Hooray! Maddie learned to sit today!
Learning to sit may not seem like such a huge accomplishment. Jack, after all, knows a couple dozen commands and will learn a new one in a couple training sessions, as long as it makes sense to him. And I've been teaching emergency recall (thanks to the people here who made me realize how important it is), and in a day or two they both learned that my recall word ("recall," how original!) meant very tasty treats and they'll both come running.
But sit? In Maddie's "former life" she had been shown, and show dogs are taught that good things come to those who stand. She sees a treat, she stands. You get her attention, she stands. And poses.
Usually I train either with lures (using treat to elicit the correct behavior), or by waiting for the dog to do the behavior naturally and then giving the command and rewarding. Neither worked with Maddie. As I mentioned, if you have her attention, she stands. And trying to use the treat to lure her head up and back and encourage her into a sit did not work either, as she will hold that stand no matter what. All this is compounded by the fact that she is perhaps, not the best of students! Jack was always like the A student who sat in the front, raising his hand and saying "Ooo, ooo, ooo!!" Maddie, well, to quote her prior owner "Her attention span is that of a fly." Anything distracts her.
So we've been working on it. I tell her sit, I push her back end down, I tell her "Good girl!!" and give her a treat. We've been doing this for weeks. Ugh. Sometimes she'd seem to get it. She'd sit. Then next time she'd stand, and stand. She got to the point where if she saw my hand going for her backend, she'd sit down, then pop right back up again. LOL I hope to do CGC with her, and it was looking like it might be a very long process. But today, finally, she really and truly got it. She sat by the second request a half dozen times in a row, so I gave her a really good treat at the end in addition to the Charlie Bears she got on every attempt.
Looks like CGC might be a possibility before 2012 after all!
But sit? In Maddie's "former life" she had been shown, and show dogs are taught that good things come to those who stand. She sees a treat, she stands. You get her attention, she stands. And poses.
Usually I train either with lures (using treat to elicit the correct behavior), or by waiting for the dog to do the behavior naturally and then giving the command and rewarding. Neither worked with Maddie. As I mentioned, if you have her attention, she stands. And trying to use the treat to lure her head up and back and encourage her into a sit did not work either, as she will hold that stand no matter what. All this is compounded by the fact that she is perhaps, not the best of students! Jack was always like the A student who sat in the front, raising his hand and saying "Ooo, ooo, ooo!!" Maddie, well, to quote her prior owner "Her attention span is that of a fly." Anything distracts her.
So we've been working on it. I tell her sit, I push her back end down, I tell her "Good girl!!" and give her a treat. We've been doing this for weeks. Ugh. Sometimes she'd seem to get it. She'd sit. Then next time she'd stand, and stand. She got to the point where if she saw my hand going for her backend, she'd sit down, then pop right back up again. LOL I hope to do CGC with her, and it was looking like it might be a very long process. But today, finally, she really and truly got it. She sat by the second request a half dozen times in a row, so I gave her a really good treat at the end in addition to the Charlie Bears she got on every attempt.
Looks like CGC might be a possibility before 2012 after all!
Comment
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Comment by Alice on October 9, 2009 at 6:25pm
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Ha ha, I wish Finn were more like a tiny horse rather than a tiny stampeding elephant! :)
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Comment by Beth on October 9, 2009 at 6:10pm
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Yes Alice, your mom's Cardi is Maddie to a "T". She is beautiful on a leash. I wouldn't say she exactly heels, but she never pulls hard and she carries her frame perfectly, and she has power steering. You can not only change her speed, but also change her location in relation to you with just a touch of the leash. It's more like driving a very tiny horse than walking a dog.
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My Mom's Cardigan had the same problem. He was trained as a show dog but one of his ears flopped back down at 10 months and he could no longer be shown, that's how my Mom ended up with him. He was great on a leash and very calm and well mannered but he would not sit or lay down for anything. They took him to a beginners training class and he did finally learn both commands though his down is still a little iffy.
Finn learned everything super fast. He learned sit at 8 weeks after I showed it to him maybe 3 or 4 times then the next week he learned shake. There's nothing cuter than a 9 week old puppy shaking hands. :) After that, down, roll over and stay were a breeze. The only time he doesn't "learn" something is if he doesn't want to, like "quiet", he won't learn it because he wants to bark and absolutely has to have the last word. Each time we say quiet he'll bark lower and lower with longer pauses in between and just when you think it's over and you won he will sneak in one last grumble, so low you barely catch it. It's so frustrating. he must get that from me and my husband. :)
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Comment by Nicola Porter on October 9, 2009 at 4:56pm
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High Paws for Maddie!!!!!!!!
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Comment by Derek on October 9, 2009 at 10:06am
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Congrats.
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Comment by Sky and Lyla on October 8, 2009 at 11:25pm
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Yay Maddie! Lyla give you some Corgi Kudos!
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Comment by Jane Christensen on October 8, 2009 at 10:50pm
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Congrats to both you and Maddie!!! I'll let you know how agility goes(and if I like it) when we start next week...I'm afraid Livvywill sit under me like she did the 1st time at basic obedience but once she got it she was great...she is very focused on me so I hope that helps! The locking up works well as my husband and I were giving Livvy treats for jumping over this home made agility jump which is sitting in my living room and all of a sudden I had 3 dogs jumping to get a treat...
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Comment by Bev Levy on October 8, 2009 at 9:34pm
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That is funny, I have been thinking about doing agility with Izzy. One reason I decided to go to classes with Misty was to check this place out because they do Rally & Agility as well. Sparty would have been great to compete in agility when he was young, he really loved what little we did at classes. unfortunately we traveled (not really a bad thing) during those years so much I never acted on it. Now he is too old. I will complete a session with Misty and then decide if I want to continue with Misty and /or Izzy. We don't travel as much unless it is to go see our grandkids in Texas. I can't work with one dog at a time unless I close the other two up. Sparty will get frustrated and run through his whole repertoire of tricks with lots of barking if I don't work with him. Hmmm, maybe I could do Rally with him.
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Yes, she does think I'm wrong. Actually, it seemed she thought I was trying to trick her into sitting so I could remind her to stand. I have watched someone working with an older puppy who was being prepped to show. The natural reaction of a dog when it's looking up at you is to sit, so they work very hard at conditioning the dog to stand instead. I sort of felt bad for her, trying to unteach her what she already knows and does so well!
I am going back and forth between signing her up for an obedience class, or signing Jack up for agility. Not sure which I want to do first. It is hard to work with Maddie with Jack around. I tell her "sit" and he sits. I tell her "sit" again and he lies down, then speaks, then waves his paw in the air. It's distracting to me, let alone her! So I take turns locking up the one while I work on the other. Jack is working on long stays while I leave the house and go out of sight. I got lazy about it and never moved on with him from a basic stay while I'm in the room. I started on long stays last winter, but then let it drop.
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That is great! Dogs shown in conformation learn a completely different set of rules so she probably thought you were wrong! Izzy is not the sharpest tool in the shed either but I must admit she is way easier than my brilliant Sparty. You should try training our doberman!! She is so sweet and a real lover but it is really tough to get her to do anything. I am starting her on obedience classes next week so I work with her minus the two precocious corgis.
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