit and use my arm gesture to stay. I did this about 6 or 7 times and he seemed to just get frustrated and layed down. Ha.

The hardest command I'm trying to enforce is "Come". Sometimes he just outright ignores me when he's preoccupied with other things. Usually if we are in the house, and he's playing with Jass he'll come 50% of the time, but that's usually just by calling his name. If he has a bone, it's more like 15% lol. I have lure him away with something else. If we are outside and he's off leash, he never comes.  He's too busy checking everything out. It's like I'm not even there.

Any suggestions? I really worry about having him off leash.

 

[Newcastle]

Don't have him off leash until he has a reliable recall, for sure.  You need to teach him that coming to you is always better than whatever he's doing; if he's playing, you need to have food; if he's chewing on a bone, you need to have liverwurst (or, whatever things he finds highly rewarding - it does depend on what the dog likes).  Here are a couple of articles on teaching reliable recalls:
http://www.dogforme.com/pages/roadkill.html
http://www.clickersolutions.com/article ... recall.htm

As far as stay goes, you may be adding too much, too soon.  Work on him holding the sit without you moving first; when he's staying in position for a long time (30 seconds to a minute, maybe), then add the new "piece" of you taking a step away from him (take a small one, at first, to make it easier for him).  When you're starting this portion, just step away and step right back - once he's good at staying in that situation you can step away, pause, and step back.  Always step back to him and treat him in position, this will reinforce the stay as well.  Gradually increase the time, and then go to two steps away (go back to step away-step back, then step away-pause-step back, etc., whenever you increase the distance).  Each 'level' will take a shorter amount of time to teach, especially if he has a high understanding from the beginning.

Some techniques for teaching stay (among other things):
http://www.clickersolutions.com/article ... #behaviors

 

[debo]

Thank you, I will definitely check out the links and try that for the "Stay" command!