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Basic training advice and questions??? :)

Posted : 2/28/2007 1:43:44 PM

Question regarding basic training…

Beau our 5 month old GSP is grasping sitting very well…unless he is otherwise distracted and running a muck which…is often considering he is bouncing off the walls! He learned the “down” command from the sitting position within one evening 15-20 min. I have been working on these every evening with some plain cheerios as a reward. He has no begun to sit when told and IMMEDIATELY lay down …how do I get him to do this on command or to wait for the command versus just doing it before told? Also, what might be some other good things to teach him in addition to these two things….and how might one go about it?

One of my other doggies is struggling with down…she gets as close to all the way down as she can without letting her belly touch the floor! LOL. She is getting it, but seems to be slower in learning it…is that normal for one to be quicker on the uptake of things like this? She is a terrier mix.

Then the 3rd dog lays sometimes when you say sit, or will just stay in that position…its like he knows that sit means something, but he seems to get confused on what it is…sit or lay down or a begging position…on his hind legs…

Chuffy

Posted : 2/28/2007 3:14:42 PM

Ooops - sound like you inadvertantly taught your GSD that "sit" means sit and then lay down. You did it too many times in a row and now he is anticipating what you want (and getting it wrong!) Ask for a sit and then treat (or CT) immediately his bum touches the floor. Get up and move around a bit and repeat. Have a pause after the sit before the treat which gradually lenthens. This will help him get his "sit" back. When you practise down intersperse it with a few short sits to prevent him going down the same road again.

Little dogs often struggle with down and its quite normal and OK for some dogs to learn some things slower than others. Does she ever lie down on her belly on her own? If so you can reward her for that, saying "good gir, down, good girl" (in such a way that does not make her leap up straight away). If not, then next time she is at the vet for a check up, make sure to rule out any physical discomfort that may be causing this.

With the 3rd dog I would just start over training him as if he didn't know what sit meant at all because it sounds like he's confused. I would use shapimg or lure/reward to get the sit and I wouldn;t say "sit" until his bottom was almost on the floor, then pop the treat in his mouth immediately before he has a chance to move into the wrong position! Or if you use a clicker, click the moment his bottom touches the floor and then treat.

houndlove

Posted : 2/28/2007 3:32:10 PM

Conrad has the sit/lay down thing all mixed up too and I just decided, meh, no big deal. Sit, lay down, whatever--we don't compete in obedience and I can't think of a single occaision in which laying down wasn't just as good as sitting for what I wanted him to do.

But to clear this up just do what Chuffy says. Don't reward if he goes directly to down, just ignore. Reward only when he sits when you say sit and downs when you say down.

Shelby

Posted : 3/6/2007 12:56:15 PM

Definitely separate the two commands, in other words don't work on the down at the same time you work on the sit. In the obedience routine that we have to do a sit and a down at different times. If the dog lays down on the sit or sits instead of the down they lose points. Working on different commands at different times seems to eliminate confusion.