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I'll just sit, thanks!

1K views 9 replies 5 participants last post by  Sheri 
#1 ·
Chi-Chi will just NOT stand for exam. I have been luring her but after she gets her treat she will just plop her butt right down and laugh at me. Have tried trainer's suggestion of gently sliding my foot under her. I have tried everything on YouTube to no avail. Any and all help is greatly appreciated.
 
#2 ·
She's still young. Keep working on it. i would NOT put my foot under her, gently or not. This could easily cause her to try to move away from your foot, which would have terrible consequences for so much other obedience work!

If you've spent a lot of time teaching sit first, it has been heavily reinforced, so that's what the dog thinks s/he should be doing. I made this same mistake with Kodi, and it took MONTHS to get him to stand reliably. with Pixel and Panda, I didn't make that mistake. Neither of them was reliable on their sit cue as early as Kodi was, BUT they learned all three positions (sit, stand, down) at the same time.

I found it easiest to work on "stand" on the grooming table to start with, with his front feet against the edge of the table, so he had to do a kick back stand, with no forward movement. Lure if you need to to start with, but use your clicker the moment you get the stand. She won't make the connection immediately, but she will over time. Don't worry! She'll get it!
 
#4 ·
She's still young. Keep working on it. i would NOT put my foot under her, gently or not. This could easily cause her to try to move away from your foot, which would have terrible consequences for so much other obedience work!

If you've spent a lot of time teaching sit first, it has been heavily reinforced, so that's what the dog thinks s/he should be doing. I made this same mistake with Kodi, and it took MONTHS to get him to stand reliably. with Pixel and Panda, I didn't make that mistake. Neither of them was reliable on their sit cue as early as Kodi was, BUT they learned all three positions (sit, stand, down) at the same time.

I found it easiest to work on "stand" on the grooming table to start with, with his front feet against the edge of the table, so he had to do a kick back stand, with no forward movement. Lure if you need to to start with, but use your clicker the moment you get the stand. She won't make the connection immediately, but she will over time. Don't worry! She'll get it!
Good call. Especially in light that I already spooked her by stepping on her foot. We just got a grooming table last week so I'm glad it now has a dual purpose. Going to take it slowly.

You are dead on about the sit command. She's up to 47 seconds sits and 19 seconds downs and cannot stand for 1. Looking back, I don't know why I never worked on stand. Rookie mistake.
 
#3 ·
hahaha- this reminds me of when my young daughter and I visited a nearby breeder whose young Hav adored my daughter (and we adored her)
so we spent 3 hours at her house one day socializing with them both.
My daughter was playing with her & telling the pup to sit and the breeder was all "NOOOOO!!! I don't train them to sit, we can't do that, they have to stand for conformation" lol
 
#5 ·
But teaching JUST stand is JUST as bad as teaching sit strongly without also teaching the other positions. It causes EXACTLY the same problem... only worse, because the "stand" that conformation people generally want is out in front, looking back at the handler. There is NO PLACE in obedience where this is a place you tell your dog to stand.

A dog can easily learn to "stack" for conformation AND learn obedience position changes at the same time. It definitely takes a little longer to teach ALL the different positions, but you get a dog who actually understands, rather than thinks, "Good dogs (only) sit!" or "Good dogs (only) stand and wag their tails!" ;)
 
#7 ·
Oh, wanted to add that although it's not a bad thing to work on stays... that's not all there is to sits and downs either. Make SURE you are working on QUICK position changes... from stand to down, sit to stand, down to sit... until she is FLUENT in these position changes on cue, and does them PROMPTLY, with no forward movement. You don't want a dog who gets "stuck" in the sit and won't move off on heeling, or won't down from the stand in signals. (which is WAY more common than anyone would like!) prompt, on cue, position changes, like heeling, are something best started early, and revisited, time and time again through your dog's training and competitive career.

It's fun too... like "Simon Says" with your dog. They should be waiting for your cue, not anticipating, and make SURE you don't always do them in the same order, so they are just learning a sequence. (all too easy fall into that trap too, since we are as much creatures of habit as our dogs are! ;))
 
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#9 ·
Ahhhh...now I remember. This was something we worked on back in beginners OB and she was sloppy with it then. I put it on low priority and eventually fell off when the focus moved to heeling and stays. And how right you are, now it's become an issue and will have to be corrected before we can move forward. Thanks so much!
 
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