How to Teach Your Dog to Sit

Teaching your dog to sit is a very simple process that is a whole lot easier than you may think. In fact training your dog to sit is probably one of the easiest commands that you can teach your pet. By following these simple steps you will be able to teach your dog to sit in no time at all!

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Tennis ball or toy
• Personal Time
• Patience

1. Get your dog’s attention. Make sure you have some time to spend to teach your dog to sit. Using a room with plenty of free space, coax your dog into the room by luring them with their favorite toy; usually a tennis ball will do the trick nicely.

2. Use the toy to train them. Waving the toy in the air so have your dog’s undivided attention, you can now begin to teach your dog to sit. The dog will naturally follow the toy as you wave it back and forth through the air.

3. Teach the dog what the commands means. Firmly tell your dog, “Sit!” Give them an idea of what this means by forcing them in the sitting position. Now your dog has an association with the command and what it means.

4. Let them get back up. Now distract the animal again by waiving the toy around so they get back up. Here is the trick to get them to sit down again. Using the toy, start by holding it at their eye level but do not let them grab it. Firmly tell them to sit again and keep raising the toy up so their eyes will follow. Eventually they will raise their head up so high that they naturally will sit down.

5. Reinforce the command. It may take several tries to teach your dog to sit. Try forcing them back into the sitting position and keep repeating this process as necessary. Every time they do heed your command give them plenty of praise and attention.

Tips & Warnings

• Patience is the key. It may take a few training sessions before your animal will grasp the idea of sitting. Reinforcement of the command, and praise and affection are what will eventually allow it to take effect in their mind.
• Remember animals learn through repetition.
• If you lose patience take a break. Screaming and yelling at your pet will not cause them to learn the command any faster. Rather it may make them scared of learning the command because they are fearful of you when you are angry with them.

[dcm9698]

on 2/9/2009 wonderfull article!