Purpose – This exercise is to make sure they have great sitting posture. Especially important for longer backed dogs. It also works on the flexibility of the knee and hock in full flexion. We are working on all of their postural muscles just as you would as a human to sit up straight. 

Criteria – Tight square sit. Toes in alignment with knees. Nice straight line through the back and neck. 

Placement of reward – Hold reward up high and reward them on a very slight diagonal to get that back alignment. 

Training tips – Use a sit platform that has a non slip surface. Platform should be slightly wider than their hips and for medium dogs the length of 50 cms works well. Platform needs to have some height off the ground so the dogs can feel if a foot pops off. If you have a longer backed dog place some small rubber pieces under their front feet. For Keen I am using 3 as he has a really long back. 

Increasing difficulty – Duration is how we increase difficulty on this one. Start out with only short holds of up to 30 secs but can build up to 3-5 mins.