What Is The Best Way To Train A Puppy To Sit?
By Paula at Telepienso.com – a premium dog food retailer that specialises in acana
puppy large breed dog food.
You should start your basic puppy training as early as possible. Some puppy
training schools take puppies from eight weeks, though the classes are more a social
interaction, as soon as your puppies is fully vaccinated, it may be a good idea.
One of the first things anyone teaches their new dog is to sit. Teaching them to sit
makes it easier for you to control them when they’re running around uncontrollably or
when you take them out with you. There are two successful ways of teaching them
this command which are easy and highly effective.
Technique One
The first way to teach a dog to sit is through positive reinforcement. The one thing
your dog or puppy will want from you is your approval. They are very loyal animals
and want to please you all the time, not pleasing you will make them try and correct
their behaviour to be in your good books again.
Start by using treats. With your puppy standing in front or next to you, hold the treat
above their nose and move it over the top of their head. The natural reaction of the
puppy if for his nose to follow the treat, forcing him to sit down. As he starts sitting
say the word ‘sit’, once he sits give him a treat and a lot of praise.
Do this on a regular basis or take some time out every day to train your pet,
remember to only say the word ‘sit’ as they are sitting, then give them the praise and
treat.
The most important part of this positive reinforcement process is your puppy needs
to associate the word with the action, if you say sit and then follow the process you
are defeating the purpose. Only say the word as they start sitting, that way he will
soon know when you say that word it means that action and he gets love and treats
for it.
Technique Two
A very popular way of training these days is the clicker method. This is a little
gadget that you can carry on your keys and when you push the button it makes a
clicking noise. It’s been found that dogs react to this sound and it makes it easier for
training purposes.
Using the same process of holding a treat above your dog’s nose and moving it over
his head, say the word ‘sit’ as he starts sitting and as he sits click and give a treat.
Very soon your puppy will associate the clicker with a treat and a happy owner.
Of course all training takes some time, on average the sit command takes a week or
two depending on your puppy. Even when he’s mastered the command at first, he
may only do it when he wants to. Keep up with the training, don’t stop the sit training
because he’s mastered it, reinforcement is as important as learning new actions.
Within no time you will have a well-trained puppy that will sit on command.