| Q14: What's your take on teaching my GSP
or DK Sit, Stay before teaching her Whoa? I have read a few different opinions and wanted to get yours before I started. A:Good question--there are two schools of thought on this, and I have subscribed to both of them from time to time. Currently, and especially for first time GSP or DK trainers, I feel it's easier to train "Halt" or "down" or "platz", whichever command you prefer. This means lay down on your stomach, with all 4 paws flat on the floor, and chin on the floor between the front paws. It's the most submissive posture for a dog, other than on it's back with it's throat exposed. I teach it with the clicker first, then with the word, then with a hand signal--hand palm down and straight out in front of me, then arm lowered towards the floor, and finally, with one long blast of a whistle. I teach it first from a standing still position, then from a walk, and finally from a dead run. This is especially helpful in being able to "blow down" the dog from chasing a deer, a rabbit, or whatever. Next I teach "whoa". Whoa, of course, meaning stop exactly where you are, stand and don't move anything--even a paw. I also teach this with hand, voice, and whistle commands. First without any birds--strictly as an obedience command, then I introduce shots, flushes, and points on birds, in that order. The whoa command is extremely helpful not only in hunting situations, as a precursor to "backing" or "honoring" another dog's point or to teaching steadiness, but is also helpful in everyday situations, like keeping your dog from running out in front of oncoming traffic, etc. Then finally, I teach sit. The spaniel and retriever people use "hup" as the command for this. I never teach "stay" as a separate command--"Sit" to me and to my dogs means sit and stay where they are until they are given the release command--I use OK to release them from any other command I've given. Many folks believe that if a dog is trained to sit first, it will often try to sit on point or when given the whoa command. I have seen this happen myself--especially with "softer" dogs. So, to avoid that possibility, I just reverse the training order, as many trainers do.
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