How to teach your dog to sit

After your happy gotcha day, the next thing on your to-do list is dog training. Then, you may be wondering about how to train a dog to sit. Teaching a dog to sit may be one of the first easy commands that you could start with.

There are several ways to teach a dog to sit, but we will introduce an easy one. So let’s get it started!

1) When to start teaching your dog to sit?

If you are a puppy owner, you may be wondering when to start training. First, make sure your bub is big enough for training, and keep it nice and short.

• • Start training when your puppy is around 8 weeks old
  • Keep the session for 5 -10 minutes

2) Show treats

Show the treat and keep it close to your dog’s nose while the dog is standing.

3) Arc over

Move your hand / treat over the doggo’s head. As your dog follows the treat, the dog will eventually touch their bottom on the floor.

4) Positive reinforcement

As soon as your dog sits, give these rewards!

• • Verbally praise the dog (e.g.“Good boy!”)
  • Special treats
  • Give the treats immediately, not later

5) Say ‘sit’

Once your dog learns they get a treat when they sit, they will start sitting longer. That is when you can start saying ‘sit” for dogs to learn the command.

6) Hand gesture

Start using the hand gesture together with the voice command once your dog understands the ‘sit’ command.

7) Repeat

• • Keep doing the training regularly and be consistent!
  • Never give treats when they do wrong behaviours to prevent misbehaving issues

What not to do

• • Punishment
  • Physically force your dog to be in the sitting position