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"What is the Sit Command?" (NEW! 1/14/04) Let me start this off by saying that all
dog know how to sit. The object of training is to get the dog to sit on your cue
and to get him to stay there until you release him. "How do I train my dog to Sit on command?" A dog’s body works a lot of like a teeter-totter. If his head is pointing up, his butt will usually go down to the ground. There are numerous methods available to teach your dog to sit, and depending on the dog’s temperament, we may experiment with a few different ways. When you come to a stop and want your dog to sit, grasp the dog’s collar with your right hand and lift up gently while sliding your left hand along the dog’s back toward his tail. Gently tuck his tail against the back of his legs and encourage him to sit. (An alternate method is to run your hand down his back and put gentle pressure on his rump as you tell him to sit.) He should sit at your side, facing forward, parallel to the direction that you are facing. For dogs that are resistant to sitting or are being rebellious, do the same upward motion with your right hand in the dog’s collar, and slide your left hand along his back, to the indentations that are just in front of his hips. Rest your thumb and index finger in the indentations on both sides of the dog’s body, with the palm of your hand resting just above his tail. Squeeze slightly while you gently press downward and ‘wiggling’ your hand back and forth a little bit. This side-to-side movement will usually cause the dog to sit, because it messes with his balance just a little bit and he wants to avoid the pressure he is feeling. It shifts the weight of his hind end back and forth from one hind foot to the other, and this, in addition to the gently pressure downward, will often get the dog to sit down. Do NOT just take your hand and press down hard on the dog's rump. This can damage the soft, growing bones in a puppy and cause problems with the hips later in life! As soon as the dog settles into a proper sit, release the tension on the collar or leash, and praise the dog by telling him, “Good sit!” Keep the praise gentle and scratch him under the chin or on his chest while you praise him. If you are overly enthusiastic with the praise he will likely get excited and pop right back up, out of the sit. The petting beneath the chin and on his chest will encourage him to hold his head up in the air, and will aid in keeping his butt on the ground. Just like the teeter-totter, one end is up, the other is down. For young puppies, very sensitive or timid dogs, I sometimes resort to using treats for a little while, but only for the first few training sessions. Then they are phased out so the dog doesn’t become so dependent on the treats that he refuses to work for you unless you have food in your hand. To get the dog to sit using treats, hold a “high value” treat right up next to the dog’s nose. Allow the dog to smell the treat hidden in your hand and make sure that your hand is kept very close to the dogs nose. Slowly move your hand up and over the dog’s head and backwards to a point just behind his head. The dog will tilt his head up and follow your hand with his nose to get at the treat. Make sure that you keep your hand very close to the dog’s nose. If you move to fast or pull your hand to far away, the dog will lose interest. It helps some people to think of your hand as a magnet and the dog’s nose is a metal ball. If you place a magnet close to the metal ball, you can roll the metal ball along a tabletop. If you move the magnet to fast or allow the magnet to lose contact with the metal, you’ll lose the magnetic attraction and the ball will roll away on it's own. Treats work the same way with dogs. If you move your hand to fast, or your dog thinks that it's to hard to try and get the treat from you, you’ll lose his interest. Keep the movements slow and steady, keep your hand right up against his nose where he can smell the treat, and he will be much more likely to follow your hand movement. The most important thing to remember with using treats is that the dog must NOT get the treat from your hand until he is in the sitting position. As soon as the dog is sitting, open your hand and allow the dog to take the treat. Praise him and scratch his chest as explained above. Once your dog understands the "sit"
command, work on the "stay" and "release"
commands too! "Hey! What’s that dog sitting on?" Something to keep in mind when you’re working on any training exercise is the environment that you are working in. Look around before you give your dog the sit command. Is he on a very slippery floor where his feet are going to slide out from under him, forcing him to stand up or lie down? Are you asking him to sit right on top of an ant hill, a twig lying on the ground, or rough gravel that will poke him? Is there a puddle, hot pavement, or anything that will force him to jump up because he feels discomfort? Stack the deck in your favor and make sure there’s nothing that will cause him to break your command and pop back up out of the “sit” or “stay” that you’ve placed him in. - Debbie Knatz
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PLEASE NOTE:
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