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“Up” And “Off”
Use luring to guide your dog – no frustration needed!
Introduction - Read This First!
Up and Off may seem like two very simple commands, and that’s because they are! They are also incredibly important for teaching your dog where you want them to go and how to move them around. You can use this lesson to also learn how to move them off the couch, through a door, out of your way, or how to stay off the furniture all the time. Up and Off can form the foundation for a lot of behaviors you will need in everyday life.
Recommended Products In This Lesson:
Why Should My Dog Learn Up And Off?
Up and Off are important commands in everyday life for getting your dog off the furniture, off a seat, or up into the car. These commands will help you avoid stressful situations caused by miscommunication with your dog.
Pro Trainer Principles:
Never Use Punishment As The First Option For Training
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ALWAYS Use Positive Reinforcement First
Using positive reinforcement first to teach your dog new things is much less stressful on them. You can only even think about using light punishments once they know the behavior you actually want them to do. If your dog hasn’t been taught with positive reinforcement first, being punished for something they don’t understand will be very stressful! This can damage your relationship and cause your dog to totally shut down.
Step 1: Review Luring and Hand Gestures
Overview
The first step in teaching Up and Off is to be able to lure your dog effectively, using a treat at first, then later sing only your hands.
Review Luring To The Face
The first part here is to “show” your dog the treat you’re using, right to their face. Move them around to make sure they are following it the right way.
Pro Trainer Principles:
“Show” The Treat Means Right To Their Nose!
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To Lure Your Dog, Be Clear About The Treats You Have
When training your dog, many commands will start with a food lure. You’ll even use treats to “remind” your dog you have treats when they’re training around lots of distractions outside. When you want to lure or remind them about treats by, “show” them the treat by holding it in a flat hand and shoving it right up to their nose. There will be no way they can miss it and they will definitely be able to follow it.
Practice Luring Around
The second part is to make sure that your dog can follow your hand when you gesture to move somewhere instead of only when you have treats.
Pro Trainer Principles:
To Begin Fading Out Treats, Signal With One Hand And Treat With The Other
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Use A "Switch" And "Treat Hand" To Do The Command Without Luring
It’s very important to begin fading out treats as soon as your dog knows how to do the behavior or command you want.
To do this, use the same hand you were luring with, but without a treat. Your dog will think there’s a treat there and follow your hand in the same way. When they do the behavior correctly, say YES and give them the treat from the other hand. This will start teaching them to not follow the treat all the time, but the hand instead.
Step 2: Up And Off Of An Elevated Surface
Overview
To start teaching Up and Off, use an object that is low enough for your dog to jump up onto and off of.
Say "Up!" While You Lure
Say “up!” as you lure the treat over and past the object so that your dog has to jump up onto it to get the treat. Reward with “YES!” and giving them petting and love. You don’t always have to give the treat for this part because it’s already so fun!
Say "Off!" While You Lure
Repeat the same as “Up!”, but this time saying “Off!” before you lure your dog to jump off the object.
Roll The Treat
When your dog gets back down to the floor, they should get a treat for this, to teach them that being “off” of things is way better. Roll the treat along the ground to make it more fun to chase (this makes it “higher value”).
Extra - Additional Examples
Here are some more examples of what it looks like to lure your dog up and off of everyday objects.
Step 3: Hand Gestures Only Now!
Pro Trainer Principles:
To Begin Fading Out Treats, Signal With One Hand And Treat With The Other
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Use A "Switch" And "Treat Hand" To Do The Command Without Luring
It’s very important to begin fading out treats as soon as your dog knows how to do the behavior or command you want.
To do this, use the same hand you were luring with, but without a treat. Your dog will think there’s a treat there and follow your hand in the same way. When they do the behavior correctly, say YES and give them the treat from the other hand. This will start teaching them to not follow the treat all the time, but the hand instead.
Like with most commands, it’s important for your dog learn how to do it without needing to follow a treat. Use one hand to guide your dog over up on to the platform and the other hand to give them the treat.
Step 4: Automatic Off???
Overview
Now that your dog knows how to do Up and Off when you tell them to, you can practice doing “Automatic Off” which means that your dog knows to stay off of certain things (like the couch, dinner table, or countertops) all the time!
Pro Trainer Principles:
An Automatic Version Of A Command Is The Same Thing, Just Without Giving A Command
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Teach Automatic Commands To Get Good Behaviors Without Being Told
To teach an “automatic” version of a command, warm up by practicing the command a bunch of times. After a while you may find that your dog does the command on their own “by accident”. If you reward them for doing the command without being told to, they will do it like that more often!
“Automatic” commands can be very good, like sitting to get attention. They can also be really annoying, like when we “accidentally” teach our dogs to bark for attention by rewarding them with attention when they do it.
Reward For Up and Off FIRST
Pro Trainer Principles:
Never Use Punishment As The First Option For Training
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ALWAYS Use Positive Reinforcement First
Using positive reinforcement first to teach your dog new things is much less stressful on them. You can only even think about using light punishments once they know the behavior you actually want them to do. If your dog hasn’t been taught with positive reinforcement first, being punished for something they don’t understand will be very stressful! This can damage your relationship and cause your dog to totally shut down.
First show your dog what you want them to do in this situation. Later you will be able to use light verbal correction for jumping up, but ONLY if you showed your dog what you wanted FIRST.
Reward For Being "Off"
This part is simple and easy! Just sit on the couch (or at the dinner table) and reward your dog when they are sitting or lying down near you. Make sure to give lots of treats to teach this initially.
Punishment Voice For Jumping
Pro Trainer Principles:
To Change ANY Bad Behavior, Find A Good Behavior To Reward, Then Punish/Ignore The Bad Behavior
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Lots Of Positive Reinforcement And A Little Punishment Is A Powerful Combination
This is a very important concept that comes up a lot in dog training, especially when working on problem behaviors.
If you want to change a certain behavior, you have to use both positive reinforcement to encourage a good behavior, and a little bit of punishment to discourage the bad behavior. Neither reinforcement or punishment is usually effective on their own. When we say punishment, we mean light punishments, like ignoring your dog, using a stern voice, or using a slight tug on the leash.
Now that you’ve used positive reinforcement to teach “Up” and “Off” and to show your dog you like it when they are “off”, if they jump up, you can use a scolding Say “Up!” While You Lure. Make sure not to say “Off” because you want this to be an “automatic” behavior. This is one of the few times where punishment will be used.
Don't Forget To Reward!
Pro Trainer Principles:
The Absence Of A BAD Behavior Is A GOOD Behavior
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Never Forget That Your Dog Is Always Training!
When you start training behaviors like jumping up, not barking, or lying down quietly while you relax, it’s very easy to forget about them once the bad behavior is mostly gone. But you must remember that your dog is trying VERY hard to be polite! Always look at your dog when they’re doing NOTHING and think “before we started training, would they have wanted to do something bad right now?”. You have to remember to reward them, even if they look like they’re not doing anything. Doing “nothing” is being polite! Reward it!
Now that you’ve rewarded your dog for “automatic off” and punished for jumping up, it’s very important to continue rewarding when they are not jumping up. But this can be difficult because it’s so easy to forget when they are being polite and not jumping! Don’t let a good behavior go unnoticed! Reward for politeness all the time!
Still Have Questions?