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Neat Straight Drops?


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Try physically positioning your dog on the way down into the drop. Then click and reward. Repeat (just as if you are only beginning to teach the drop.) ONLY reward these drops. That's one option.

Does your dog drop from the sit, or from the stand? I tend to find that a drop from the stand is more likely (but not guaranteed) to attain a square drop than one from a sit.

Although I aim for square drops from a stand when I train, I am of the view that if the dog is comfortable, he is more likely to hold the drop when working for stay work and so long as his chest and elbows are on the ground, I might not worry too much about pushing for 'square'. (Similarly, some dogs tuck a front leg under when they're comfortable.) Depends on the dog, really, and whether or not the 'flipped hip position' is affecting any part of the dog's training. Of course it aslo depends what the owner requires.

Edited by Erny
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Which hand are you using to bring down in front of their face? I always keep the treat in the hand closest to the dog, it keeps them in nice and close and they aren't trying to look around your body to see where it is, so they stay straight :confused:

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Oh - and I'd like to add that working up some speed in drop compliance assists with attaining a square drop. (Mind you, attaining a square drop assists with speed compliance too ... so it's a bit of a catch 22.) Have you tried working her up in drive and then commanding and luring quickly to drop? Reward/release very quickly once the chest and elbows are on the ground, so he won't have time to flip a hip.

Edited by Erny
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When I first got Nova she had a tendancy to roll her hips in both the sit and drop so that it looked very untidy, a habit i suspect she picked up after injuring her cruciate ligament. Basically I drilled her through the sit and drop again and again and only rewarded her when she sat or dropped straight. I gave the command, if I wasn't happy with the position I would tell her to stand and recommand over and over until she did it straight and then she would get a huge release and reward. She learned very quickly how to get her reward :confused:

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Have you tried working her up in drive and then commanding and luring quickly to drop?
Works a treat. :confused: Do not be complacent like me, who had her face a little too close ONCE.

Get your face confused with the ball, did he?

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Have you tried working her up in drive and then commanding and luring quickly to drop?

Works a treat. :confused: Do not be complacent like me, who had her face a little too close ONCE.

Get your face confused with the ball, did he?

No, he simply dropped too quickly for me. :confused: My fault entirely. Gee it hurt, but I ignored the pain and kept my attitude the same. It was difficult.

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With Tango I use speed and a sweeping signal in front of his face and towards the ground at a 45° angle in the direction of travel rather than a chop (did that make sense?)...face follows hand, drops are straight while heeling. Found this to more effective for him.

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Some great suggestions, thanks :)

I will take them into consideration and I'm training tomorrow with stella so she can see what they are doing from an outsiders perspective too

They are dropping from a stand and the reason I want it straight is just for obedience and I figure better to correct it now while they are young!!!

After talking about drive and fast drops, Eddie does much better this way, Molly is still a little too flakey to control herself!!!

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this one worked for me to square up my labs sit and drops. Stand abot 20 cm away from a wall or fence give the command and almost everytime they will not sit or drop on the wall they will most of the time be a few cm away from the wall. Repeat this a few times if they are not squared up and after they get it right you will only need to do this once or twice for each command in training to refresh their memories. :)

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Trained with Stella yesterday

Showed her Eddie's drop and he swings his hips as he goes down, so worked at dropping on place board and much better results

Next was Molly, as she did a perfect drop everytime so couldn't even show her what the problem was! lol

Did some stays for little Connor and after telling Stella that Eddie was pretty solid on his stays he broke every single time, though it was their first outing in 3 weeks after having kc so they were a little excited

Worked lots on recall and they were pretty good really!

Both jumped in the dam, Molly flew off the edge after the geese and tried to swim after them, silly girl

The ride home with them on the bench seat of oh's ute was a smelly one, ewwww

Spoilt lab, that sounds like a good idea too, will try it, but he normally swings his hips towards me, not the other way

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My dog is a perpetual puppy sitter in everything and we didn't lose that many points over it. I think we lost 2 points in the recall.

Would be interested in the board technique and where you put it. My dog had a habit of heeling sideways so I did most of my training against a wall, and did the drops etc along the wall.

When I taught Moses drop on verbal alone, I used to show him the toy and said drop and as soon as he dropped I threw the toy and the drops got quicker and straighter. He also learnt to drop a distance away from me without creeping forward.

But then when I was teaching drop on recall, he started anticipating and did a bow on recall in anticipation of the toy, quite funny as it had taken me 3 months to teach him a bow!!!!

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