Sit is a basic cue that can be used in a million different situations. If your dog is excited and looks like he’s getting ready to jump up to greet someone, you can ask him to sit instead. It’s nice and polite for your puppy to sit and wait at the curb when you’re waiting to cross the street. What if, instead of rushing out the door when you were getting ready to go for a walk, your dog would sit politely and wait until you are ready to walk out the door? Sitting and waiting for the dog bowl to be put on the floor is nice; sitting in the elevator when there are other people present is polite.
Training Instructions:
Dogs generally sit a lot, and puppies especially tend to automatically drop their bottoms to the floor because it makes it easier for them to look up at us. It’s pretty easy to lure a puppy into a sit with a dog treat, but first, see if your dog will offer a sit to you; that way you’re able to reward an action your dog took by himself as opposed to having to lure him and then fade the lure later.
Stand in front of your puppy and see if he’ll sit (folding your hands on your chest sometimes helps). If he does, immediately YES! it, praise him, and give him a yummy treat. Take a few steps back and see if he’ll offer it again. If he does it four or five times in a row, add the word SIT right as he’s sitting down and when he does that reliably, move the word up in front to elicit the sit. Remember, we want him to understand the mechanics of the action before we add the actual verbal cue.
If your puppy doesn’t readily sit, you can try luring him with a treat. Start with him in a standing position and hold a treat right in front of his nose, then lift the treat right back over his head, between his ears. If he wants the treat, he’ll have to follow it with his nose and that will generally make him drop his bottom to the ground. YES! it the moment it does and give him a yummy treat. Again, when he does it reliably five times in a row, add the word SIT as he’s doing it and then move the word up in front of the luring movement (see if you can get him to do it without a treat in your hand, but remember to still give him a treat from the other hand if he does sit). You’ll see that fairly quickly he’ll learn to sit at the verbal cue and you can fade the luring movement into a hand signal for SIT by making the movement increasingly "lazier" as you’re practicing it.
If your dog keeps jumping up to grab the treat, simply pull the treat and your hand back and wait for him to sit politely. Be patient, he will get it.
