Training with Joe : Stop Command

When our dogs hear the command to stop, he or she should think that the only reason in the world that they stop has absolutely nothing to do with sled runner resistance on the snow, deep snow, steep hill or a heavily loaded sled. 

They stop only because it’s ingrained into their brains’ neural pathways to stop on command.

So in other words, if our dogs firmly believe wholeheartedly and through and through that they stop only because of our command then they literally will not ever give up in pulling unless and or until they hear the command to stop.

Now we can alter their thinking easily by overworking them.

This will throw them into a survival mode and start carving an alternate route into the neural pathways.

This we don’t want.

We want them to always truly believe that their strength hinges solely on our commands and that they do not have a limit to their strength whatsoever.

As far as they know they can pull the earth off its axis.

When our dogs have reached this level of training they should stop on a dime immediately after hitching up and hearing the command to stop.

But the secret here is not to overwork them…ever.

This is where we have to read body language continuously and constantly all day and every day.

Think of it as driving a car on a busy city street.

We don’t take our eyes off the road.

And if we do we’ll most likely crash.

“Crashing a team” is a real term that dog racers use when their dogs refuse to go farther.

And it’s because the musher didn’t pay attention.

HOWEVER with hauling freight, breaking trail and arctic travel this scenario mustn’t ever, ever happen.

We mustn’t ever allow them to change their way of thinking, or slip out of the neural pathway’s groove that we’ve worked so hard for them to take.

Once they’re out of this high power pulling groove the chances of getting them back into it as the default mode is slim and difficult.

Of course along with the stop command we must have a go command.

This means absolutely no harness banging, jumping and acting like total maniacs which is something they would love to do.

After all pulling is their world, their happiness and frankly it’s their heaven.

But how in the hell do you accomplish the seemingly impossible and have them sit calm and pretty while hooking up or stopped?

The answer is the STAY command.