Training 101: Sit

commands, sit - By Staff Writer on Tuesday, November 16, 2010 - 14:03

This is often the second thing your dog learns after learning to come.  "Sit" is easy to teach your dog and you can use a variety of techniques.  Below we show you how to teach your dog to sit by using the luring method as it is often the fastest and easiest way to teach your dog.   We recommend you read MetroSniff's 5 Cs of Training before getting started.

Training Setting
Pick a quiet area where there is little distraction and your dog can focus on you and the training.  Start by training inside where there are no other people or animals.  Later as your dog learns the lesson you can move to more challenging locations.

Supplies
Have some awesome treats on hand.  We like cooked chicken or liver as it is cheap, smells tasty and can be broken into little bits.

Step 1
With your dog standing next to or in front of you, take a small piece of treat in one of your hands.  Start by holding the treat in front of your dogs nose so that your pup can smell they yummy treat.

Step 2
slowly raise the treat up and over your dogs head towards your dogs ears.  As you do this say "sit."   Your dog will instinctively try to follow the treat and lift his head up and back.  In order to maintain balance your dog will have to sit.

Step 3
The moment your dog sits praise him wildly and give him the treat.   You should continue to practice until your dog understands and can sit without you luring him back.  From there you can move into more challenging settings and add in a hand command so that your dog will be able to sit at a distance.

"Sit" is a fundamental command that every dog should know.  It can be used in many settings and often moves into the life rewards category as you can use it before putting on your dogs leash, feeding your dog or giving your dog some other awesome lire reward.   The "sit" command can be used to focus your dogs attention as they will often look to you for further directions once sitting.  Make sure you practice often and integrate it into your daily life for a very well behaved pup.