Hey Everyone so last week I decided to take gunner to a weekly Obedience class! Note that this class is supposed to be for dogs 5 months and older and not a puppy class! I talked to the trainer to see if I could attend the class with my 13 wk old puppy! He said sure since I have trained a cpl of dogs with him in the past! Well lets just say Gunner was a very well behaved dog compared to some of these dogs! Week 1: We started learning to Sit and Stay which I don't teach Stay I teach Sit and don't move until I say his break word which is OK. Which he does very well for a short period of time for his age! Second Phase was also to walk on a leash! Well I worked with gunner all last week and he did very well! You can tell the dif. from working a dog for just 15 min to 30min a day daily vs not at all! It shocks me to see people bring their dogs to a class and then not work with them at home! Week 2: We basically went over week 1 to see how our dogs have progressed which I was def proud of Gunner and a few other dogs! So this week we started learning the down position which I have not worked with Gunner on this yet so I knew it was going to be a little bit rough compared to the Sit which Gunner does great. Well thank goodness I had treats with me last night bc after about the 5th time of me trying to coax him down with a treat he finally started to pick up on it with the treat and praise! Now the stay part I am not so concerned about for right now b/c I just want him to learn the down position and when he gets that fig out I will work on him not breaking from it! Hopefully this week will go well in his training and I will keep you updated as he progresses! Note: He has a lazy sit a lot and a lazy down it drives me crazy to see him sit on the side of his but and lay on the side of his butt in those positions hopefully me correcting him he will change his ways but that is my toughest battle right now
Sounds good! I shouldnt worry about the 'lazy' sit, he is only a tiny baby so far and that will tighten up naturally with time.
My youngest will naturally sit very lazily. I had a bit of a struggle to get her to sit straight, but once she got into that position, I threw her a party and she immediately understood what I was after. She will still sit or lay lazily when on her own time, but she understands that "sit" means "sit straight" and I don't pay out for a sloppy sit. If she's tired, she'll still slouch but when I pause, she'll adjust into a tidy sit
Gunner just started the lazy sitting at 13 wks but he is smart when we are working he will sit down nice and straight but then when I reward him he waits just a min till after he eats his treat then goes into a lazy sit! so now I have laid off on the treats and am trying a new approach by telling him no just as soon as he goes in to a lazy sit and pull up or move just a bit and then he goes back into a good sitting stance but he loves that lazy sit!
As I say, I think it is too early to be correcting him for sitting 'lazily'. I think you might be expecting a bit much from him at this stage - expecting a 13 week old puppy to sit nicely for a minute or more is quite a lot, I think. You want all your training to be positive, not saying 'no' - training with you needs to be the most fun and exciting thing for him, not boring sitting to attention for minutes on end. You'll get better results long-run if you engage him positively, and get his focus on you for very short training sessions.
Ty Karen I have been working with him every day 2 times a day for 15-30 min sessions but the sessions are learning and playing but I understand about correcting him this early I think it would prob be easier to see if he grows out of it I don't really correct him much when he does a lazy sit all bc he just started doing it
