Manual Stand
The manual stand is a great tool to help your dog get comfortable with body handling exercises. We would use this exercise to help decrease anxiety in stressful situations, help to desensitize them to veterinary examinations, and as the first step towards getting your dog to accept nail trims. It is SO effective at doing those things, that we practice this with every dog, even if they can learn to stand reasonably well with just cookies. There is a benefit to getting them used to us handling them.
- Start with your dog sitting in heel position.
- Adjust the collar high and snug so that the collar is at the top of the dog’s neck, and the running links are coming out of the right side of your dog’s face, by their cheek.
- Place your right hand on the running links of the dog’s collar, palm down, knuckles forward.
- Place your left hand on the dog’s shoulders, and slowly slide down their back and underneath their belly to lift them into the stand position.
- Use a flat palm to lift them. This is a sensitive are, so make an effort not to accidentally poke, pinch or grab them while you are lifting.
- Let go of the dog’s collar, and reposition your hands in walking position with the leash.
- Be careful not to pull up when you do this as upward pressure = sit.
- Do an “Exercise Finish”
You can see an example of good collar position in this video. You can either leave the handle of the leash looped over your right thumb as you do the manual stand, or drop the rest of the leash entirely (if you are in a safe and secure area). Raechel demonstrates both options with Hiro.
In the following video, Skeeter is a little resistant to standing on the first repetition. For the second repetition, Raechel steps her foot back and turns to face the dog in order to lift him more easily. By the third repetition, he catches onto the drill and is easier to stand.
In the following video, Lola stands relatively easily, but appears nervous. That is not uncommon for dogs that aren’t comfortable with body handling. This exercise is a perfect way for her to get used to that. We would continue repeating this drill over the next several days until she was more comfortable.
Repeat at least 25 times a day, slowly adding duration to the time when the dog is standing, before doing the Exercise Finish.
What if my dog breaks position?
If your dog sits, lays down, or walks away, replace them manually in the stand. There is no correction. You may have to replace them a number of times before they hold the position.
Cookie Stand
As useful as the manual stand is to our dog’s good character, the cookie stand is a fun alternative. We use the cookie stand (or Pop-Up Stand), to get the dog to stand on their own from a sit.
You DO need treats for this exercise. You don’t need a leash for this exercise, although you can keep it on if you are in an unsecured area, or if your dog is prone to getting over excited, or getting distracted and wandering off.
- Start with the dog sitting in front of you.
- Place a treat in front of your dog’s face at nose level.
- Move the treat back and forth in front of your dog’s face, towards their ribs in both direction. Encourage them verbally to follow the food with the “get it” command.
- When the dog moves into the stand position to follow the treat, give them the treat.
- We prefer if the dog’s front feet stay in place and their back legs pop backwards. To ensure that this happens (instead of them just walking forward), keep the cookie close to their nose and ONLY move sideways.
- Repeat until the dog is immediately standing when prompted.
Do not say “Stand” until the reliably pop up into the stand position from the sit on the first try.
Notice how Raechel “pushes” the cookie towards Bailey as she starts to stand to encourage her to move backwards instead of forwards.
Raechel demonstrates how the cookie stand can be a balancing act in this video. There are a couple of times when Lady starts to stand and is tempted to sit back down, but Raechel moves the cookie slightly forward to keep Lady’s weight in her front paws.
In this video, you can see that Tucker is much more dedicated to holding the Sit command, so Raechel has to move around quite a bit more to get him to stand. Feel free to move your feet around the dog in a half circle, towards his ribs just like you would with your cookie.
Repeat at least 50 times a day.