To sit or not to sit

TURN AND SIT VS. SEND DIRECT

A reader asked why I decided to switch to “send direct” with Phoenix’s scent articles after initially teaching the “turn and sit.” Thanks for the post idea!

When I trained my first two UDs, sending directly to the articles was not an option. The rules dictated a turn and sit, followed by the send. Then the rules changed and sending direct became allowable. I sent Jamie directly because his sits never had “slam your butt into the ground” speed. It seemed counterproductive to do the turn and make him sit, only to ask him get right back up again and go briskly to the pile.

When I taught Phoenix to do articles, he was very mentally immature. That translated to slightly insane. He tended to fling himself all over the place and was easily distract — oh, look, a shiny object!

So at the time, it seemed to make sense to implement the turn and sit so he could regroup and focus before being sent to the article pile instead of just flying out into oblivion, having totally forgotten what we were doing. Looking back, I wish I would have just left the whole turn issue alone until we were closer to actually showing in Utility but oh well, live and learn.

Somewhere along the line, he grew up and got a brain. By now we’d been working the turn and sit for about 2 years, although I hadn’t made article work a very serious part of our training since I was focused on Novice and Open. Articles were practically a recreational activity since he learned them quickly and thought they were fun.

When I started matching him in Utility this spring, I really wasn’t happy with the turn and sit he was giving me. Technically, he was doing it okay but like Jamie, the turn-stop-sit-get up-go sequence seemed to be demotivating.

As I mentioned in an earlier post this week, this training and titling stuff is MY idea, not Phoenix’s and I feel I owe it to him to find the simplest and most intrinsically rewarding method of teaching/performing any exercise. I really try to not make things harder than they need to be! Thus, the change to the send direct.

Sure, I could have worked to rev up the turn and sit. It’s always a tough decision when you’re facing a training issue: train harder to make the current method work or try something different? This time, I decided to try something different.

Besides, since the turn and sit are a scoreable part of the exercise, you can start losing points for a crooked sit, slow sit, no sit, forged sit, etc. before the dog ever gets near the articles. It made sense to just eliminate one more element of difficulty. I am a firm believer in picking your battles! Deciding to do the sit initially was one of those “What was I thinking?” moments that so many of us trainers have so many of! I’m sure for some dogs and handlers, the turn and sit works very well. It’s purely an individual choice that depends on your dog’s strengths and weaknesses.

Of course, the send direct is not without its scoring hazards. The biggest one is the dog making a wide turn, followed by a huge arc to the pile, although some judges seem to score that harder than others, while other judges totally ignore any sins that might be committed before the dog gets to the pile. Like so many things in the obedience regs, scoring how the dog gets to the pile seems very open to interpretation.

Please feel free to comment on your experiences one way or another.