To sit or not to sit?

malbus

malbus

New member
Ive been reading gundog training books and half say you shouldnt teach a pointer to sit and the other half say its fine. What do you guys think about it and do you teach your dog sit as part of basic training? Is this issue geared specifically to certain breeds more than others? Just wondering what people feel about it and if its really an issue for pointers.

-mandy
 
I teach mine to sit at about 3 years old!!! Never have had a problem doing this at this age and it never shows up in their field work!!!!!!!!!!!!!:cheers:
 
I teach mine to stay. If he gets tired standing, he sits on his own but I don't use that command. Hasn't been an issue in the field.
 
I was told that the reason not to teach them to sit is because that is usually the first thing you train a dog, so they will often resort to that first learned command when corrected in the field (like when being told to whoa).

I taught my setter to sit later, after he learned whoa, stay, chill out ( a must for a setter IMO).
 
jeffstally said:
I was told that the reason not to teach them to sit is because that is usually the first thing you train a dog, so they will often resort to that first learned command when corrected in the field (like when being told to whoa).

I taught my setter to sit later, after he learned whoa, stay, chill out ( a must for a setter IMO).
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Lol! The much needed but seldom talked about "chill out" command.:thumbsup:
 
With 3 dogs and 2 kids under 3 years old in the house "chill out" is yelled at least 30 times a day.
 
I have heard that too, that pointing dogs should not be trained to sit.

All my setters have been trained to sit. I have not had a problem.

My guess is that if they have been trained to sit and you put too much pressure on them they may sit. But if you are putting too much pressure on them it will show up as something.
 
I agree with SetterNut on why some pointer owners do not teach the Sit Command. I would tend to agree in the early age of a pup and that is why I teach it last. I believe in the ability of an all purpose dog. I teach all my Shorthairs the command, after their first season and after all the basics have been taught. I like to use Dove Season as a chance to train my dogs on how I want them to act in the Duck Blind. So an all-purpose dog that does not know Sit is going to be a difficult dog to control in the duck blind.
 
Never did it with the one that I have now and she sits beside me when I'm talking to someone at the farmstore. She does it after she gets done telling them what she thinks.
 
All my dogs sit-stay. I'd like to think the dog is smart enough to know the difference between pointing a bird, and sitting.
 
oldandnew said:
All my dogs sit-stay. I'd like to think the dog is smart enough to know the difference between pointing a bird, and sitting.
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Me too, but their not. Ive seen several dogs that have had to be fixed because they sat while pointing a bird. Its not common, but not uncommon either. IMO, there's no reason to teach "sit" until after the dog has been on lots of birds and the "point" is brought out of them. I woulnd't teach it just because it could cause a problem in the future. "whoa" works exactly the same, and they won't sit.
 
I don't understand why it would be a bad thing to teach a pointer to sit on command. My labs obviously sit on command but only on command. I would think a pointer would do the same thing. But I never taught any of my pointers to sit just for the fact I'm not sure when they would need to.

Am I missing something?
 
Duck.. Its not totally uncommon to teach a pointing dog to sit, and then have the dog sit down instead of point a bird when they find one. I wouldn't say its common, but it does happen.
 
The issue with teaching a young pointing/versatile dog, ie puppy to sit early on, is that they tend to revert to that whenever they are unsure as you teach them other things. I concentrate on stay, building their prey drive, then retrieving, and when that is well-established I start more heavily on obedience commands, heel, etc. As I said earlier, my current partner sat on his own from the get-go & I neither encouraged it or disciplined the action. If he wanted to sit when I had him on an extended stay or while he was with me as I was doing something else, working on a gun, etc, I left that to his choosing. For what it's worth, I followed the same pattern with my Labs, only then I taught sit when necessary, but always no sooner than 6 months or so. Works for me.
 
koja is spot on, as are the others. I never taught sit to any of my dogs, and they really don'tknow it to this day. It amuses me when people try to tell them to sit. :)

Radar had sit just drilled into him, before coming to me. And the first bit of pressure, that's where he went to. His safe place, which was sit. So, let's say, I bring him in on a checkcord, and pop the bird because he moved, he would want to chase that bird bad. I don't want him to chase that bird. I want him to stand tall and proud.
So, when he wasn't allowed to chase, he would sit.
Then I'd have to make him stand.
See where this is going? Any sort of pressure he would sit.
Not a good thing.
Now, afterwards, when you have them where you want them, then sure.
 
Thanks for clearing that up for me everyone. I'll be sure to stick to the books saying to hold off on the sitting til later (gun dogs).
 
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