Hold Objects For 10sec

Elliot DMDS

Well-Known Member
In the german trickforum we have a challenge- the dog should hold an object in his mouth for 10sec while in the three positions, sit, stand, down.

Elliot knew the behavior in a sit, but today I tried it with down and stand, and it was no problem :)


We started this very slow, C&T for his sheer interest first.
(He hated the dumbbell!)
Within 2 weeks we reached a second or so... but by now, he even finds retrieving the dumbell rewarding, because we spent so much time working on the hold ;)
So keep on training, with patience it works out one day :)
 

tigerlily46514

Honored Member
NICE WORK!!!

I'm glad i saw this, as i am working on "Get a beer out of the fridge"
and Buddy disliked the feel of a beer can in his mouth, so i use a "coozie" over the can of beer.

I sort of cheated, i softly whispered, "wait........wait........." while teaching a prolonged hold of the beer can. My dog knows the cue "wait", and i do tend to use it now and then while teaching other tricks.
 

tx_cowgirl

Honored Member
Staff member
Nice video! Way to go Elliot. :)
I'm working on shaping a longer hold with Mud too, as she generally hates holding anything. She will carry things, retrieve things, pick up anything I drop, etc...she has a lot of tricks involving holding things with her mouth, but to sit still and hold something....no thanks. But she's getting there, slowly but surely. :)
 

tigerlily46514

Honored Member
Tx, my dog was exact same way, and at first, i just waited one add'l second, til CLICK/TREAT....just adding one second at a time.....next day, add another second...


then i started cheating,:ROFLMAO: whispering "waiiiiittttt...........waaaiiit...." and it worked.
But Buddy does know the cue "wait"...we've used that cue for years.


at our house, "wait" is NOT the same as stay. "Wait" is a brief pause, a temporary form of stay, or hold on one more minute kind of thing,
BUT "stay" means you WILL be there for a while.

Like, getting in or out of cars, Buddy is told "wait" not "stay", as it will only be a matter of seconds til he can follow me.

anyway, for anyone who DOES use the cue "wait" you CAN use that for adding duration to some tricks. I also did this with Buddy's beg, told him "waaaiiit.......waiiit......" and then he held the beg longer.
i also used "waaaiiit.....wait..." to help Buddy understand, on the trick "Show me your good side" i wanted him to hold the pose for a lil while.

"wait" is a VERY handy cue to help with other tricks.
 

tx_cowgirl

Honored Member
Staff member
I use "stay" for various tricks, when I want the dogs to hold a position until I release them; same as you use wait. :) Not sure that I will continue to train it this way, but with Mud and Z I taught "wait" as basically a sit-stay. Wait means to sit and wait until I tell you you can do otherwise...and recently I've also shaped it to require eye contact as well. With future dogs not 100% sure if I will stick with this or not...

I started to use "stay" with shaping Mud's hold too, but I'm afraid to dilute the "hold" command, as I do want a hold command...feel like I would be constantly saying, "Hold, stay, hold, stay, hold, stay..." Not sure...for now we're just shaping, and she's catching on.
 

tx_cowgirl

Honored Member
Staff member
Lol, I used to only use stay for sits, downs, stands, but then worked with a couple of trainers who teach stay as meaning to freeze in whatever position you are currently in. If you're in a bow and I say stay, I want you to hold that position. If you're lying on your side and I say stay, I want you to hold that position. This works for literally everything, so I've started teaching it this way too. Makes sense, as if you wanted a sit-stay, or down-stay, or stand-stay, it has the same meaning....hold that position unless told to do something else.
 

TiflovesBCs

Experienced Member
I'm not really using the word "stay" with Bella. I'm teaching her by a kikopup video where the idea is when I tell her settle she can only move from it when I say "release". Don't have to say stay. Only condition her to only move when I say "release" nothing else.
And my mum tends to use "wait" with Zara in relation to food - feeding her sha has to "wait" to get it till told. And she tends to snatch treats out of the hand which hurts so whe uses "wait" before giving the treat.
 
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