Goal:

  • Have puppy take a few steps back

What you need:

  1. Non-slippery floor

  2. Something for you to sit on

  3. Cookies

  4. Your puppy

What to do:

  1. Put a cookie on the floor or in a bowl, away from you for the puppy to eat

  2. When puppy comes back towards you, put a cookie on the floor between your legs for puppy to eat

  3. As puppy backs up after eating the cookie on the floor, mark + treat from your hand

  4. Put another cookie between your legs for puppy to eat

  5. Repeat steps 3-4

What the progression may look like:

  1. Cookie between your legs, puppy has to back up a tiny bit after eating the cookie

  2. Cookie a little further inside, puppy has to take 1-2 steps back after eating the cookie

  3. Cookie closer to the chair you are sitting on, puppy has to take multiple steps back after eating the cookie

How many reps? How often?

  • Learning phase: 5-8 reps/session, 2-3x/week

  • Maintenance phase: 8-10 reps/2 sets/session, 2x/week