Stacking - Page 1

For those of you who show, do you have any good tips on 'walking' your dog into a stack without actually touching it? (I know how to stack the other way, by moving the paws from the top of the leg, and shifting the dog's balance, etc.)

Thanks for your help!

I think it's much harder to "walk" a GSD into a stack than with other breeds where both stifles are verticle.

I was told by a good friend who also shows her dogs, the way of walking your dog into a stack.  I haven't worked with Chaos on it at all though.  From what I remember, she told me to stand directly in front of him, take 2 steps back as I am telling him to STAND.  As he takes his step or two, if he is where you want him, tell him again, STAND.  From what she said, it takes a while for your dog to actually GET it, what you want it to do.  She said you will have to do it over and over in several sessions.  When he/she is where you want them each time, then practice it often.  When doing this, have a collar on them and use the collar to pull them forward into their stand, too.  She did say that they will want to sit at first, but tell them NO and then STAND so that they know what you want.  Don't know if that will help at all, but it's worth a try.

clicker training a stack is extremely effective, though somewhat time consuming.  If you understand clicker training then I will only go into the final steps.... self stacking is a chained behavior, meaning it not only implies, stand, but... stand this way and stand this way until you are released.  I wont go into long drawn out details because I'm pretty sure most people on this board kind of poo poo clicker training but if you'd like more info, e-mail me and I will be very specific. I clicker trained all my dogs to self stack and my 3 border collies all finished their AKC championships within 5 months (another thing most people here could care less about, but it makes the point that the training is viable).  Good luck :)

Lisa