How to Teach Your Dog to Sit

 

   

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     When they’re pups, dogs are a lot more willing and able to learn new things; that’s why it’s necessary to teach them useful tricks early on. One of the most useful commands you can teach a puppy is to sit when you tell them to. ‘Sit’ is an important command to teach because it allows you to control and discipline a dog, especially in public or around other animals and people.

    When training your pup, you must use positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement is the act of rewarding a dog (or human!) for their good behavior. The aim is to train the behavior through something your dog appreciates, so they’ll be encouraged to repeat said behavior for a reward.

The Training Process

     The most common method for teaching sit is to use a handful of tasty treats as bait and incentive. A clicker may also be used to time when your dog sits. To ensure success, train your dog while it is comfortable and in an area free of distractions. Just Follow These Simple Steps:

1. Hold a treat to your dog’s nose while they are standing and let them smell it.

2. Slowly raise the treat over their heads and to the back of their neck. Your dog’s back end should descend to the ground as they elevate their head to pursue the reward with their nose.

3. As soon as your dog is seated, click your clicker and praise them, then reward them with a treat.

4. To encourage your dog to stand up again, move away, call them over, or throw another reward a few feet away. Then repeat steps 1–3 once more.

5. It’s time to fade the lure after your dog can dependably follow the treat into a sitting position. Now draw the dog in with an empty hand and praise the sit with a goodie from your other hand. Your hand signal will be the movement of your empty hand.

6. You can add your vocal cue “Sit” just before you offer the hand signal after the dog dependably sits for your empty hand. Your dog should eventually be able to respond only to the spoken cue.

 

Here are some treats to try.

Things to Remember

      It’s never a good idea to push your dog’s hind end down since it might be frightening and confused. Also, give the treat to your dog while it is sitting to reinforce the position. You may encourage your dog to spring out of its sit soon after its rear hits the ground if you wait until they are standing again, or even if you unintentionally draw them back to a stand while searching for a treat.

     You can even train your dog to sit passively; this means pressing the clicker every time your dog sits without being told and rewarding it with a treat; this will teach your dog to sit to earn a treat.

 

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Hopefully, this article taught you a few things about training your dog to sit. Here’s a video that might help too: