Is it possible for a dog to not be able to sit?

Factual Questions
21

See, this is the obnoxious thing - everybody’s dog training advice contradicts. The whole two week shutdown thing pretty much requires that you crate the dog, which might never have been crated before, from day one.

She was actually fine in the crate once she realized I wasn’t letting her out, by the way. She started up with the whining when I was in the room, and then she started up with the snoring once I went away. She didn’t whine at all in the night (when she whines you hear it through any damned door you have in the house. The neighbors probably think we have some sort of tribble fetish now.)

22

Since she came from a shelter, she’s most likely been crated for some time now, so I wouldn’t think she’d need a huge amount of adjustment.

Post preview: Yeah, Zsofia, they do. Like everything else, you just have to make your best guess for what fits your dog & situation.

Just keep ignoring the whining, I know it’s hard. It might be good to give her some smelly things of y’all’s to snuggle with, if you haven’t already.

23

My solution to crate whining was to make a pallet on the floor and sleep near the crate – where the dog could see me – for a couple of nights. That worked like a charm…but might have been due to the quality of the particular dog in question.

24

Is this directed at dealing with the dog, or with people giving advice over the Internet? :wink:

25

I’ll do another thread if I don’t get enough people seeing this here - how on earth can you correct a dog who can’t wear a regular collar? She’s got that pushed in nose that means she needs to wear a harness instead of a collar, but I can’t give her a little “pop” leash correction with the harness. (And no, she is not quelled by the tone of my voice. She wouldn’t be quelled by the tone of James Earl Jones’ voice.)

26

Well, I wouldn’t use corrections, but then, I’m philosophically opposed to the idea in all but immediate lifesaving cases.

You want her attention on you, but you don’t want a battle. The best way to get her attention on you without a battle is to eliminate all the distractions and outwait her, which is, if I am not misunderstanding it, the point of the Two Week Shutdown.

27

I’d hate to ask which part you’ve been getting wrong.

Which part have you been getting wrong?

28

That’s a tough one. I can ‘correct’ Blackjack just by saying no. He’s very intent on pleasing me so I don’t go away like his old daddy did. I don’t know what you can do without a choke collar. Maybe spray her with water?

29

I fucked up this attempted witticism.

“Which part do you think you missed.”

But now it’s not remotely funny.

30

RE: Sitting - It’s possible you have a frog squatter. Huskies are like this, they never sit in the way that other dogs do, and only squat because we teach them to do so from an early age. http://wwwdelivery.superstock.com/WI/223/4070/PreviewComp/SuperStock_4070-6454.jpg See how the dog is just perched on her hind legs waiting to pop up?

It has to do with the way their hips are formed, and a few terrier breeds have the same formation. It could also be displaysia, or a tail that doesn’t lift enough, or any combination threof. If she’ll lay down on command, I’d just accept that, and if she ever does sit, throw a praise party.

Another thing I’d try is hand signals, Many “stubborn” dogs really just don’t make the connection between words and desired behaviors, but will if you use a hand signal. This has the added benefit of allowing you to sic her on a burglar without revealing your own presence. :wink: Perhaps try one or two and see if she knows them?

This chart is great reminder with a new dog. Every dog has their own little quirks, but at least a few of these should apply: http://www.maplewooddog.com/MDT/Articles/Communication-Handling-Articles/DogBodyLanguagePoster.jpg

Re the collar/harness I found the harness completely useless, and I tried every configuration unde the sun. In the end, what worked was a very small, thin collar placed just under the back of the skull. Also, feeding him helped. Skinny dogs can slip out of anything.

31

You’ve got to be able to tell a dog no. Because it’s barking like a crazy thing or trying to eat a housecat. And “no” just doesn’t do it for Sweet Pickle. She totally ignores a firm “no”. (Did respond to the spray bottle, but you can’t always do that.) I’m all for positive reinforcement when it comes to training, and we are working on “leave it” which will eventually be what we say when one is not to go after a cat, but I can’t get her attention with only my voice.

32

For whatever reason, some dogs just never manage to do things the normal dog way. My mother’s pomeranian would always stretch out with her legs stuck out behind her. It looked sort of like she was flying. I never once saw her lay with her feet by her sides. Seriously, pets is weird. Don’t sweat it

33

Sure, but that’s not the same thing as issuing a physical correction.

Hence my suggestion for getting her to stop ignoring you.

34

Okay, so today was WAY BETTER. We’re not doing the full Two Week Shutdown because obviously we fucked it up previously and we’re just doing what makes sense to us - crating her when we’re not here and leashing her to us when we are.

She’s still upset by the cats, but when given a firm no and pressure on the leash she actually retreated to me today (which to me means she gets that I’m the boss of this here farm.) I turned on the space heater as a Peaceable Kingdom and while she was very interested and whined a lot and pulled a little there was no barking or snarling.

She was mostly fine with our dog except once when she was on my lap, and I will freely admit this, I let out the teeniest little fart, which startled her and made her for some reason try to beat poor Captain’s ass again. Calming her via the leash did seem to work and we didn’t have problems after that. (It was not Beans and Brussels Sprouts night at Casa de Zsofia, however.)

35

Pick a time when she’s relatively calm, remove all distractions from the room, and sit on the floor with her and a bag of treats. Keep the bag on the floor, possibly between your crossed legs - they should be within her reach, but totally under your control. Say her name, once, calmly, and DO NOT REPEAT. Wait for eye contact, then immediately reward the eye contact with a “Good girl!” and a treat. At first you’ll have to wait quite a bit for eye contact to randomly occur, but she’ll pick up on the routine with enough repetition.

Have a couple training sessions a day, and drill it into her head. Once it starts to become automatic, start extending the training, getting her attention from slightly farther away or with a distraction or 2 in the room, or by making her hold your gaze slightly longer before a reward. Start carrying a treat bag around in your pocket in the house, and drilling her at random times throughout the day, but don’t advance too fast. You want to already have a good chance that she’ll succeed in a situation before you start putting her into that situation, as failure can become a habit. Pulling away her attention from a cat or favorite toy is weeks down the road.

She sounds pretty play driven, so work this into playtime as well. During a game of catch, every few throws, hold the ball, say her name, and wait for eye contact before rewarding with a “Good girl!” and a ball toss.

Tinier treats are better, so you can reward often, and occasionally “jackpot” with a random reward of multiple treats, motivating her to try hard every time. I like a hot dog cut up into very small pieces mixed into a bag of Cheerios. It gives the Cheerios a bit of a hot dog flavor, and creates 2 tiers of treats, kind of building on the jackpot idea.

This is an important skill, so don’t rush it or hurry to get past it and onto other, more fun tricks. It really pays off in the long run to be able to easily get your dog’s attention.

36

Even if all she does is flick her eyes to you at first, reward.

37

Got up this morning and took her out, and I reeeally wanted to go back to bed but didn’t want to shove the poor thing back into her crate so I tied her to the bedpost and took a nap with her (not something I do on a regular basis with our creatures, because allergies and all). Woke up to that face up in my grill licking me, the sight of which I’m pretty sure took years off my life.

At least we have the means to make gorilla cookies now.

38

Sanity Challenged at #35 has the good advice. Read that post carefully. In fact I would print it out if I were you.

39

please Do NOT physically force a dog. Old School, Unnecessary, potentially dangerous, ineffective. Leash training is "out’, too.

Once the Dog is calm, relaxed, and confident- sitting is EASY. Exercise first to get rid of excess energy. Dangle a treat near and above her head so that she sits to get it, then Mark with a ‘SIT’ & 'Good" so she gets the association. Limit training to less than five minutes, a few times a day.

Check out any ‘Positive reinforcement’ or ‘positive’ operant conditioning training books or videos.

Avoid the Dog Whisperer AT ALL COSTS. Avoid the Monks of New Skete & other Force/dominate based training techniques. They Backfire, and can be Cruel.

Use body language, food, voice, training structure and style to convince your stubborn dog to do what you ask. Without force, you can turn your difficult dog into a perfect pet…

40

Unfortunately, we’re going to have to take her back. She’s seemed much calmer leashed to us but still out of nowhere goes crazy at poor Captain, and last night she got a good bite in before I was able to haul her off with the leash. I asked the shelter for advice and they agreed that it wasn’t fair to my existing dog and that we should bring her back and now they can note in her file that she needs to be the only animal in a household.

It’s heartbreaking, but I think they’re right. I’m going to try to sell my parents on her first, though - she’s such a sweet snuggly dog with people, and old people ought to have a little dog, right?