All about teaching a puppy to sit....
Teaching a puppy to sit is the very first lesson that you'll want to teach your dog. This initial lesson is one of the five basic commands that your puppy must learn if you want her to become a well-adjusted, well-behaved adult.
The five basic lessons of obedience are:
- Teaching a puppy to come: Important for recalling your dog under all types of conditions.
- Teaching a puppy to stay: When you want your dog to stay in a in a certain place, and not get up until you verbally release her using the command "Okay".
- Teaching a puppy to lie down: When you want your dog to lie down in a certain place, and not get up until you say "Okay".
- Allied to the "lie down" lesson is the "go lie down command. This directs your dog to a specific place, usually her bed. This command is used when your dog is being a pest, or you just want her out of the way when you've got things to do.
- Teaching a puppy to heel: This teaches your puppy not to pull on the lead, so that walking with your dog is a pleasure, not a pain.
- The "Sit" lesson. The sit command, once learnt, puts you in control of your dog for the first time. It teaches basic obedience. Once your dog responds readily to this command, all of the other lessons will fall in to place.
Teaching a puppy to sit--Here's how...
Sitting and staying means that, in its exuberance, your dog will not jump up at visitors, or knock the food bowl out of your hand at dinnertime. Here's the run through:
- Place a collar and leash on your puppy. Stand in font of him, and hold a treat in one hand, slightly above his eye line.
- Move the treat hand up above his eye line and head. Looking up to keep his eyes on the treat should cause your pup to sit. As he bends his front legs to sit give the command "Sit".
- As soon as he sits, reward him with the treat and praise him.
- If your pet doesn't sit, hold on to the collar with one hand, tuck the other hand beneath his hindquarters, thereby easing him in to a sitting position, whilst giving the "Sit" command.
- Reward and then praise your puppy.
- Repeat this lesson a couple of times a day. Move from the front to either side. Remove the collar and lead and repeat the exercise. Gradually move a few feet away, and wait 3 seconds before releasing the treat. Increase the time interval to 5 seconds.
As with all future puppy training lessons, at first always reward him with a treat, then gradually every other time, and finally only reward him on a random basis. Your dog has understood that a certain type of behaviour is rewarded with a treat, which encourages, and reinforces the required behaviour.
Random rewards work because you've primed your dog to expect a reward for certain behaviour. Even though he isn't rewarded each time, he still expects to be, and that is what makes it the powerful dog training technique that it is.
Teaching a puppy to sit is just one segment of our puppy-training guide.....
So why not find out All About Teaching a Puppy to Stay.
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