I have a cocker bitch that is now 8 months old, training has gone well and considerable easy. I have gone at the dogs pace, making sure not to rush her. All the basics are done and 100% solid.
The problem i have is that she lyes down on stay command and lyes down on the stop whistle, but sits when she is told to sit.
I have lessons starting in february after the championships are over.
Do i need to start correcting her or will she naturally start to sit up, i under stand she is still young but i want to get things right as i know she will make a good bitch and have high hopes for her.
I am hoping to enter her into some puppy tests in the summer, will this effect the scoring.
I want to get everything in place ready for for my lessons to begin in feb
I imagine this is not a new thing, when you taught her to 'stay' was it when she was lying down or sitting? I don't like the 'stay' command, it's unnecessary and surplus to requirements. Does she sit when she's at a distance when asked?
I have never taught her the down command, only sit and stay.
Personally i think its a confidence thing and down to her young age. Its nothing im really concerned about. Eventually i think she will start to sit up.
She is steady to the dummy, and will ocassionally sit up when throwing out some dummies for her directional training.
This is the first dog i have trained and want to get it right first time.
My Lab used to lie down after being left in a sit and would also lie down at times when responding to the stop whistle at distance, She was also starting to creep a little when in this position, this is what I did to remedy it:
I would tell her to sit and back away, if she remained sitting I would go back and click and treat, I tried as much as possible to set her up for success so only moving a few steps at a time to begin with, if she went to lie down I went back to her but instead of clicking and treating encouraged her to sit up (I used my hand palm upwards moving in an "up" motion) I repeated "sit" (not showing any anger or frustration) and back away yet again, and repeated; returning to her and clicking and treating for remaining in a sit, not clicking for lying down.
I then began to work on getting her to adopt the proper sitting position when using the stop/sit whistle at distance; by this time she understood my "sit-up" handsignal so I began using it after the stop whistle if she was lying down - she soon worked out that a sitting position was what I wanted when I blew the stop whistle.
In the whole scale of things this is not a big problem, but I wanted to work on it due to the creeping forward when she was in a lying down position.
Jayfox999 wrote:I have never taught her the down command, only sit and stay.
Personally i think its a confidence thing and down to her young age. Its nothing im really concerned about. Eventually i think she will start to sit up.
She is steady to the dummy, and will ocassionally sit up when throwing out some dummies for her directional training.
This is the first dog i have trained and want to get it right first time.
Just wanted a bit of reasurance
Thanks for the replys
At 8 months I would not be concerned, but if I may comment. I have had soft dogs that have exhibited this behaviour after being pressured a little too hard. It is the first thing that a dog might do if it is unsure about what you expect of it. I have had unsteady pointers lie down on point due to too much pressure to be staunch.
At 8 months you seem to have done remarkably well in your progress and you may inadvertently given her too many options to think about. Try and give up a little control and let her explore a little without any commands, keep her training to short periods and concentrate on one or two issues only, not her whole repertoire. Once she gets to a year, she should be exhibiting a little more confidence.
I understand she is still young and still only a puppy.
She is a very soft natured bitch, all my training is still very light hearted and i keep all training sessions to 15 min max.
I am moving at the pace of the dog, no rushing as ive got all year to train her.
She will sit on the stop whistle at short distances, but lies at any distance. The stop whistle at a distance really got introduced without me really knowing. It just happen, i think it was my dog that introduced it not me.
I will take a few steps back and see if i can correct it, if not then i think she will correct it as she gets older and more confident.
This bitch is such an absolute pleasure and means the world to me, we have both taught each other so many things. I have high hopes for her and hope to make a champ out of her.
Jayfox999 wrote:IAll the basics are done and 100% solid. ... The problem i have is that she lyes down on stay command and lyes down on the stop whistle, but sits when she is told to sit. ... Do i need to start correcting her or will she naturally start to sit up...
The stop whistle should also be the hup whistle - how did you teach hup? SP noted this kind of behaviour is often attributable to too much pressure (albeit inadvertently applied), which is why I'm asking how you inculcated the hup command? Was it forcibly (by hand) putting the dog in the hup position by chance? If she sits, or hups, to the sit command, make all your commands verbal sits - the lying down may go away. Then you can come back in a few weeks and override the verbal sit command with the whistle. Again, the whistle also being the hup command for most with spaniels.
Someone else noted they wouldn't worry one whit over a dog lying down afield and ordinarily I would agree - especially with a young'un. But if the lying down continues it'll likely carry over afield to flushing and hupping to it. And that makes for an obstacle in the dog's ability to mark - especially if the bird gets up in cover and is shot over it too.
