[RKDinOKC]

Finally got to talk to my Farmers agent Thursday.

As always I talked about Pepper learning to talk and saying I want out. She said she would just like her dog to go in one area of her yard. Said her dog sits at the door, she lets it out, it wonders around does it's thing, then wants right back in. Told her that was perfect. Put the dogs leash on and take it out on leash when it goes to the door to potty. Take it to the area she wants it to use and give a command. I use "Do your stuff." Then praise the dog verbally as it is doing it, and petting after. Then bring it back in, and praise it while she is taking the leash off. She said she would try it.

She called me late yesterday evening and she wanted to tell me it was working. She has been putting the leash on and leading the dog where she wanted it to go and it has been going where she wants. Said she was afraid the dog would fight the leash, but for some reason it didn't. Told her the dog was probably so excited she was going out too that it wanted to stay close to her. Said to just make sure it's not an area of the yard they play fetch in or anything like that and to keep it up for a while. Told her it helps to play with the dog in the parts of the yard she doesn't want the dog to use. Said to start giving the command as she is putting the leash on to take the dog out. After a while she will be able to use the command when she lets it out and the dog will go where she had trained it without the leash.

Said later if she wanted to take the dog somewhere she could take it out and give the command and the dog will go if it needs to, then she can take it somewhere without worrying about it having to go, and yes just like kids.

Wished you could make a comfortable living just helping people train their dogs without having a TV show or something like the Dog Whisperer.

I like the training called Command Performance. Shows you how to train a dog to be able to take it anywhere without a leash.