OK, my pup (7 month old ACD) is either mentally retarded or NASA material. I'm thinking its the latter.

I taught her sit, and I taught her down. But too often she confuses them. (When she is standing) I say down, she goes down. I say sit, she sits. (When she is standing) I say sit, she goes down. But then there are times when her sits and downs are perfect. It seems when food and/or corrections are involved she is 90% perfect. Otherwise she plays the fool, and is only 50% on the ball.

Is my pup making a monkey out of me? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />


Troy

Most likely Troy, she needs more training in this area. Just keep at it. Concentrate on the sit until is 100% dead on. Then reteach the down.

If she still confuses them have her put down and buy a new dog. <img src="http://www.leerburgkennels.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

(Ahh well, ask a stupid and get a stupid answer I guess).

From what I've read, that indicates that's she's got the idea, like, 70%. Siris, my 8 mth old GSD, when I say sitz will sometimes sit, sometimes down. If I don't react with the reward fast enough, he'll switch to the other (I said platz, and he went down, but he didn't get his reward fast enough so he'll offer the sitz, or vice versa). If he's not paying enough attention, he'll automatically platz because I've recently been working on it more than sitz. And, poor pup, I've recently tossed in steh (stand).

One of the trainers here (don't remember who--apologies ^_^) had a good idea that I'm using and it tends to work--they said they use a higher tone for sitz, a deeper tone for platz, and a kinda flat, bland tone for steh, so even if the dog doesn't catch the word, the tone tells him which it is, and it's helped Siris a lot.

this takes some timing,and readiness w/reward. once, twice, however many times a day you have to concentrate entirely on marking behaviors (i personally am lucky to get 2X/day): have treats at the ready. what i do is, call my pup, he comes (mark the "come here"), sits, gets a "good sit!". mark if you want (random rewards actually result in more consistent responses).

then, i'll "platz", he THROWS himself to the ground, and i drop the food reward between his front legs. i continue to drop the occasional (every few seconds) reward until i think he's stayed at "platz" long enough. then release. if he wants to stay down, fine. let him.

BUT, when working on the differentiation between "platz" and "sit": from the platz, i have the treat in hand, pull it up in front of his nose slowly saying "sit". he will eventually sit up to get the treat--give it to him with a "good sit!!". then i platz, reward, treat him to a sit, reward.

my pup's just 5 months old, and we work on this distinction every other day. i'm not hurrying, but he's figuring it out REAL fast. the hardest is sitting from the platz, and it sometimes takes some patience, ie, no reward unless he DOES (and they'll try different things to drive the reward--just be aware, and only reward the behavior you want--easier said than done at first, but it does get better w/practice <img src="http://www.leerburgkennels.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />.

JMO, and what has worked for me so far! <img src="http://www.leerburgkennels.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />