Dog Training Command "Sit"

Let me first start off by saying congratulations on your decision to train your puppy. The number one dog training command that will be the building blocks for all many other commands is “sit." Teaching your dog to sit is very easy and you will be amazed at how fast your little pup will learn to do it. Remember it will take practice to teach your puppy to sit on command, but hopefully this lesson will give you the skills that you need to do it. Well, let’s get started.

First, with any dog training command it’s important to remember that puppies have very short attention spans. You should keep training down to 15 minutes a day. I personally like to break my training sessions and keep them to 3 times a day and only train my little guys for 5 minutes at a time. This approach seems to work well and the puppies will not get frustrated or distracted as much as one long 15 minute session.

The correct setting is very important when teaching any dog training command.  Start your training in your home or any area where the puppy is very familiar with its surroundings and people, this way it won’t be distracted by new things or other people. After a few training sessions you will want to move your training outside because you want the puppy to listen to the command given in different situations. Understandability, this will be more challenging at first but don’t worry, your puppy will learn the rules if you stick with the training.

Okay, let’s get started with the training. I like to use a leash and a steal choke collar for training, but some people think that it’s mean to use a choke collar and if you don’t feel comfortable with it then you can use a different type of collar. You should understand that a choke collar is not used to actually choke the puppy...you would never want to hurt your dog. The idea behind the choke collar is to give a quick tug and then release. What happens is the choke collar tightens up and makes a noise, the puppy will hear this and stop what’s its doing and pay more attention to you.

For the first few training session we will uses treats as a way to reward your puppy for doing a good job. Eventually you should move away from using treats every time to reward your pup. Sometimes break up the rewards by giving lots of praise and affection instead of a treat.

Training steps

The first few days (day 1-3)

Have your puppy standing in front of you on the leash, keep the leash upright and tight, but don’t choke your puppy. In the other hand have a treat. Say the puppies name to get its attention, when the puppy looks at you say sit and show it the treat. Move your hand with the treat above its nose and toward the puppies back. Since the puppy can not move (the leash is tight), the puppy will lookup at the treat and then sit down. Once the pup does this, give them the treat and say good. Give some praise and affection too! Repeat these steps for no more than 5 minutes. Then repeat it 2 more times for a total of 15 minutes for the day. You don’t have to give a treat every time the puppy sits on command, but make sure you say good and praise the puppy accordingly.

The Next few days (day 4-6)

Now that your puppy knows the dog training command sit its time to start move on to the next days training lesson. We will still work with the puppy on the leash but will not keep it so tight and will not use a treat moving over the puppies head in order to get the puppy to sit.

While standing in front of the puppy call the pup by its name to get its attention. Once the pup looks at you say sit. If the puppy does not sit, you will give 3 quick pulls on the leash during each pull you want to say the word no. It would actually sound more like NOOOOOOO. Next you will say the word sit again. If the puppy does not sit repeat by giving 3 quick pulls on the leash and say the word NOOOOOO for each pull for a total of 3 times. Again, get the pup’s attention and say sit if the pup does not sit this time, you will push the pups hindquarters (just above the tail) down. At this point give the pup some praise and affection by saying good. Repeat this process for your allotted training session.

At this point, you should be seeing some good results with the dog training command sit. As you can see, the sit command is one of the easiest to learn but it’s also one of core obedience skills needed. Remember, when issuing any dog training command, keep calm and have a steady voice yelling does not help. Also, when you train your pup it’s a great bonding experience for both of you. Have fun and don’t over do it in one session.