# Show Puppy



## Dolly's Mom (Feb 14, 2014)

So I've had Georgette for 10 days now, she's a 14 month old, the breeder wants to show her and hopefully breed her. My question is I know sit is bad but has anyone experience teaching sit and not having it mess them up in the ring? Can I teach her sit and Stack to avoid this? 
Let me know your opinions
Thanks!


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## CharismaticMillie (Jun 16, 2010)

Dolly's Mom said:


> So I've had Georgette for 10 days now, she's a 14 month old, the breeder wants to show her and hopefully breed her. My question is I know sit is bad but has anyone experience teaching sit and not having it mess them up in the ring? Can I teach her sit and Stack to avoid this?
> Let me know your opinions
> Thanks!


Yes! My 9 month old show puppies know sit and I've never once seen them sit in the ring! My handler strongly encourages obedience training and stresses to not worry about sitting.


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## spindledreams (Aug 7, 2012)

Many dogs compete in Rally or Obedience AND Conformation often on the same day sometimes in the same hour. You use different collars as cues and different verbal commands. My girl heels in Obedience and "with me" for breed ring or when working. Heels means sit, "with me" means stand when I stop and if she starts to sit a quick verbal stand or stand pretty gets her back in the position I want her in. 

The UKC total dog award actually requires your dog to win a best male/female or higher over competition AND get a qualifying score in a performance event at the same show  this by the way is our goal for the Gateway show in St Louis in October.


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## Dolly's Mom (Feb 14, 2014)

spindledreams said:


> Many dogs compete in Rally or Obedience AND Conformation often on the same day sometimes in the same hour. You use different collars as cues and different verbal commands. My girl heels in Obedience and "with me" for breed ring or when working. Heels means sit, "with me" means stand when I stop and if she starts to sit a quick verbal stand or stand pretty gets her back in the position I want her in.
> 
> The UKC total dog award actually requires your dog to win a best male/female or higher over competition AND get a qualifying score in a performance event at the same show  this by the way is our goal for the Gateway show in St Louis in October.




Good Luck! That sounds fun!! 
I maybe should have prefaced this by saying she'll be show CKC.
I'm a trainer so it's absolutely against my nature to have a dog not sit! Glad to hear it won't ruin her.


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## ArreauStandardPoodle (Sep 1, 2009)

Just don't reward with food. Quincy learned to sit and down with cheese and his handler would do the down and back and pull bait out of her arm band and he'd sit as soon as he saw it. I thought it was funny. His handler...not so much!


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## CharismaticMillie (Jun 16, 2010)

I use food to train in obedience - including sit. I'm training to ultimately show in obedience so obviously I use lots of treats to help build that drive. What my handler stressed to me is that she can easily teach an obedience trained dog not to sit in the ring. And obedience trained dogs are often the quickest studies! It's possible they might goof up and sit in the ring once or twice, but poodles are very smart and can easily learn the difference. As a trainer, Dolly's mom, I'm sure you know that you obviously don't want to reward sit so much more than other behaviors that it becomes a default behavior, though.


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## Dolly's Mom (Feb 14, 2014)

Exactly. I made that mistake with my last one, it's for sure her default. I don't think I'll teach sit as much as show her when it's a good idea. Today she sat while we waited for a friend and she sat for like 2 minutes...with a squirrel running around!!


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