How to Teach Your Dog to Sit

Krista — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:16:42 +0000

Why should we teach our dogs to sit?

Well, I can think of a whole bunch of reasons…

First of all, it prevents problems. If Aunt Mildred walks in the door, you can tell your dog to sit and prevent him from jumping on visitors.

If you’re carrying groceries in from the car, you can say “sit” and the dog doesn’t jump up, and the grocers stay in your hands, instead of all over the floor.

What else is good about teaching sit? Well, we want our dogs to sit calmly at the veterinarian, for example. If the doctor needs to look at the dog’s teeth, we can tell our dog to “sit” calmly — rather than having a big St. Bernard leaning over and making things difficult. It stops that happy Aussie from chasing the cat.

And if the door is open, you can say “sit” and the dog won’t run through the open door. Or, if you have kids and they’re running around, you can tell your dog to sit and not get involved. The kids can still run, but the dog stays seated.

So you see, we can use it all the time. The other reason why I like teaching sit is that it gives a way to calm your dog.

This is important! If the dog is bouncing all over and getting over-excited, you can just say “sit” and immediately change his state of mind. It’s the perfect skill to learn!

Teach Your Dog to Sit By Giving Your Dog a Job

Dogs need jobs. This is just something that’s hardwired into their brains from the day they’re born.

By teaching your dog to sit, what are you doing? You’re giving her something she can do that will focus her attention.

One of the easiest ways to actually teach the “sit” skill is to start out by using a food lure. By the way, when you watch this being demonstrated with video, it’s SO SIMPLE to learn this.

In a second, I’m going to tell you where you can find videos that show how this is done step by step. So just hang in there for one second, and I promise we’ll cover that.

Now, here’s a really easy way to sit by using food.

Step 1: Take a small treat and hold it just above your dog’s nose — just slightly above her head.

Step 2: As the dog looks up to the food, she should sit automatically as she tracks it with her head.

Step 3: Now, repeat the exercise. You don’t want to be saying anything at this point. You simply want to get the dog into the physical process of sitting.

Step 4: Now you can try and associate a word with the behavior. Repeat the food lure exercise, but now as your dog sits, say the word “Sit.” You’ll want to repeat this step several times.

Step 5: Now, this is important. Don’t stand there and repeat this exercise for two hours, or even for 30 minutes. Do it a few times and then remove the food from the equation. Walk your dog around for a few seconds, stop, and say “Sit.”

Did she sit?

If she did, great! She’s getting it! Keep practicing until it works every time.

If she didn’t sit, that’s okay. She just needs more time to learn the word. So, once again, keep practicing.

Remember, if your dog doesn’t sit when you ask him to, it’s simply because he just doesn’t know how…yet. You haven’t spent enough time teaching them.

So take a few minutes every day to teach your dog, and eventually it will become second nature.

Now, let’s talk about those videos I mentioned earlier. This technique is so much easier to learn when you can watch it being done, rather than just reading about it. So…

I want to go and check out this teach your dog to sit lesson on my blog. You’ll get the step by step videos that will show you exactly how to teach this basic skill. And the great part is, it only takes a few minutes!

Hope this helps. And let me know how you do!