When our dogs are performing a cue reliably, it is time to raise the criteria. Adding duration, distance or distractions will make a behavior more difficult but will also help your dog to understand what is expected of it. Our goal is to keep a dog under their threshold and be successful. It is better to practice many repetitions on a lower level and gradually increase the criteria than to consistently practice above the dog’s level causing it to fail at the task. Here is how we will add the three criteria that challenge a dog to perform better. If you add too much too quickly your dog will likely get frustrated and perform poorly. In this case, go back to the level where your dog can succeed and gradually build up the criteria.
The first thing we will add with any behavior is duration. This is the time factor; we might ask a dog to ‘stay’ for a longer amount of time, or require that a dog continue to perform a task before it is rewarded. Duration should be added on a case by case basis until performance is improving, make sure to take plenty of breaks when working on duration.
The second thing we will add is distance. This is how far away we can be; we might ask a dog to ‘stay’ and walk away, or from a distance ask the dog to ‘sit’ while it is not close to us. While adding distance, let up on duration for a while until the dog can practice distance work well, then add in the duration again.
The last thing we will add is distraction. This is asking the dog to perform while there are other things going on around it; we might ask a dog to ‘stay’ as other dogs walk past, or while it can see a ball bouncing in a noisy environment. Distractions should be added at a low level in addition to duration and distance and gradually increased.
