Hi there,

I ordered Ed's dvd on basic dog obedience as well as the tape for e-collar training. My dog will sit just about every time I ask her to, as well as down. So, I believe she's knows the commands. The problem I'm having is when she is in a down and I try and have her sit, it's like she's confused and stays in a down. I will pop the collar, and give a decent correction, but not too much and then sort of pull her up a bit to get her in the sit stance, but I can keep doing this over and over and she still doesn't seem to understand to get into the sit position from a down. I've had her come to me praise, then say sit, and back away and she stays sitting... i've done this at least 40 times.

Do you guys think i'm not correcting hard enough from the down? Is it just too crazy for the dog to understand a sit from the down command?

Thanks!

A sit command from diferant positions is a whole new routine for the dog and needs to be trained as a seperate command. The dog does not know what you want yet so corections are not needed yet. try luring him up while you give the command like stand beside your dog while down start to walk off and give a happy sit command.Hopefully with the motion he will start to get up than the command sit he should sit. praise well when deserved. hopefully this will help or you may have to figure out another way of getting him started up. Good luck

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A sit command from diferant positions is a whole new routine for the dog and needs to be trained as a seperate command. The dog does not know what you want yet so corections are not needed yet. try luring him up while you give the command like stand beside your dog while down start to walk off and give a happy sit command.....

What he said! <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Corrections do nothing positive when the dog doesn't understand what you want. What it does do is tell the dog that the down sometimes leads to a correction.

I'd put another command in between for a while, if Mitch's idea doesn't work right away. But I do think the lure might work: If you have a reward in your hand and it's held in the position you might use when you first teach "sit," that just might make the click. "Oh, I have to get higher up here to get close to that treat!"

Mitch's idea of stepping off a little sounds good too, to lure the dog up from the down.

But I agree that it's a whole new thing to go from dropping your butt to "sit" to getting up from a down to "sit." He doesn't get it yet.

I had the exact same situation. My dog would sit from standing, or down from standing or sitting, but didn't understand what I wanted when I asked him to sit from a down. So I used treats. I held the treat above his nose when he was lying down, said sit, and as he reached for the treat I moved it up and back, and he came up into a sitting position. At that point I gave him the treat and praised him. Now he'll do doggy pushups. Sit, down, sit, down, and never miss a beat, and I don't need the treats. I don't remember how long it took him to make the connection, but it didn't seem to be a long time. Good luck!

You didn't mention offering a treat to your dog/pup (forgot how old she is?). If she's not treat crazy, how about a toy...

Popping the leash or correcting, IMO, isn't in the ratio yet, since she doesn't understand yet. That would be more along the lines of forcing, not needed since they so want to do what you say and love the learning and hanging out with you. Going to a sit from a down has always seemed a bit unnatural for a dog. What I mean is that it's not something you see them do often if they're just meandering around or playing. I do see it in senior dogs who, when wanting to get up from a down, find it easier to get up by going to a semi-sit first. Younger dogs just want to bounce up, bounce everywhere. <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

With that in mind, luring her from a down into a sit with a treat held above her nose (not too high) and back a little will cause her to come up with her front legs but keep her back legs down. Hold the treat just high enough so she has to start coming up with her front legs, continue to raise the treat until she's at a complete sit. Praise like crazy. Basically the same as Rich and Connie said. I've been doing that with my pup since he was just a wee fellow, since it was so natural for him to "follow that treat!". <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

If that doesn't work, Mitch's advice should work.

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I had the exact same situation. My dog would sit from standing, or down from standing or sitting, but didn't understand what I wanted when I asked him to sit from a down. So I used treats. I held the treat above his nose when he was lying down, said sit, and as he reached for the treat I moved it up and back, and he came up into a sitting position. At that point I gave him the treat and praised him. Now he'll do doggy pushups. Sit, down, sit, down, and never miss a beat, and I don't need the treats. I don't remember how long it took him to make the connection, but it didn't seem to be a long time. Good luck!

That is what I would suggest to do and mark each correct sit and down with a marker, then treat

Thanks for the replies. Yea, I wasn't using very hard corrections at all....because I wasn't 100% sure if she knew what I wanted. It was more of like a lvl 1 correction and only with the flat collar on. I was trying to use treats over her head, but I think she's kind of conditioned to not grab the treat until I let her know it's ok to get up. Before, when I first started training her, I have used food sometimes as a distraction, I would put it in front of her, but make her wait a bit before she could grab it and eat it.

Is that a bad thing?

Well, I do something like that. Except I put the "leave it" or "wait" command on it. So if I offer a treat and don't say anything, he goes right for the treat. If I say "wait" or "leave it", he waits for me to release him before he goes for the treat. I can put him into a down and put a treat on each of his front paws and tell him to "leave it". He is totally focused on the treat, but doesn't touch it, until I say "OK". It's funny to watch him. I call it training. Other people might call it torture <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />