When you first taught your dog a new behavior (e.g. touch, sit, or down) you clicked as soon as your dog did the behavior. Once your dog has the behavior on cue, you can add duration to it. To add duration to a behavior we change the timing of the click, making it later. In the video above we use touch as an example on how to add duration. You can use this same process to add duration to other behaviors your dog has on cue.
How to Teach:
- Warm up your dog with a few hand touches where you click as they are touching your hand.
- Next delay the click just slightly (~1/2 a second) after your dog touches your hand
- Make sure your dog’s nose is still touching your hand when you click
- If your dog pulls their nose away before you click, then you waited a little too long and need to click just a tiny bit faster.
- You may make some mistakes with the timing of the click, but as long as your dog is working through it and staying in the game you can keep working.
- If your dog walks away or starts getting stressed then take a break, Then when you come back to work on it again, make it easier by shortening the time between your dog touching your hand and when you click.
- Once you are able to increase the time before clicking a little bit, you want to start ping ponging the duration for your click so that it’s not always harder. Sometimes click for a little longer duration and other times click for a shorter time.