I am also a Obedience Instructor. I work basic obedience with my students, sit stay, down stay, heel, leave it, and come when called. When the dogs can complete these basic commands we use hand signals along with voice and then just hand commands. When they are really good with their hand commands, I start with drop on recall. When the dog is in a stay at a distance, the dog is called and as it is coming to you the command down is given with the hand signal. This command can save your dogs life. The dog drops to the ground before it reaches you as if a car was coming and you stopped the dog before he ran out in front of the car. I used this command on one of my own dogs and stopped him from coming out in front of a pickup truck. I heel my students and throw food on the ground, this is the leave it command. We also play games that proves how good your dog's heeling is.Set up some pile ons and have the owners hold the leash in their left hand. In the left hand also is a plastic spoon with a tennis ball balanced on the end of the spoon. The owners have to heel their dogs through the pile ons using only their voice and left hand to guide their dogs. The one that can make it down and back without dropping the tennis ball is the winner. The spoon has to be held at the very end of the handle.There are all kinds of fun things you can do with trained dogs. Simon Says is another good game. Simon Says "down", Simon Says "sit" etc. etc.Have fun with your class and both the humans and dogs will enjoy it.
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