Gundog Training Forum

Judy wrote:Me too Merlin. Wait means hang about, sit, lie down, whatever until we do something. Stay means remain where put and as put until I come back, twitch and yer dead! Probably an unnecessary complication for most people but it works for me too.

Great minds and all that..

I teach all the sit's and stays in conjunction with feedtime starting them as young puppies and then build up time it would need to wait plus I will also move away from it. Multitasking exercise as I would use my arm to allow the youngster to go for it's food and hereby introduce hand-signals without the dog really realising that we're actually training. The reward is of course it's feed

Natasha

Just my two penneth, I have never been part of a shoot, but I have always trained the sit/stay from puppyhood, why well simply it's obedience, steadiness call it what you want. Even before I became an operational handler, my pet dogs were always taught it.

Wullie touched on Part C, this is the highest form of obedience, which you see the Dogs at Crufts take part in, like part of Police Dog training, they are expected to do 10 mins handler out of sight.

Just going slightly off topic, my previous working breed was the GSD, which you would never expect to stay in the sit position for more than 2mins max, so if you were going to be static for any length you would put the Dog in the Down, where he would be far more comfortable. I have learnt that Gundogs can quite happily stay comfortably in the sit for a considerable time, my take on this must be down to the conformation or angulations, GSD's are far more angulated whereas the Gundog breeds seem less.

Each to their own as to wether the sit/stay is taught and necessary, but for me it's as important as the recall. JMO.

I must admit I find the sit /stay invaluable, not only on shoot days but also when doing the rounds checking snares,traps feeding birds etc.