Welcome back everyone! I am very excited to have you joining us for the Sophomore Course. Before we start working on the new skills in Sophomore, we want to make sure you and your dog are ready to work on these new skills.

You and your dog learned lots of new skills and foundations in the Freshman Course. The Sophomore Course is going to be adding more layers to those foundations taught in the Freshman Course, so we need to make sure those foundations are pretty solid before adding more difficulty to it, otherwise those foundations may not hold very well to these extra layers. We also will be learning some new skills in the Sophomore Course, but we want to make sure your dog has the training background of some different skills taught in the Freshman Course in order to be successful in the Sophomore Course.

If you go through this video and don’t feel you have all these skills mastered quite yet, if you’ve taken the Freshman Course, then keep working on those skills until you feel you are ready to go into the Sophomore Course. If you took it at Level 2 or 3 and it has been within the year of your enrollment, make sure you are using that private Facebook group for the Freshman Course to get some help to help you move along and be ready for the Sophomore Course. If you haven’t taken the Freshman Course, then you will want to start there before diving into the Sophomore Course. If you are currently enrolled in the Freshman Course and aren’t ready for Sophomore, but still want to enroll in the class, you can at Level 1 or 2 so you have it ready to start when you are, but try not to jump ahead before you and your dog are ready. 

For Focus Games, we will be adding more to that repertoire of skills, especially when working out in public. In order to be ready for the Sophomore skills, it is very important you have done extensive work on the focus skills in the Freshman Course. Your dog should be able to check in with you in public and is able to eat food in public places. Your dog should be able to hand target when you present a hand to them. Your dog should be able to look at a specific distraction, like a dog or person for example, and choose to check in with you right after. Your dog should check in with you when you go through a doorway. Your dog should also be able to check in with you when a person approaches you rather than launching at the person. 

Your dog needs to know to sit on cue. Your dog should hold that sit until given a release cue without an extra cue such as “stay” or “wait”.

Your dog needs to know to lay down on cue. The dog should be able to lay down with its elbows touching the ground. The dog should know to stay down until given a release cue without giving an extra cue like “stay” or “wait” and should also be able to hold that position if your attention is slightly divided away. 

We will be building on different facets of impulse control games in the Sophomore Course. For the food games, you will need to make sure that you can drop treats and your dog will not go for the treats. This needs to be done without you giving any sort of cue to your dog or requiring your dog to be in a starting position like sit or down. You should also be able to drop treats on the first try without a warm to get to that point. 

It also is advisable to be able to play games like tug with your dog where your dog can go from a higher state of arousal in play, to a calmer state like waiting for a sit to get the game to start back up again. 

Your dog needs to know to go to their “place” on cue and automatically lay down. They need to understand to stay on their place until given a release cue. Your dog should be able to stay on their place in a down position without an additional cue such as “wait” or “stay” and should be able to do it with a distraction walking by at least 5 feet away. 

Your dog should understand their “recall” word and should come when you call them and come close enough to you and allow you to hold their collar when you recall them. 

Your dog should be able to walk out ahead or to the side with a loose leash. They should also understand how to walk nicely with a loose leash right next to you and stay focused on you while they are walking. These are two different walking methods that your dog should understand how to do separately.