One of the reasons why the training at our centre is so effective is that we believe in forming a solid foundation of exercises that the dog knows how to do really well. One of these exercises is the food bowl stay or food bowl manners, this is where all the dogs in the school have to learn that when the bowl is on the floor they must sit still, look at their owner before being released to eat.

Although this sounds rather regimented we have had hundreds of comments from our owners stating that even young children can feed the dogs in this way improving the dog-child relationship. It is also a good platform from which to introduce stay exercises.

More importantly the word leave is used on this exercise so that the dog learns to look at the owner when it hears this command, if the dog is looking at the owner it is more successful when dealing with situations where the dog may be likely to chase or bark at something.