Hi Karen & Penny,
I don't know Nick Gregory, but I do know of Hamptworth Estate as I was down there a few weeks ago doing a KC Seminar with the HPRFTA. Whilst I am always available to help with training, I have become slightly sceptical at those wishing to train. In the past there were always voices complaining at the `lack of training'. After several years of listening to this, through the Club and on several blogs etc. I made arrangements using the Swifthouse training ground in Oxford to put on some training sessions, whilst a few took up the opportunity, these were the minority of those that did the complaining, and I was not surprised at the variety of excuses that were forthcoming as to why these people could not make it! I concluded that talking about training from the comfort of your own keyboard is alot different than getting arses into cars and actually make the effort to do it!
Presently I am `buddying' a couple of hprs and their owners, a Britany and a Weim, it does mean I get to see their dogs on their own ground, so I get to see the real problems with all the trimmings, and not just what the owners `think' are the problems. I must say I like this rather than formal group training sessions as its tailor made to the handler and the dog, and they can learn to communicate better with their dog ( handler) as I'm there to `translate', and often this is at the root of most problems. The disadvantage is of course its not cheaper than sharing the cost as a group, but then you may have to have several group sessions before you get to `your' problem! Anyway if a group of you want to get together and do the organising I'm happy to share my know how.
Penny, It sounds like the dog has only a fragile grasp of the sit and you've moved a little too fast before the dog has confidence in the signal. Its all about perception, to you sit means sit, but to the dog it hears the sound and associates it with sit by you, as in teaching the sit you were probably always next to it. Thinking about it, when my puppies are being taught the sit I'm nearly always facing them, which is why this is an easier transition to `distant sits', but I digress!
Rather than trying to achieve distant sits I would concentrate on teaching the dog sit/stay. The dog can gain confidence in the sit by heel ( which is her translation of your sit command) and you can expand it by moving away from the dog whilst its sat. This is also good at getting the raised hand signal for sit into the dogs mind eye, as it can be used to `hold' the dog on the sit as you move away, ( or if the dog breaks the sit, keeping it raised as you move back towards the dog to replace it in the sit, will associate the hand signal to the act of sitting).
There is a lot said in dog training circles about training the dog in ever more demanding environments to further the dogs learning. This is indeed true, but many forget that the dogs perception of your position when giving instructions may also change their understanding of those instructions. The sit/stay is often over looked in this respect as by moving around the dog and at different distances you can both broaden and strengthen various signals to a learned instruction and in so doing build up a young dogs confidence.
You will find that a re occurring theme in my methods of training involve in always looking for positives that can be achieved out of negatives, and also planting seeds in training for something in the future whilst training something in the present.
Remember when teaching a new signal for an action always put the new signal in front of the established signal. i.e. establish the voice `sit'
show the hand signal then say sit
blow the whistle ( hand signal) then say sit
In advance training game flushing becomes the sit signal, which is why the stop whistle needs to be good so that this can be achieved.
Peter