Training a dog to stand is one of the basic commands that the American Kennel Club (AKC) requires for its Companion Dog degree. It is formally called Stand for Examination and your dog must not move a toe while the judge goes over his body.
Is Training A Dog To Stand Even Necessary?
At first glance, training a dog to stand does not seem a necessary dog training command for pet dogs. You may, indeed, decide to skip it. But before you do, here’s what you can use it for if you decide to teach it. The “Stand” is a wonderful piece of vocabulary to have when you want to groom your dog. “Stand” is nice when you want to cancel out the automatic sit on rainy days, when there’s mud underfoot, or when it’s too cold for your dog to sit outdoors. In addition, you may want your dog to stand for examination informally. If he’s shy of strangers, not well socialized or skittish, having people handle him and pet him while he remains standing still is one of the exercises that will help him overcome his shyness. It’s also nice for picture taking and it is easy to teach.
Get your dog onto his feet any way you can; lift him, start him heeling, place your hand under his belly, saying “Stand”, and exert a mild pressure upward. Work in a quiet room, without distractions. Be gentle and soothing. Above all, when your dog sits again, do not yell “No-Stand!” In fact, if your dog was standing and you yelled, the very first thing he’d do would be to sit or crouch. Once you get your dog standing, you can pet him or brush him, keeping one hand under his belly and repeating the command “Stand” in a soothing tone.
Try this routine for about five minutes a day, using the time to groom your dog, pet him, or sing to him. A great time to work on this is right after you come back from an outdoor training session. In about a week, your pet will happily stand on the floor and maybe even in the bathtub.
Training A Dog To Stand Is Helpful When Brushing Your Dog
Now that your puppy has learned to stand on command, next time you brush him, when you finish one side, tell him “Turn around” and gently swing him around with your hands so that his head ends up where his tail was and vise versa. Now, tell him, “Good dog” or “Smart dog” while brushing his far side.
There are other obvious bonuses to training your dog. As you can already see, the more you teach him, the faster he can learn. Once he has the basics down pat, many new commands, games and tricks will be learned almost automatically. Even the complex activities that take time will take less time. In addition, the more your dog learns, the more mutual pleasure
The key to it all is to systematically teach him how to learn and training a dog to stand is an additional behavior to help a dog along that road.