We originally were not too concerned with Sia's sit stay. Her down stay worked well for most things and sitting is not a position Sia natuarally settles into. But, because she is struggling a little bit maintaining her sit during a greeting, it's time to focus on her sit stay.
Sia usually wants to slide into a down. Now we're going to set our criteria a little higher and not accept this.
Moving in closer and leaning towards her, perhaps with a hand signal as a reminder helps her to get back into position.
This puts just enough pressure on her socially that she settles back into her sit (this works when she is starting to break her stay too).
But all this stay stuff can be a little tedius and maybe even a little stressful so we, of course, want to break up the sessions with a little play. I'm sure I sound like a broken record on this one but the importance of play in training is pretty high.
This also gave me a chance to see more changes in Sia. I could really tell how aware she was if her teeth touched my skin. She would quickly drop the tug if she felt my skin in her mouth or if I said ouch. I love a dog who is so respectful.
Respectful and sensitive. The poor girl doesn't understand it when a dog is intimidated by her.
The sad thing is that she tries to engage them in play by talking to them. This, of course, makes matters worse. Hopefully, if I keep interrupting this behavior, she'll figure out another way to win them over.
Thankfully the labs will always play with her. Good old Sinbad...
They'll even do downs with us when we are practicing our fast downs with distractions. Silly labs, if I had a wider angle lense you would have seen two more labs who went into a down when I said "Sia, down." It's so nice to have supportive friends...
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