I start my puppies young and encourage sitting from the time they are 6 weeks old. They get treats when they sit. The above picture is Lyric's litter around 6-7 weeks old(Echo, Darby,Tanner, Becca and Bryn). They all learned to sit quite willingly and readily.
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In the video below Echo is about 9.5 weeks. She has learned to sit but is being reinforced for this behavior with a clicker. The video shows sitting, downing, touch and leave it.
One thing I never ask my puppies to do is to sit on hard surfaces until they are rock solid with their sits. I think it must hurt their hocks and rears and have found they will often avoid sitting on concrete or asphalt if possible.
Occationally in the show ring the puppy gets confused and will sit instead of stand for the judge. So what! I tell the judge the puppy must be confused about which ring it's in and the judges are quite impressed. They even tell me "but a greyhound can't sit".
A good solid sit is important for obedience as well as for photo taking.
Echo has the most rock solid steady sit of any dog. In fact I followed her thoughout the day and caught her sitting several times just because.
A good sit is useful for so many things so get out and train your hounds!!
6 comments:
Beryl has never sat 'just because':) But I have noticed that since I taught her to sit she can sit and have a scratch, but it's on the way up from lying down. I don't know how she used to scratch before she knew how to sit? Having said all this, she doesn't scratch much, lol! It did take 4 months and lots of treats but we got there.
All greyhounds sit in order to scratch with their hind legs, if for no other reason.
I have heard that racing greyhounds are not encouraged to sit because the trainers do not want them to be caught sitting when the racing box doors open up! In any event they rarely find themselves in a location where sitting would not be uncomfortable or, in fact, impossible.
Barbie does sit for the hell of it at the park, but she only started doing that after I taught her how. I find Jeff's comment interesting, that racers would rarely find themselves in a location where sitting would be comfortable or impossible. I've never seen Barbie sit while in her crate for example, and until she was redeployed a crate is where she spent most of her time.
I do not know the upbringing for the racing greyhound well but I would suspect they sit readily as puppies. Perhaps their upbringing doesn't encourage this behavior so they are less likely than the show/pet AKC to sit as adults.
Thank you Jet for your comment on the conformation posts. I am thinking on doing greyhound ear set as my next conformation post. I have to be careful to make the dog not recognizable when I am using a dog to illustrate a flaw if it is not one of my dogs.
Echo does have a great sit! I want a great sit!
I taught both of my racers to sit. It was difficult as adults because of the long spine the trwat over the nose doesn't work. Lol i had to do the scoop and lift method with clickers and treats. It took a while but once they figured out they werent going to fall over, they caught on. I think racers are never encouraged to sit because there is no reason. They have no need for commands their entire career. Just start and run fast.
And for the record, my dogs never sit just because. They only do it without a command if they think i am getting them food. I make them sit and wait beforw eating. But my male will still often go into a down instead of a sit. He just isnt comfortable sitting.
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