Sit is one of the basic manners behaviors we help you teach your dog. Along with being a great trick to show people, as you progress through the levels in class sit becomes part of other behaviors such as to heel position, default behaviors, and could also be a start button – more on some of those topics to come, but right now let’s focus on teaching sit.
How to Teach:
- Put a treat in your hand and place it on your dog’s nose, lift your hand with the treat up and slightly over your dog’s head. As they follow your hand lure their bum should hit the floor. As soon as their butt hits the floor, mark (click), and give them a treat.
- When your dog is readily following the lure with a treat in your hand, try using the same upward hand motion, but with an empty hand. Again mark (click) when their bum hits the floor and give them a treat.
- Once your dog is consistently sitting with your empty hand lure you can start to fade that into our hand signal.
- When your dog is consistently sitting when you give the hand signal, you can add in the word! Say your verbal cue first, pause, give the hand signal, mark (click) and treat when their bum hits the floor.
- Once your dog is responding to the verbal cue, you can stop including the hand signal after the pause.