NCWA
exists to conserve, enhance and perpetuate our waterfowl heritage.
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NCWA
exists to conserve, enhance and perpetuate our waterfowl heritage. |
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Sit,
Sit, Sit The Most Important Command Your Dog Will Learn By Pamela O. Kadlec The most important command any retriever will ever learn. Ingrain it into your pup’s head now and continue to reinforce it throughout his life. Why is it important? If he’s sitting he can quietly watch the birds fly and mark the fall. If he’s sitting and looking at you he can take casts to blind retrieves. If he’s sitting he’s not jumping up on you with his muddy paws and trying to lick your face with his ready tongue. Teach your pup to sit to the voice command, to the whistle, to the flush of birds and to the gun. It is easy to condition your retriever to sit, even easier if pup is food driven. If your pup loves his kibble or treats your job is a breeze. Simply walk around the yard or house before feeding and toss a treat every time he sits. Work on his remote sits by letting him wander off, command the ‘sit’ and toss a treat upon compliance. If you do this every morning he won’t have any choice in the matter. His butt will hit the floor when you say, “Sit” because you have conditioned him to sit. (One drawback to the treats is the pup spitting out his bumpers to make room for the food. To deter this behavior from beginning I use the treats for the obedience only and put them away for the retrieves.) Once he is sitting to the voice command, toot for sit and then say, “Sit”, and toss a treat. Work on this until you can drop the word, sit, and just use the whistle. Take him for a walk off lead and alternate between the voice command and the whistle. To make a pup sit and stay simply delay the treats so that pup has to wait a little bit longer. Increase the time by 10-second intervals until he will sit for a full minute without breaking. I don’t use the word, “Stay” since sit means sit until I say otherwise - “Here, Okay or Fetch it up!” When your pup will sit to either voice or whistle in the yard, load him up and take him to a new place. Keep him on a check cord in case the distractions prove too tempting. Have some yummy treats that can compete with the distractions. Keep working and moving to new areas until he will sit anywhere, anytime. Gradually ease out the treats - give him a treat for every other sit, then once in 4 or 5 sits, then once every 10 sits, then once in a blue moon. Have him sit before you open the door or his kennel gate. Lightly restrain him at first until he learns that he sits until you release him on his name. You can make this exercise tougher by opening the gate or door and walking a few feet away before releasing your pup. Be ready to stop him if he breaks and tries to run out before you send him. Have him sit and remain sitting while you put down his food dish. Again, restrain him at first until he will sit until you release him to eat. Gradually move a litter further away until you can stand several feet away and he remains sitting. If the pup is kenneled, work on getting him to stay seated while you close the kennel gate before releasing him. The next step is to walk out in the yard and work on his sits. Have a bumper in one hand and toot for the sit at the same time you toss the bumper. If he is not steady, be ready to step on or grab the check cord. The goal here is to teach him to sit to the ‘flush’. Eventually pup’s butt will hit the ground when the bird jumps up to fly. This comes in handy for jump shooting puddle ducks or for hunting upland game. As he learns this new game and is steady to bumpers, start using dead birds, then live, clipped-wing pigeons. Don’t let him get the bird unless he sits and waits for the command to fetch. The final step is to put it all together and teach himto sit to the shot. The idea here is to make the gun the cue to sit, just as you’ve taught him the flush is the cue to sit. This is easier if you have an assistant and use a blank pistol to start this exercise. Walk around, shoot the gun in the air, say, “Sit” or toot the whistle, then throw the bumper. You want your pup to relate the bang to sit. As he learns to sit with a bumper, use a dead bird, then finally put it all together with a clip-winged pigeon, shoot the bird and let pup fetch only if he sits. Work on sitting every time you command, every where you go, no matter what the distractions and you will have a retriever who is focused on you. When you are ready to teach pup blind retrieves the biggest battle will already be won. |
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