How to Train Show Dogs Alert Expressions

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Elise from Expert Village.com and in this short video clip we are working on a series of training for the show ring. So what we are doing in this one is we are going to teach alert expressions and in the show ring the judge is going to notice the dog is looking like, give it to me, I’m the winner. We want to teach the dog how to look on so what we are going to do is to tell the dog to stand and wait and then you want to have something that you know that your dog gets interested in. For example, I have cookies in my pocket and you can see that Tai’s are erect. He has a very alert expression right now. I want him to look keyed in and interested in the object so I am going to be dangling the object in which case is a treat for Tai in front of his face. I can move his head all around. I can have him look up, wait and I can have him look down, wait. Okay. After you have practiced this a little bit you want to do a couple of seconds a day at a time. You don’t want to try to get the dog to hold that expression for too long because they will get tired and bored. So you want to work in short little bursts. Tai stand, wait. So again, I got a very alert looking dog here because he is interested in this treat. Okay. The only reason the dog is not jumping for it and taking the treat is because I previously taught him a stand and wait command which we have on other videos for you to take a look at. We will do it one more time. Tai this way, sit, wait. Tai stand, wait. Yes, good boy! Okay. Remember marking the behavior, the praising and behavior and the releasing behavior and all the components of training and behavior are just as important as in training a show behavior as they are in training in an obedience behavior. So you will notice me saying yes, good puppy and releasing the dog from the behavior. "