This is a really fun exercise for you and your dog, it's engaging, and it really gets him using his mind and thinking hard. Exercises like this really help develop your dogs ability to learn as you further your training together.
We're going to take three items we have already worked individual behaviours with, the cone (or other obstacle you used in Exercise 5.1 when teaching your dog to go around something), a mat/bed, and a balance disk (item used for Exercise 4.1).
You need a verbal cue for each behaviour.
If you haven’t already got a verbal cue for each behaviour (Go Around, Stand on the Disk, Goto Bed) then train your verbal cues first by saying the cue and then showing your dog your usual hand signal to him them to perform the behaviour. Practice this until your dog can do each individual behaviour with just the verbal cue.
Note: in part of the video I use ‘Paws’ rather than ‘Paws Up’ to demo how your dog might react the first time they do this exercise if they are a little confused.
The aim is to get your dog to really start thinking and using his mind to figure out which obstacle you’re asking him to perform.
Even a super clever dog will find this exercise really mentally tiring!