Because a lot of dogs are excessively stubborn by nature, there is something that you should do before you can even attempt to teach your dog to sit. Before you go any further, if your dog is not already responding to your voice, you can go to my dog behavior training blog. blog to learn how you can teach your dog to respond to your voice.
When you are totally positive that your dog will answer to your voice, you can try to teach him/her to sit. Like most dog behavior training methods, when showing your dog how to sit, you really should have some treats readily available. Remember... treats should only be given for a reward, so just give your dog a treat when he/she does something that you are teaching them. Quite a few people give their puppies treats all through the day, which will cause them to think that they don't need to do anything to get that reward!
Now, you and your dog should go to a quiet area. It is important that you take your dog into a area with some privacy. Dogs (especially little dogs) have very small attention spans, and the smallest distraction will cause them to lose focus on the ultimate goal- learning how to sit.
Since you and your dog are in a quiet room, stand in front of your dog. In a calm voice, say
After saying the command "sit" a few times and pushing his/her rear end to the floor and rewarding it, it will realize what is going on! It will understand that when his/her rear end touches the floor, it will get a reward! It will start to associate putting it rear on the floor with getting a reward, and sit down without being shoved!
Congratulations! You have just taken the first step in dog obedience training. If you can train your dog to sit, you can basically train it anything that you wish! Dogs are a lot more intelligent than most people think, so dont just stop your teaching after you have showed your puppy to sit! Move on to more advanced tricks, and soon, your dog will be one of the most well behaved dogs in your neighborhood!
Jason Stepp operates a dog behavior training blog. If you want to teach your dog how to do other things besides how to sit, click here to go to his blog now.
