Wyatt seems to be going down on long sits again at least for out of sight sits. We went to our open class last night and he went down twice while I was out of sight and once in sight (we corrected him before he could go all the way down). The first was a 3 minute out of sight down. Looks like he will need the cones again for out of sight sits. I did do a 2 minute in sight sit at home today without problems.
One thing the instructor pointed is is to take them out of the sit before moving into the long down. That way, they will not anticipate the down. That was a good hint for me.
Hopefully, this is only a problem with the out of sight case. I thought we had corrected the normal case. Of course, we have a trial this weekend (novice) so he is probably just making sure I have plenty to worry about before the trial!
3 comments:
I used to have lots of problems with Agnes going down on the long sit and my trainer suggested making it an active rather than passive exercise. Have you tried this? You put the lead on the dog and after he has stayed for a while you apply pressure to the lead. If he moves you put him back into the sit. Eventually the dog will learn to pull back on the lead to resist moving. That's when you reward because the dog has made an active resistance to changing position. You eventually move away using a longer lead. I used a horse's lunge line. Just a thought.
Hi John,
When you work on OOS Stays, have the other people standing around go up and feed him on occassion. That way, he begins to learn that anyone there has the ability com come reward him for holding the sit... not just you. When he thinks rewards come only from you, and you're not there, there's no real motivation for holding the sit. ESPECIALLY when going down, brings you back! That's another suggestion - when he breaks the sit, someone else goes to fix him and you don't return until he's been in a correct sit for 30 add'l seconds. I also juggle the amount of time I'm gone. Sometimes I return after one min., sometimes after 3 mins., sometimes after 45 seconds and sometimes I make my dogs wait 4 mins before coming back to them. Good luck! Keep up the great work!
We do the leash tug thing in class. That's a good idea.
The teachers in our open class was rewarding/corrected while we were out of site. I think out of site sits are going to need more work before we start open,
Thanks for the suggestions everyone!
Post a Comment