South Lincolnshire Jerry Green Dog Sanctuary shares tips on getting your pet to sit and appeals for home for Butterscotch

In our regular column, Man's Best Friend, staff at Jerry Green Dog Sanctuary appeal for a home for beautiful Butterscotch

Meet Butterscotch, a gorgeous Labrador cross pointer. Butterscotch has been in a home previously and sadly has ended up in rescue due to her owner’s health.

She LOVES to play ball and will spend all day out sunbathing in the garden with her toys.

Equally, she enjoys her walks and with her being overweight it’s important she has the opportunity to stretch her legs daily. She travels well and will sit on the back seat ready to go on an adventure!

She is not keen on other dogs and can be rather vocal so it’s very important she will be walked in rural areas like farmer’s fields and along bridleways so you’re less likely to bump into anyone.

She is house trained and can be left four to six hours, previously she was left for a full day with a break in between so would be suitable for a working family.

However, this would need to gradually increased once she has settled in. She likes to make human friends so maybe a friend or relative would like to spend time with her.

Butterscotch is currently having investigations for allergies but the team can speak to you about this. She would love a garden with a 6ft fence where she can run around, play and sunbathe.

Butterscotch is looking for a pet free home, so sadly no other dogs, cats or animals however, children over 14 years old would be great fun to play with if they are kind and gentle.

Please call the South Lincolnshire team on 01205 260546 or email slincs@jerrygreendogs.org.uk with any questions you may have.

With this method of teaching a settle you do not need verbally ask for the behaviour (e.g. like a ‘sit’), but instead you can give your dog an environmental cue that it is time to ‘switch off’.

You can do this by bringing out and always practising ‘settle’ on the same bed/blanket, no matter where you and your dog are.

This way when we put this bed/blanket out, it becomes your dog’s cue that we want them to settle.

Step 1: Introducing the settle blanket

Select a new mat or blanket your dog hasn’t seen before and place it next to a chair/sofa. Whenever your dog makes contact on the blanket drop a small treat down. Continue dropping the treats at a rapid rate; if they get off the blanket the treats can stop. Aim for between the two front paws or alternatively over the top of their head so they do not need to move to get the treat. Aim for the same place each time. Be careful to make sure your dog isn’t accidentally being reinforced for other behaviours, e.g. standing on the mat but vocalising or staring at you, and instead try to capture relaxed behaviours as much as possible. Over a number of training sessions, you should see your dog start to show signs of relaxation such as sitting or lying down, shifting their weight to one side, breathing more slowly, head down, eyes closing.

Step 2: Increasing duration

Keep practising Step 1 until your dog starts offering a more relaxed position on their blanket. For example, a fairly stationary stand, sit or a lie down. For some dogs lying down might take some time, so anything stationary will do at first. Now you can begin to increase the length of time before the dog is rewarded, by a count of one. Repeat lots and keep increasing the time between treats.

Step 3: Getting your dog to lay down

If your dog is not offering the desired position by now (lying down) gradually increase the criteria for the rewards, to shape the behaviour. For example, at first we may just drop a treat for standing; next we may wait for the dog to move its head downwards or sit down and drop a treat at this point; repeat several times then increase the criteria slightly. Note: Please note if your dog is struggling to offer a sit or a down at all without cuing them, you can cue them into position and then start dropping treats again.

Step 4: Practising in new environments

Once your dog can do this exercise comfortably for a few minutes, try moving onto practising in different environments. When you practice this in a new place, you may need to take a few steps back, as this new place will come with new distractions and challenges

Happy training!