How To Teach Your Dog To Sit

This cue = manners❗

Training your dog to sit is probably one of the first cues you’ll teach your pup, so it’s important to get it just right.

The Dodo spoke with Shelby Semel, head trainer at Animal Haven rescue in New York City, to find out the best way to teach your dog to sit.

Why teaching your dog to sit is important

While training a dog to sit tends to be one of the first cues most dog owners teach their pups, have you ever wondered why?

Sit is a wonderful starter cue to help teach your dog manners — having her sit whenever she meets new people ensures she doesn’t behave inappropriately, like jump on them out of excitement.

Training your dog to sit also helps develop her impulse control, which can improve her confidence, help make her more calm and allow you to gain trust in your bond.

What you’ll need to train your dog to sit

Before starting to teach your dog to sit, you’ll need some things to be successful:

A clicker

Clicker training ​​allows you to precisely mark the exact behavior you’re trying to get your dog to do. When teaching your dog any basic cue, it’s always a good idea to have one.

Try these clickers from Amazon for $6.99

High-value treats

You’ll need some of your pup’s favorite treats to help enforce the cue.

Like these Crazy Dog Train-Me! dog treats from Amazon for $3.99

Steps to train your dog to sit

Here’s how to teach your dog to sit, according to Semel:

  1. With a piece of food cupped in your hand, put your hand directly in front of your dog's eyes.
  2. Slowly move your hand towards your dog’s forehead and then above her head.
  3. You want your dog to look at and follow the food in your hand with her eyes without moving her feet. When her head goes back, her butt should go down.
  4. Say the word “yes” (or click) when her butt hits the ground and she has done a sit!
  5. Once your dog knows how to sit every time you use this “lure” technique, use the same motion to get her to sit but without the food in your hand (you can hide it in your other hand for now). If she sits, say “yes” and give her a treat from the other hand.

“This teaches your dog to give you behaviors (sit, in this case) without you having to bribe her with food,” Semel told The Dodo. “It also teaches her to tolerate a short period of waiting for the reward.”

Troubleshooting the sit cue

If the sit cue isn’t working for your pup, Semel suggests a few things you can do to troubleshoot the most common problems:

The lure just isn’t working

If you’re noticing that the lure doesn't work for your pup and she’s not sitting, Semel suggests trying different angles. “Some dogs do better with it very close to their face, others from a larger distance away,” Semel said. “[You can] play with the distance as well as the angle.”

Your dog jumps for the treat

If your dog’s jumping up for your hand, wait it out. “Don't keep moving your hand,” Semel said. “Sometimes they default into the sit position after 30 seconds of jumping. Then you can mark with ‘yes’ and reward.”

Your dog just doesn’t seem interested OR she’s too excited

If you’ve noticed that your pup just isn’t into learning to sit at all, you might need to use a better treat to get her interested.

On the other hand, if you’ve noticed your pup goes nuts and is just too excited to get a treat, you might want to downgrade a bit (so exchange that delicious piece of cheese for a piece of her kibble).

“On some occasions, a dog may be timid or hand-shy and is not comfortable with a hand so close to them or over their head,” Semel said. “In that case, capturing is a better option.”

How to capture the sit cue

1. Wait for her to perform a sit. When she sits on her own, mark with a verbal “yes” cue (or click) and treat.

2. As she picks up on this, she will start to repeat the action more and sit on her own.

3. You can then add a hand gesture to signal the cue if you'd like by pairing it with the sitting action before the reward. Eventually, she’ll understand that the hand cue means she should sit.

Additional tips for training your dog:

Here are some additional tips to make every training session a good one:

  • Exercise your pup before training to ensure he’s calm (She learns better this way!).
  • Always keep training light and fun (no stress = better results).
  • Keep training sessions short (two to five minutes is ideal).
  • Always have some treats with you (just in case She does something good).
  • Vary how many treats you give (to keep hER guessing).
  • Teach the handle signals before the verbal cue (dogs learn best through body language).
  • Say the verbal cue one time only (so that She knows it’s important).
  • Practice in different environments (so your dog can learn how to do the trick anywhere).
  • Eventually wean your dog off of treats (and She’ll eventually respond to the cue without them).

While teaching your dog cues can be a fun bonding experience, just remember to be patient — and give your pup plenty of breaks if you start to notice her getting restless.

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