Re-Teaching my Dogs to Sit

My dogs sit…sometimes.  They used to sit more.  I think somewhere along the way they got sick of sit.  Not the action, the cue word.  For example, if my dogs do not sit, I or some other member of household will repeatedly encourage them to “sit”… So imagine I saw you sitting in a chair and said “Flumbar!”.  Which of course means stand up and give me your seat.  And each time you were sitting in that chair and I came up to you, I would say, Flumbar.  Eventually Flumbar would come to mean, you sitting in the chair.  Because each time i am using the cue word, your are sitting in the chair.

So originally we taught sit using the traditional method of a treat.  Hold treat near face, move it back, dog sits.  As its butt nears the floor you say “sit” and reward.  This works.  And I have learned it also breaks…

I may be terribly misquoting her, but I believe Susan Garrett would explain it something like the call of nature eventually erodes behaviors taught using baiting or luring.  Or dogs will do the least work possible to get their reward. So if they learn they can get the reward without sitting, they will. Shaping behaviors is what the pros call it.

Well, did I reward my dogs for not sittin?  You betcha!  Not with a cookie mind you, I rewarded them at the doorway.  The conversation goes something like this.  -Me-Now look dogs, I’m in a hurry, so you need to sit so i can let you out.  – Dogs- Sit? Hurry? Out? Too many commands.  Out sounds good. I’ll go with that one.  – Me – Quit jumping around, you need to sit. Sit. Lilli Sit.  Errrr.  Fine just go outside!  – Dogs – That was fun. Wonder why he has to say so much before he lets us out?  Next time we’ll just start jumping right away so he will let us out sooner.

Smart Dogs-Dumb Dog Trainer.     ok. I’m not dumb, just silly or lazy sometimes.  So now that I totally let the criteria of a good sit erode, and I have reinforced not sitting on the cue of sit, I need to retrain the desired behavior.

Retraining is a great opportunity for ME to learn how to train sit another way.  Ron Watson could say it much better than I will here, so please feel free to skip right to his post on canine communication.

Ron says a command is something a dog must do now and a cue gives the dog a choice.  Susan taught us at puppy camp that giving dogs the opportunity to choose teaches dogs to work for their rewards and expands the possibilities of enhancing the behavior.  If you lure a dog over and over you get a standardized behavior.  Could you stand on the roof and cue your dog to sit in the midst of a herd of cats?  Now that is what’s possible with operant training.   if your dog knows that sitting in that herd of cats mean even more fun of a reward than the cats, you have just nailed the sitting game.  You will have a much harder time accomplishing that with command and/or lure tactics.

So back to my wonderful dogs.  First thing i am going to do is drop the sit cue.  i can re-introduce it later if i want. For now, i will try some new games.  I don’t know how to teach sit.  I’m pure novice.  What i do know is that sometimes my dogs sit.  So i will look for the actions that naturally cue my dogs to sit, and I will reward them when they do it.  No words for now.  Put them in a situation where they will sit as their own choice, and reward the behavior with a great treat or play session.  Then, as Apryl and Ron teach, only when i am $100 confident will i add the verbal cue.

Oh and if I am in a  hurry and my dogs don’t want to sit at the door. OK. I’ll just let one at a time out, on a leash.  If they happen to sit, they can be released withut a leash together.  I’ll update my methods as I learn from those much more experienced than I am.  Until then, I’ll do my best and have fun with my dogs.