Teach A Dog To Sit

Teach a Dog To Sit

When you teach a dog to sit, you are giving him access to a skill that will make him much more pleasant to be around and take around. When your dog plants his backside on the ground and can reliably keep it there, his feet can’t go very far. This instantly gives you a degree of control that makes dog handling much safer.

Let’s not forget mind you, that you’re not actually teaching your dog how to sit. He already knows how to do that, and has done since not long after he was born. What you are aiming to do is to get him to sit when you want him to.

When you teach a dog to sit, you can use either a verbal cue, as in the word ‘sit’, or a visual cue - this often takes the form of raising a hand in front of the dogs face. Of course, there is no reason why you can’t teach a dog to sit in response to both cues.

Teach a Dog To Sit - Step 1

It’s useful if your dog is on the hungry side before a training session- it makes it much easier to keep his attention focused on the food based treat you’re going to have close to hand. All sorts of bites size treats are available for this purpose. Some people use chunks of cheese or hotdog, or you can get ‘proper’ dog treat for training with. Try to avoid solid lumps of crunchy dog biscuit as they tend to take too long for the dog to crunch down and swallow and you risk losing his attention.

Whatever you use, keep an eye on the calories going in. If your dog is inclined to put on weight, reduce his meal size to allow for the volume of treats being used during the training session.

Teach a Dog To Sit - Step 2

Make sure that you’re in a quiet environment where you won’t be disturbed and your dog won’t be distracted. Get your dog’s attention by using a clear but normal vice and encourage him over to you.

Teach a Dog To Sit - Step 3

Hold a small piece of treat in your hand, firmly enough that he or she can’t get it from you, but so there is no mistaking that you have something good.

Hold it just above her nose. Not too high or else she will feel inclined to jump up for it.

Teach a Dog To Sit - Step 4

Slowly take your hand, with the treat still in it, up and over your dogs head toward the base of her tail. Allow her eyes and then head to follow your hand. As your hand move backwards over her head, in order for her gaze to follow the goodies in your hand, she will have little choice but to lower the back end to allow the head to go up.

You may find that your dog just walks backwards in order to follow your hand. If this is the case, try starting the exercise just in front of a wall or in a corner to keep things straight.

Just before your dogs bottom hits the floor, give a clear vocal cue of ‘Sit’. As soon as the bottom does hit the floor, give the treat. Most dogs get this very quickly. If your dog doesn’t quite get it, but is clearly trying to do the right thing, reward the try. Next time, just hang on that fraction of a second more till you get a bit more try.

In order to teach a dog to sit reliably each time use the treats consistently to begin with. Once the cue is acted on without fail each time, you can ask your dog to work a little harder for the treat. A good way to go through this weaning off stage, is to introduce a new instruction such as ‘down’ perhaps; where you would ask the dog to sit, but hold off on the treat, and then when the ‘down’ part has been carried out, then he gets the treat.

Don’t forget to practice the sit at any opportunity, not just during a training session. There will be times when you just don’t have the treat to hand. The reward for following the cue can come in the form of verbal praise, or an affectionate stroke on the side of the head perhaps.

When you teach a dog to sit, you are opening up the gateway to many other obedience cues that will prove very beneficial to you and your dog. For example, ‘Sit-Stay’, ‘down’, ‘down-stay’, ‘come’ and heel will all follow on from being able to have your sit on command.

Remember to keep training sessions short and focused. Never even attempt one if you are in a bad mood or pushed for time. If your dog doesn’t seem to get it, it’s not down to him. He is only trying to figure out what you are telling him. Ask yourself if you are sending confusing messages. Sometimes your dog will have bad days too. Don’t forget that training your dog is not a race, just try again the next day with a fresh approach. It’ll be fine.

If you’d like to have a look at a load more information on dog training, behaviour and health issues feel free to have a look at Secrets to Dog Training and read a review of it here. You can get a free report exposing some of the current dog training myths from here. You can also get a free 6 day mini course on dog training delivered straight to your inbox from here. Enjoy!