[dance4lyf]

My younger sister got a pupy 2 years ago while she was in middle school. She no longer has the desire to take care of her (i know very bad) due to her interest in her boyfriend,texting, and facebook. So we all decided it is in the dog's best interest to become mine. I currently teach dance every saturday all day for my aunts studio. I would love to take her with me if i can get her to quietly lay in the corner. i am looking for any advice on how to accomplish this. Any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated. thanks <3

[lange]

It's admirable that you're taking over in caring for the dog. Your sister & dog are lucky to have you.

Make sure you build a bond and obedience train her well. If she takes you seriously & trusts you then it will be easier to ask her to be quiet, lay down, stay, ect WHILE having her listen. If you can first start by some how tieing her down in what will be her specific corner or "place". Make it dog friendly & comfy for her. You will work on getting her to learn to "settle" there without other people being around. Get her used to it & the behavior you want. Give her toys that can keep her entertained for long periods like a kong & such.

Once you feel she's getting used to her role & is more reliable, start doing the same thing with other people there. The more consistent you are in redirecting behavior you don't want, the less she will test you. Once she gets into the habit of knowing what she's expected to do, you can stop tieing her down & continue reinforcing what you want from her.

OH!..>.forgot to mention...tire her out very WELL before you take her to the dance class EVERY time. If she has a lot of energy left to burn she will be harder to focus.

[Taming Rover]

Hey there, I agree take her for a long walk or preferably a run before you want to bring her in there, the less pent up energy she has and more tired she is the easier it will be for both of you. Also, I would suggest that in your training you teach her to down and instead of just making it up to her to decide when she can get up again, put a word to it, like "free" or even just "okay" or something like that. When she gets the idea that if you ask her to down it essentially means "lie down and stay until I give the release," It's much easier for her to understand what's expected of her instead of her wondering when she can get up. I see this in a lot of dogs, they respond well to the command but then because people don't work with a release word, it's basically a gamble to them when they can break the position so they wait until your not looking or until something more interesting comes by.

If you decide to go with this way you need to make sure your very consistent with the rules. Figure out what behavior you want to see, it helps a lot when we as owners are very clear in our own heads about what we expect. When you teach this, try to avoid repeating the command, if you build respect through obedience training and providing her with what she needs, i.e. food, proper exercise and leadership, she will be inclined to want to do as you ask as soon as you say it and not the third of fourth time.

First start working with small duration of time before releasing, then work up to distractions of having people or even other dogs around. What she learns is that no matter who comes close to her or what else is very interesting across the room, she knows that what you expect is that she stays in the position until you release her.

If you could work with her in the studio at off hours so she gets used to the space and then bring a few friends along for a mock dance session to get her used to it that would be great.
Stay close to her at first and if she gets up before you've said your release word just guide her back to where she was and silently correct her back into the down, don't repeat the command here because that means she would be under a new command instead of getting the point across that she just broke the first one. Make sense?

I would suggest having a comfortable bed where she can rest and know that this is her place to be and to relax.