| "Hopping"
Sits
I've had success in the past with what I call "hopping" sits. The idea is that you ask for a sit (luring it if need be), and as soon as the dog's butt hits the floor, you c/t, take a step back from the dog and ask for another sit. The dog tends to take a step forward with its front feet, and brings its back feet in underneath it in a nice tucked sit. The key is to get your speed up on the exercise, so the dog never has time to flop its hips over. You might want to do this in a hallway or other long "runway" type space so you can concentrate on the dog and not worry about backing into the sofa or a table <grin>. And practice this frequently -- the friend who taught me this emphasized the frequency, as she thought it trained the muscles (muscle memory) how to do this type of sit. In the meantime, don't worry too much about sloppy sits during everyday activities. If you practice hopping sits a lot, she should start to offer tucked sits on her own, as her muscles get used to doing them. Once you start getting tucked sits on offer fairly frequently, just start rewarding for those only. If her tucked sits aren't as tight/neat as you would like, this would be when you can start doing the fine-tuning on them. Elizabeth Eisenbraun | Training Articles Contents || Site Home | Copyright of all posts is the property of the original author. Please obtain permission from the original author before copying, quoting, or forwarding. List and Site Owner: Melissa Alexander, mca @ clickersolutions.com |