MAL EDUCATION by Ruth Kellogg

"SITTING PRETTY"

The Setting: 1995 AMCC National Specialty Show at Cloverdale, B.C.

The Scene: Veterans Bitch Class

The Actress: Ch. Inharmony's Gentle Athena CD

(age 9 years)

On the "down and back", Athena gaited smoothly, turned, and returned to the judge where, unbidden and certainly uncued, she executed a picture perfect "sit-pretty" in front of the judge. I'm told there were many misty eyes in the audience watching her. For me, this spontaneous act was more than just a "cute trick". This Gentle Little Lady, as some of the membership may know, was almost totally destroyed mentally, physically, and emotionally after a dognapping when she was two years old. A long rehabilitation followed resulting in Athena earning her championship with a Breed win (age 4 years) and her CD with increasing scores at each trial (age 6 years). This was her first appearance at a show since she'd earned her CD. Her sit-pretty symbolized the joy of life that Athena now has and to do it unbidden in a show setting was, in my mind, extremely significant. Yes, I do admit, my eyes were also very misty.

I teach "sit-pretty" to all of my dogs now. Not because of Athena's accomplishments, but because I have some logical reasons for teaching this trick. First and most important, the dogs enjoy the challenge of learning this trick and clearly show their delight to me when they can do it. It is an excellent way of helping the dog to learn more about his body, as to do a "perfect sit-pretty", the dog must be able to balance steadily. Because of this balancing, I feel the back and abdominal muscles are used thus creating good muscle strengthening exercise. And, being honest, teaching the sit-pretty and then cuing the dogs to perform for others is FUN! This trick, like many of the "fun-tricks", really appeals to the Malamutes' innate sense of fun and love of entertaining. I used to think this trick was "demeaning" to the dog, but after seeing the difficulty in the trick and the dog' absolute delight in accomplishing it, I now view it as a worthy challenge. I'm not alone in thinking this as the sit-pretty is taught in the second level of acting classes that I attended.

As I mentioned, all of my dogs have (and will) learn this trick. I delight in seeing the variations of how each dog has devised to hold her upper arms to aid in balancing. Some accomplished ladies can purposefully wave one foot at the same time! My boy, Riker, has the unique ability to "hop backwards" in a sitting position to regain his balance when his center of gravity moves too far back.

In teaching the sit-pretty, the basics of operant conditioning apply - teach in small steps and reward attempts that lead to the final behaviour that is being "shaped." Increase the level of difficulty or expectations (i.e. criteria) in very small stages and when a breakthrough occurs, give a jackpot (tons of praise and a huge goodie reward).

The dog must first have a clear understanding what "sit" means and must be able to sit on a quiet vocal command without any hand signals. As the verbal cue for this trick is "sit-pretty", the dog must LISTEN for the variation. A firm knowing of "sit" will deter any problems or confusion for the dog when "Pretty" is added to the "sit".

I shall outline various steps that I use in teaching this. Remember that each dog is an individual, some steps or cues may have to be modified to help the dog understand what is wanted. That is the job of the teacher - to assess the results of the lessons that are being taught and to modify the cues given to help the pupil understand.

1. Hold the collar (not a slip collar) with one hand. In the other hand, have a treat and move it above and to the rear of the dog's head. Give verbal command "sit-pretty" frequently at this stage. The hand on the collar is to steady the dog and, depending upon the dog, help keep in a sitting position.

2. As the dog looks up and stretches slightly for the treat - reward and praise.

3. Repeat steps 1 & 2 until the dog is lifting the front legs off the ground to get the treat - but remaining in a sitting position.

4. At this point, the hand on the collar can be changed to being a steadying influence for the dogs' paws. I've found dogs often paw "looking for help" in balancing. The free hand gives them that help as they learn how to balance (i.e. alter their center of gravity) and their muscles strengthen.

5. When the dog is executing a steady sit-pretty with the hands, change the criteria by not offering the steadying hand. Be aware that the dog will then "backslide" in its performance and not execute the trick as well as before. So you must reduce your expectations, as in fact, the difficulty has increased. (This is a "go back to kindergarten" phase.)

6. At this point, the dogs are in the transition of making the jump between strictly behaviour modification to understanding what you want to teach. It can be frustrating for both so keep your expectations LOW and reward the attempts toward what you want in the end. This is a classical learning plateau period where the dog is trying to figure out what the cues "sit-pretty" and hand signal means. I've found many dogs will try to stand (on two feet) from a sitting position. I use a negative sound ("ah") and not the verbal "no" to let them know that what they tried isn't what I wanted. Some dogs will reach for my hand holding the treat with their paws while still sitting (they get the treat.). When the dog grabs the treat hand with both paws, I look upon this as another small step towards the finished sit-pretty. When they grab the hand on a regular basis, then it is time to "shape" the sit pretty without the hand. I use a combination of negative sound and moving the hand out of the paws without giving the treat. When the dog then attempts a sit-pretty without touching my hand they receive a jackpot - no matter how sloppy the sit-pretty was. To help the dogs earn such a jackpot, I often hold my cue hand higher than they can reach.

7. Once the dog is performing the sit-pretty with the verbal command and "loud" hand signal of treat-in-hand-above-head, I then change the criteria again to just the vocal command. Some dogs may need a little hand motion to help them understand, others may not. A more difficult variation of this is to place the command in a sentence (eg. "It would be really nice if you did a sit-pretty for me"). This encourages the dog to listen for the familiar words and act upon them. When they do respond to the cue in a sentence, be certain that you give a huge jackpot. That'll increase their motivation to want to listen to you!

8. The next change in criteria is using just the hand signal without the voice command. First use the "loud" hand signal and then work to decrease it to become a more subtle hand signal.

9. The next step in criteria change is to increase the length of time that the sit-pretty is to be held. If this step isn't worked on, all you will end up with is a "flash-sit-pretty" and a dog expecting to get rewarded for rocking back, lifting the feet up, and then sitting back in a normal "sit" position.

10. The final step is getting the dog to execute the sit-pretty from a distance. This means that, once again, you return to kindergarten using the voice command and the treat-above-the-head routine. But this time, the treat is placed on a light stick, rod or similar object. Let the dog get the treat directly from the rod at first to help him understand that the sit-pretty is to be done a little farther away. Then use the same shaping procedures as used when the dog was directly in front by slowly increasing the expectations and decreasing the "loud" verbal and non-verbal cues. One of the goals in acting work is to have the dog work only with hand signals at a distance from the handler.

With "cookie time" at my house, my Malamutes know that I'll ask them to do any of their "tricks" or learned behaviours. It could be as simple as lying down (first skill learned), s