Pointing Breeds and Sitting?

[2 DA GILLS]

I have read various opinions on teaching pointing breeds to sit at a young age. Several authors have suggested not teaching a young pointer the "sit" command until the dog has been taught the "whoa" command.

What are the opinions of owners of pointing breeds on this board?

[metrojoe]

I'm actually getting my first pointer next month. I contacted a trainer about a number of things, but one thing he insisted was not to teach "sit". I've also been reading a couple books and one point that made sense to me was "sit" is one of the easiest commands to teach. Any dog at any age can be taught to sit in a matter of days. Our current dog(lab/Springer mix) has been through obedience class and the toughest thing to teach him was a "stand stay" very similar to the "whoa" command. The first thing he would do is sit when he'd get nervous or wasn't quite sure what to do. He's going back for the off leash obedience this spring.

[gspman]

If you don't plan on breaking your dog steady to wing and shot and adding some of the other polish to your dog then teaching sit probably won't matter.

If you plan to field trial/hunt test your dog or want a fully broke hunting dog then my advice is don't teach it to sit, at least not right away. This may help to avoid a problem when finishing your dog. Usually the first thing people teach their dog is to sit. What happens after that is that sitting becomes the default behavior anytime pressure is applied to the dog (ie. steadying it, stop to flush, etc...).

Breaking your dog to wing and shot takes some pressure because it goes against the dog's natural instinct. If the dog has been taught to sit it may sit while you are breaking it because it doesn't know what you want. Then you have the added headache of undoing that as well as breaking your dog.

My current dog does that a little bit. If I whoa her and then stand there for a bit she will sit on occasion. It can be frustrating at times but I don't currently plan on trialing my dog and since I don't plan on breaking her it's really not that big of a deal.

[setterguy]

Long ago, when a dog encountered game instead of pointing, they would "set", sit, lay down whatever. That is how we got the names of English, Irish and Gordon SETTERS. Even today, there will be an occasional dog that will sit, or even worse lay down when it encounters game. Is it years of instinct taking over, or just a nervous dog with a bad habit? I guess there is no way to know for sure.

This is the main reason that people suggest not training a young dog to sit. Also, sit is the command that we usually give when we want the dog to settle down. If he's jumping on company Sit!, if he is running around the house , Sit! Dogs learn very quickly that if they feel nervous or unsure about a situation that sitting will most likely be what you want. This can be a bad combonation when the dog is young and not experienced around birds. They may get nervous and sit, which is a very hard habit to break.

[BigDaddy]

GSP and Setter are right on.

Joe, where are you taking your training?

[cyberamish]

(cue fog lifting)

Ahhhhhhhh now I gat it...... I could not figure out why my new female GSP seemed to know evey command BUT sit when I got her.

[metrojoe]

The obedience training is at Animal Inn in Lake Elmo. It's been a great class for him.(Banjo,pictured left) The meathead even managed to take the blue ribbon upon graduation. I'd like to get him some gun/bird training this spring but I haven't decided where yet. I think I'm going to be sending the new pup to Wings and Whistles this fall. I've talked to Mike on the phone and he was very helpful. I'd still like to meet him and take a little tour of the facilities and of course ask many more questions.