# BH Sit out of motion help



## GranvilleGSD (Mar 28, 2007)

I'd like to try for Izzy's BH this summer. She's doing well on all of the exercises except the sit out of motion, she does a platz instead. Her platz is very quick. If I try to give a collar correction she will sit crouched and the second I walk away, creep into a platz. Suggestions on how to fix this?


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## nathalie1977 (Sep 4, 2006)

Here's what I did and it helped me. I had the same problem.

Work on the sit and only the sit for a while... start out by heeling, giving the sit command and walking in place... help her if needed (if she starts crouching, repeat "sit"). Then slowly start increasing the distance but only if she's doing things perfectly.

Don't mix the sit and the platz in the same training session.


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## jesusica (Jan 13, 2006)

What have you tried? How did you teach it? Do you ever mix up the two in training other than when doing the motion exercises and, if so, how does she respond?


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## Catu (Sep 6, 2007)

Maybe you are so pleased with her Platz that she perceives that and wants to give one whatever you ask.

Anyway, I'd do sit, sit and only sits for a while, making them very fun to do as she may perceive that the Platz is more fun than the sitz.

I'd not correct with the leash, you'll mess with the down and in the best of cases, get a slow doubtful sit.

Another recommendation is to ask a sit and in the same second turn to face the dog so near that she doesn't have space to lay down, even bumping her backwards with your legs. You have to be very quick to move to the dog and in the reward, you don't want her to feel you are putting pressure over her, but more like a game of "butt on the floor-instant reward"


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## Castlemaid (Jun 29, 2006)

Reward her the _instant_ she sits. Go back a few steps and just do a lot of heeling with a sit command. I'd forget about walking away for now, maybe one step, turn to her and reward with a tug or ball, tug a bit, have her release, get her back into the foos position right away, a few more steps, repeat. 

Make it fun, rewarding, take away the stress. Forget the platz out of motion for a bit. Do several sessions of just playing, tugging, sit!!! Do something weird and unexpected, then turn back to her and reward with more play. 

Then start by taking a few steps away from her. Mix it up so that sometimes you break her right after the sit, other times you take a random number of steps, in different directions before coming back and rewarding her with play or food. 

Last fall, I put too much stress on Keeta (mixed breed) trying to get her performance more reliable - it backfired, and she became hesitant to do anything. Over the winter I built her confidence back by doing stuff like what I suggested. Didn't even put a prong collar on her: just a flat collar, and it was a lot of fun, quick, random, unexpected sits, downs, foosing with a lot of tugging tugging tugging. I went from her not even wanting to get out of the car when at training, to being back rearing to go, and to happy snappy focused prancing and quick (for her, LOL) downs and sits.


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## Chris Wild (Dec 14, 2001)

It's possible she is downing because she is feeling pressure. The description of her being corrected, going into a crouched sit and then into a down sounds that way anyway. Down is a safe (submissive) position for a dog, and thus can be sort of their default behavior if they are confused or feeling stressed.

Work on the sit separately from the down, and praise and reward her well when she does it properly. In the initial stages of teaching it, I back away from the dog so I'm facing the dog, rather than walking with my back turned, so I can praise "good sit" as the dog holds position. This feedback that they are doing the right thing is very important.

It also helps to have your sit and down (and later stand) commands sound completely different from one another. Not just the word used, but the voice inflection you use when you say the command. This really helps keep it clear to the dog and minimize confusion. 

I would say that 99% of the time if the dog does the wrong out of motion exercise, it is not the dog being disobedient, but rather confusion on the dog's part. Especially if the dog makes the same mistake repeatedly. So of course it's our job as handlers to eliminate that confusion and the stress it causes, preferably without corrections as if the dog is just confused, which is likely, they will just add to that stress.


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## bergwanderkennels (Mar 26, 2009)

In addition to not always working sit and down exercises together Also do not always work sit and down in the same direction on the field (This came from Bernhard Flinks).


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## GranvilleGSD (Mar 28, 2007)

Good suggestions. I think I will work on just the sit and turning to face/reward her. It sounds like she is confused, as she has no problem sitting for a halt.

I was wondering where the confusion may have come from, and I think, since we train AKC obedience too, we had been working on the drop on recall exercise, maybe that is where she is confused.

I don't want to put too much pressure on her, I did that last spring and she completely shut down. I overtrained, and she decided she was done working. She got a break from training and came back to finish 4 titles, and was having a blast!


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