Teaching a new trick: GOTO Your Spot!
09 Feb 2009
Here is a neat trick, that once established, you can make a new spot in 1 minute or less. What is GOTO Your Spot? Simply put, it is a place or location where you want your dog to go and park themselves and enjoy being in one spot. You probably have already mastered this trick and don’t even know it. I’ll explain that later.
Let’s get to the training;
Pick a spot where you want to park the dog, say somewhere in the Living Room. It could be a corner, next to your chair, near the TV. It does not matter, but make sure it is a Spot they can call their own. Call the dog to that Spot and have them lie down. Reward with a treat or toy. Tell them this is their spot. If they get up, say “GOTO Your Spot!” Grab the collar, and lead them back to that Spot, them have them lie down again. Reward with a treat or toy. This may take 5 times or 20 times, but they will learn where their Spot is.
All it takes is learning this command in one room. Once mastered, you can establish Spots in other rooms. You can use the same command, or just tell them where you want them to go. The Spot in the computer room? All I say is “Computer Room” … he knows where to go.
As I said, you probably have already mastered this trick and didn’t realize it. What do you say when you take the dog for a ride in the car? “Get in the Car”? “Go for a Ride?” They jump in the car and lie down, right? You just discovered a GOTO Your Spot command. Want another example? What about bedtime? I can say “Night Night” and Batai (my Border Collie) will go in his crate, another GOTO Your Spot command.
Once the command is mastered, you can go to a neighbors house, direct the dog to a Spot, tell them This is your SPOT and they will know exactly what to
do. Your friends will be amazed with this simple trick.
Be sure to give your dog ear rubs from me.