Down Idea

I was the only person at Open Class last night and discussed Wyatt's down issues with Tibby Chase.  I was thinking that maybe I should teach a fully rolled over down and I was initially very excited about this idea.  But then thinking about how nervous Wyatt is, I wondered if this would be feasible around other dogs.  Tibby agreed and suggested that I train Wyatt to fold in one paw and sit with one hip rolled over.  This would make it harder to get up that his current very alert sphinx position.  We started working on it with success and I am hopeful that this will be helpful.  To get the hip rolled, you don't roll it but you gently apply pressure to his rear side.  Initially I will do this training on a mat.  I may also have him looked at by a sports vet who has helped us in the past.  I believe that Wyatt wants to do the right thing but has a lousy build that sometimes gets in the way.  

After that, we did a quick run through which Wyatt aced with what would have a scores in the 190s.  I believe if we can fix the sit, that we can make it through Open pretty easily.  His sit is not 100% but is pretty solid at this point.