You’ve taught your dog a new command – they new understand it and perform it for you at home. Amazing! You’re done now, right? Wrong.
If you want that command to be functional in the real world, you’ve only just begun. Teaching the dog a new command at home in a low-distraction environment was the easy bit.
Just because they know the command in that context doesn’t mean they will know it in other contexts. If you want a command your dog will follow anywhere anytime, you need to do what’s called
Proofing means you practice that behaviour in a variety of environments and around appropriately increasing levels of distraction so that the dog understand that the meaning of the command stays the same no matter the context and their build impulse control to make the behaviour more reliable.
Don’t forget that commands are also a use-it-or-lose-it deal. Even if your dog performs it perfectly at one point, if you don’t keep up practice regularly, they will lose reliability and possibly forget the command altogether.
