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Teach a dog to sit

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teach a dog to sit
Photo:  Teach your dog to Sit

Sit is one of the first commands that most people teach their dogs, not because it is the easiest, but having your dog sit gives you more control so you can keep it from getting into mischief or even into serious danger.

When you start to train a dog to sit, they are so excitable and generally are unable to sit for any period of time so it is crucial that when your dogs bottom hits the floor you immediately praise and reward.

Start off by standing or kneeling down in front of your dog and getting its attention. Hold a treat in the palm of your hand, close your hand and put your hand near to your dog's nose, so he catches the scent of the treat. Slowly move your hand over your dogs head towards its tail. Your dog should automatically raise its head and look up to follow the treat, which will help to guide his backend downwards. As your dogs backend is going down say your its name and sit, so that your dog associates the word sit with the action.

If you hold the treat too high your dog may be tempted to jump up for the treat, if this happens, move your hand away and start again. If your dog sits or at first closely resembles a sit, praise and give it the treat in your hand whilst the dog is sitting.

If your dog does not sit do not be tempted to push its behind down, they should learn to do it by themselves. It may not come first time, but remain calm and patient and keep trying.  Practise the sit command for very short periods of time, several times a day and your dog will soon learn it.

Once your dog sits when commanded, you can move onto making him sit before he gets his dinner, before putting the lead on and taking the lead off and before going out the door. The sit command helps a dog to focus, relaxes them and stops what they are doing. In the early stages make sure that you always reward and praise your dog when he sits on command.  

Once your dog knows the sit verbal command it is useful to tie in a hand signal. My dog can be outside or at a distance from me, when he is looking at me I can give him my hand signal for sit. My chosen hand signal is bending my right arm with my fist closed and moving it upwards and inwards towards my chest. I do this now automatically when I ask him to sit whether he is close to me or at a distance.

Video Link : How To Train A Puppy To Sit