# Sliding while sitting



## mrezkill (Apr 9, 2010)

So we have hardwood floors and when my 5-month old, Tater, sits, he often slides backwards. It's cute, but I don't know how to keep him from doing that. Even in his puppy class, when he sits on the towel, he starts to slide his front feet forward. Has anyone heard of this? I can try to get a video of him doing it lol.


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## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

Puppies sit sloppily. To correct it you can use a food lure and put the treat where you want the head to go, the butt usually follows, when they are in the correct position, mark it and give the treat. A nice tight sit parallel to my leg is what I look for and the butt should be even with the head/even with my leg. 
At this age sessions should be short, but I would try to get the correct position every time before rewarding so you set up a good foundation for positioning.

If he is just relaxing sitting sloppy no big deal let the pup be a pup, but when training, position is more important. Even when you are at puppy class and relaxing don't worry about his position til you give a key word that it is time to train.


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## AvaLaRue (Apr 4, 2010)

Ava does this all the time. I laugh at her too. I will correct her when I am ready to train her to sit properly. Right now like Jane said, I'm just letting the puppy be a puppy.


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## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

is your dog cleaning his bottom?

has your dog learned to sit on hardwood floors?

put some rugs down so your dog doesn't slip.



mrezkill said:


> So we have hardwood floors and when my 5-month old, Tater, sits, he often slides backwards. It's cute, but I don't know how to keep him from doing that. Even in his puppy class, when he sits on the towel, he starts to slide his front feet forward. Has anyone heard of this? I can try to get a video of him doing it lol.


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## mrezkill (Apr 9, 2010)

doggiedad said:


> is your dog cleaning his bottom?
> 
> has your dog learned to sit on hardwood floors?
> 
> put some rugs down so your dog doesn't slip.


I think it's because he hasn't learned to sit on the hardwood floors. Sometimes, when he's waiting for a treat he sits in front of me and ends up sliding a couple feet away lol.


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## JKlatsky (Apr 21, 2007)

We have nothing but wood and tile floors in our house. It's actually kind of hard on our dogs. They slip and slide alot and I worry about them hurting themselves. We've put a number of area rugs all over the house to help them get traction. 

Because we work more formal obedience I want my dogs to learn to sit in a very specific way, and for this they need to control their bodies a little more specifically and they don't need the added difficulty of slipperly floors. When I work obedience I always do it on a rug or outside where they can get good footing. 

Sloppy sitting is not unusual in puppies. They all kind of flop around especially when they're hot or tired. They will usually slide when they are leaning forward into their front legs, and they don't have their back legs underneath them and they're sitting more on their leg with the fur which will slide more than if they were sitting on their back feet.


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