sit or not

do staffy owners who show there dogs teach them to sit,im undecided ,because im afraid cody would just sit when he should be standin.or when a judge went over him hed plonk his bum on the floor

never thought of that..

You can indeed teach a showdog to sit, & all the other obedience exercises. But teach the stand first. Have a word and/or a signal for the 'stand' command and a word and/or signal for the 'sit'. Your dog is smart enough to know the difference.

I am training Tamino for competitive obedience and for the show ring. We are only in the beginning stages of shaping with the clicker for the show stock (its the only way to get him to hold still ).

Shadowboxer is exactly right. It also helps if you have a different lead for the ring and at home.

Very good, and important, point about the lead Kate. The dog will certainly associate a particular type of collar with a particular type of work. A show lead, to the dog, feels very different from the flat collar & lead used for obedience.

Hi Pete,
I have the same quandry with Tess at the moment. Although she "knows" sit and "down" now
I get her to stand for treats keeping all four feet on the ground - Sal does the same not sitting. And the same when out walking if she meets someone I ask them not to fuss until all four feet on the ground. It has worked really quickly with her and I say "behave" for standing rather than Stand as it seems to similar to "sit" to me. But that could be me. But I find sit (for getting in and out of cars particularly useful) and down very useful when out off lead when I want Sal to stop and comes in handy for agility too. So Tess is using all but "standing" when meeting new people - as she would in the showring.
Karen (sorry it's long)

thanks karren ive decided to take cody to obedience classes as well as handling classes, obedience is everyweek saturday and sunday ,handling is only twice a month and i need more than that .I have found a good trainer locally whos main influx of new starters this year have bin staffys http://www.delameredogtraining.co.uk/

i am goin on saturday so will keep you informed on our training

Hello Pete.
Sal enjoys "training" more than ringcraft; I think - because she is called apon to use her brain now rather than just look "pretty" which she does- at training we do "searching/tracking" as well as agility. And she likes flyball too. People often stop me and comment on how "well" she walks - because I think the average Stafford in my area walks like a steam train pulling.
But she walked nicely before training - so maybe thats just her
Tess is so besotted by the other dogs at training she is hardly learning anything but thats pups for you.
Karen

Edited to say;
Dog club looks brilliant Pete - sure it will be great fun for both of you

thnx karren

i hope he likes it as much as sal ,and im glad theve had a lot of staffys starting so cody will be in good company

Mine sit while waiting for their dinner etc

only thing we found was if Libby didnt sit immediately after asking her the obediance trainer said to push down gently on her back to make her sit- problem we then had is when handler presses down on the back as they do in the show , Libby thought they wanted her to sit
Just something to be aware of