Teaching My Grey To Sit

[Guest ashphobiax]

ive only had my grey for about a month and ive been trying to teach him to sit on command but its just not happening...he doesnt sit much in general on his own he rather lay down and when i try to teach him to sit like i would with other dog breeds it just isnt clicking with him...kinda makes me giggle.

 

whats some advice i could use to teach him?

Edited December 23, 2011 by ashphobiax

[Riverhound]

We got Joe in August a year ago and I tried training him soon after, but it was just too much. After Thanksgiving that year I tried again, and he was pretty quick to understand. "Down" was much easier than "sit", and someone will surely point you to an awesome blog that shows just how to do it. Once they learn one thing, the rest comes much more quickly -- their brains just need to turn on!

[Greydawg]

I dunno. In my household, one Grey sits on his own sometimes, but never for more than a couple of minutes. We have never seen our other Grey sit in the entire 3.5 years he has lived with us. I don't think Greys are physically built to sit comfortably and naturally like other dog breeds, yet I know Greys can be trained to sit. It is a personal choice, I suppose -- we just never felt the need to train ours to sit for us.

[OwnedBySummer]

I like my dogs, any dog, to sit for treats. So yes, I taught Summer to sit on command. There are some wonderful discussions on this forum about teaching them to sit -- but you can't search using a 3-letter word. Perhaps you could find some by searching "teach" or "train". Or just manually slogging through the training forum.

[Batmom]

http://dancinggreyhound.com.p11.hostingprod.com/greyhounds_do_sit

 

[Guest ashphobiax]

http://dancinggreyhound.com.p11.hostingprod.com/greyhounds_do_sit

 

 

 

ooh! thank you very much!

[PrairieProf]

I noticed Beth sits spontaneously when facing downward on a hill, and I taught her to sit by taking her out on a slope (just like the natural slope of a lawn, nothing dramatic) and giving her the command (treat held over her nose and moved backward over her head) while she was facing downward there. Worked instantly, and she was quickly able to generalize to sitting on the flat. This technique has worked for at least one other GT member I recommended it to.

 

She still likes to sit on hills and survey the territory. And now she regularly sits even when I don't ask to mug me for treats on walks.

[kudzu]

As suggested already, teaching Sit from a down may be the easiest way to get started. Start with something outrageously yummy & lure your dog up into a sit. At first it doesn't even need to be a full sit, just partway up is enough. With time & practice you can shape this into a full sit. Be sure to fade out the lure ASAP. The dog will start to associate the hand signal with receiving the reward so the hand motion becomes the command. My preference is to use just the hand signal at first & add the word later. Once the dog learns to sit from a down it becomes easier to teach them to sit from a standing position.

 

I believe the blog Riverhound referred to is Jen Bachelor's Never Say Never Greyhounds. http://neversaynevergreyhounds.blogspot.com/ Here are her Sit suggestions: http://neversaynevergreyhounds.blogspot.com/2009/08/greyhound-sits-101.html

 

And I am going to respectfully disagree with Batmom. The link she gave is definitely not the way I would train a dog to sit. It is a good thing for our Greys to learn to accept humans moving & manipulating them. So I can understand the writer's feelings about her approach being a bonding experience. However, if your dog is unsure, resistant or in any way disturbed by being folded into a position then it is not the way to train a command. You really risk making them nervous or fearful of training rather than it being the joyous event training should be.

[Batmom]

So I can understand the writer's feelings about her approach being a bonding experience. However, if your dog is unsure, resistant or in any way disturbed by being folded into a position then it is not the way to train a command. You really risk making them nervous or fearful of training rather than it being the joyous event training should be.

 

I think part of -- maybe the most important part of! -- Ms. Gilley's point is that if your dog is unsure or resistant about being handled, you want to work on that first.

 

I've taught all my greyhounds and a couple of other people's (including spook Zema but excluding Gidget, who already knew) how to sit using hug and fold. As per Ms. Gilley's article, tho, I already have a relationship with the dog at that point. We've already practiced and the dog has already learned to enjoy being touched, having his/her feet picked up, leaning into a human for pets and scritchies ...... With a new dog, I work on that every day in the beginning.

[Riverhound]

 

I believe the blog Riverhound referred to is Jen Bachelor's Never Say Never Greyhounds. http://neversaynevergreyhounds.blogspot.com/ Here are her Sit suggestions: http://neversaynevergreyhounds.blogspot.com/2009/08/greyhound-sits-101.html

 

 

That's the one! Joe was really easy to teach "down" with the methods in that blog (10 minutes). "Sit" was almost as easy. The "hug and fold" method made him stiffen up; he didn't like it at all! The new girlie does a natural sit, and doesn't resist when I fold her up/lay her down/pick her up, so I may use "hug and fold" with her when it's time to train. (Or she might learn from watching Joe.) She needs basic manners and some words (outside, house, upstairs, downstairs, and especially -- no!) before I'll bother much with tricks, though.

[GeorgeofNE]

I taught my dog to sit the way I'd teach any other breed of dog to sit. Anyone who tells you greyhounds "can't" sit is just wrong! They might not choose to, and it might not be graceful, but they can do it.

[Guest Frankendog]

I came up with a way to teach both my dogs to sit fairly easily, and both learned it quickly. I kept a dog bed in a corner of the room, which is convenient to box them in a bit, so they don't wander off.

 

I got them to come to the bed and knelt beside them, quietly asking for a sit...just kept saying the word a few times. Eventually they got tired of standing, and the natural thing to do was to start to lay down on the nice comfy bed. I had a treat ready, and physically stopped them with my hand in the sit position before they went into a down. Rewarded and made a big fuss, and then either they were free to continue lieing down, or I would walk away calling them to me.

I only had to do this a couple of times before they understood they would be rewarded for the sitting part of the lay down. I eventually drew them off the bed asking for the sit in other places (only on rugs, not hard surfaces.)Easy!

[Guest Wasserbuffel]

Braunschweiger.

 

Don't use much, because it's salty. Jayne will do anything or learn anything for a bite of braunschweiger. I used the fold and tuck method. I had her face downhill.and folded her back legs under her until she was sitting. I said "sit" and rewarded her. After folding her about three times I asked and she sat.

[Guest Timo]

I just taught Timo to sit, but starting from the laying down position and working his way up to a sit. He hasn't quite grasped the concept of sitting from the standing position yet. Maybe a few more sessions. I tried to stop him on the way down to the laying down position and gave him a treat, but he's not understanding that as much as the scooting back up into a sit.

[kudzu]

I just taught Timo to sit, but starting from the laying down position and working his way up to a sit. He hasn't quite grasped the concept of sitting from the standing position yet. Maybe a few more sessions.

Yes, my dogs seem to associate action with particular commands. Trying to grasp a command that really means inaction doesn't do it for them. So the physical action of going from down to sit is what they associate with the command Sit. It takes a lot more time & reps for it to click with them that Sit is the body position not the actual physical action of getting into that position.

[silverfish]

I've had three that I didn't bother to teach 'sit' to - one because he was old and very unfit when we first got him and he did such a good 'wait' that we accepted it where we would normally have asked him to sit, one because she had an injury to her thigh which made it awkward for her, and Sid, because, well, to ask a rear leg tripod with an arthritic hip to sit would be just cruel.

 

Ranger will be taught. He's such a weird dog that I've held off from serious training so far, preferring to focus on his ... *Ahem* .. difficulties with socialising, while allowing him to settle in. But I think perhaps the time has come to ask a little more of him. He certainly needs entertaining and wearing out.

 

Kathleen Gilley's method isn't one I've tried so far, but I might give it a go with him.

[Guest Timo]

I just taught Timo to sit, but starting from the laying down position and working his way up to a sit. He hasn't quite grasped the concept of sitting from the standing position yet. Maybe a few more sessions.

Yes, my dogs seem to associate action with particular commands. Trying to grasp a command that really means inaction doesn't do it for them. So the physical action of going from down to sit is what they associate with the command Sit. It takes a lot more time & reps for it to click with them that Sit is the body position not the actual physical action of getting into that position.

 

Good to know. Thanks! Now, he just goes from down to sit, back down from sit, and so on and so on until my handful of treats is gone. Lol. He goes back down without asking every time. I think he's now trained me.

[Guest Wasserbuffel]

He goes back down without asking every time. I think he's now trained me.

 

It's great when they get to that point! Once Jayne learned that sitting would get treats from people her answer to everything became sit for a while. Come, down, touch, shake, stay and heel were all answered with her butt on the floor "You want me to sit? I'll sit! Where's my treat"?