The last two articles in my dog training tips have covered how to teach your dog or puppy to sit. This is one of the most commonly taught commands or cues. Now here are some ways that you can use the sit in daily life. If you have some favorite ways that I haven’t mentioned, please post a comment below the article.

Seven Ways to Use the Sit with Your Puppy or Dog

1. If your dog tries to charge into or out of the house, you can teach him to sit until you tell him it’s okay to go.
2. Ditto for getting in or out of vehicles.
3. Our dogs sit and stay before going to their bowls to eat. This is convenient, and I must say we’ve impressed a lot of dinner guests with this trick!
4. Another good time to use the sit is when you think your dog might jump up, like when those dinner guests ring the doorbell and there’s excitement as they enter.
5. It is useful in connection with teaching a dog to come to you and to sit in front of you.
6. It could save your dog from injury, or even save its life, if the dog was about to go out on a street with traffic and you called out, “Sit!”
7. It can make your dog less intimidating to a child who is about to pet your dog, with your permission of course.

A nice benefit of the sit is that dogs generally watch you closely when they are sitting, so you have their attention. Being able to get your dog’s attention when you want it makes life much more pleasant. Teaching your dog to sit also can strengthen the bond between you and the dog, as it’s something you two are doing together. You may think of it as a command, but the dog may think of it as something fun that he is doing with you. And here’s another tip: the more fun you bring to the sit or to any dog training, the more happily your dog will pay attention to you! That’s win-win.

Teaching the Sit with a Lure and a Clicker

This dog training tip uses clicker training methods. if you aren’t familiar with clickers, you can get a free copy of my ebook Seven Steps to Clicker Training Success with Your Dog by subscribing to my weekly email newsletter. The link takes you to the page where you can find out more and sign up if you wish.

Put a clicker in one hand and a small treat in the other. For most dogs, the treat can simply be a piece of their dry kibble.

You and your dog or puppy should be alone in a place without distractions such as other dogs or people. Indoors is generally less distracting than outside, but a quiet yard is fine. You want enough room that you and the dog can move around.

You also want to be where you have a small container of the treats out of reach of the dog, so you can grab another one easily.

Your dog should be standing up or walking around as you begin this process. Show him the treat in your hand, close enough that he can smell it and at about eye level. He may move forward to sniff it or he may just watch you. In any case, raise that hand with the treat up higher than his head and back over his head… so he has to sit in order to keep watching you.

The very instant that his rear touches the ground or floor, click the clicker. Then open your luring hand – that’s the one with the food — and let him take the treat from your outstretched palm. (This is a much safer method for your fingers than giving him the treat right from your fingers! I always give treats from my palm.)

Now, what if the dog doesn’t sit when you try this? What if he jumps up for the treat,  moves away as you raise the treat, or does something else? You don’t click or reward because he hasn’t done what you want. You can say something like “Too bad!” if you want to, or just say nothing. Then create a bit of a timeout, for example, turn around or just stand looking out at nothing for a few seconds. Then try again. Normally, dogs get the sit quite quickly, as it comes naturally to them to sit in order to see the treat. If you still have trouble after a try or two, be sure you are moving the treat in a way that would naturally make the dog move into a sit.

After the treat has been consumed, walk to a different place in the room and repeat the process. Do this quite a few  times in a session, but I wouldn’t go more than about 10 minutes, and only 2 or 3 minutes for young puppies. You can do several sessions a day. 

The sit is  good for a first thing to teach your puppy or dog, so in this series of dog training tips I’m making it one of the first topics.

Why start with the sit? Here are five reasons.

1. It’s easy to teach a dog.
2. You’ll be using it with the other commands.
3. Even very young puppies can understand it.
4. It’s important for good manners with people.
5. It’s the thing my dogs do when they want to please me and aren’t sure what to do, and this can be very convenient.

If your dog already sits, you may get some ideas for how to improve the process.

Teaching the Sit

Put a small treat in in one hand. For most dogs, the treat can simply be a piece of their dry food. You and your dog or puppy should be alone in a place without distractions. Indoors is generally less distracting than outside, but a quiet yard is fine. You want enough space that you and the dog can move around a little.

You also want to be where you have a small container of the treats out of reach of the dog, so you can grab another one easily. Do this at a time of day when the dog hasn’t just been fed.

Your dog should be standing up or walking around as you begin this process. Show him the treat in your hand, close enough that he can smell it and at about eye level. He may move forward to sniff it or he may just watch you. In any case, raise that hand with the treat up higher than his head and back over his head… so he has to sit in order to keep watching you.

The very instant that the dog’s rear touches the ground or floor, say “Good!” and open your hand. Let him take the treat from your outstretched palm. (This is a much safer method for your fingers than giving him the treat right from your fingers! I always give treats from my palm. This point could be a dog training tip in itself.)

Now, what if the dog doesn’t sit when you try this? What if he jumps up for the treat,  moves away as you raise the treat, or does something else? You can say something like “Too bad!” if you want to, or just say nothing. Then create a bit of a pause, for example, turn around or just stand looking out at nothing for a few seconds. Then try again. Normally, dogs get the sit quite quickly, as it comes naturally to them to sit in order to see the treat. If you still have trouble after a try or two, be sure you are moving the treat in a way that would naturally make the dog move into a sit.

After the treat has been consumed, walk to a different place in the room and repeat the process. Do this several  times in a session, but I wouldn’t go more than about 10 minutes, and only 2 or 3 minutes for young puppies. You can do several sessions a day.  

In the next two dog training tips, I’ll cover some ways the sit is used and how to train it with a clicker.

“Dog training tips” is one of the phrases that bring people to this website. So I’m going to do a weekly series, here in the blog, on all sorts of tips for dog training. My plan is to post a tip once a week, and do at least one other dog-related article each week. The tips will usually have suggested actions along with them.

If you have topics that you’d like to see covered in this series, please post them in the comments below. If you’d like to keep up with this series, just subscribe to my weekly Tuesday morning dog training newsletter, which lists all the new articles in the blog. (It also gets you a free copy of my ebook, Seven Steps to Clicker Training Success with Your Dog.)

Today’s dog training tip is so simple that it almost sounds idiotic, but it’s the basis for everything else.

DO find time for dog training, on a regular basis. For some of my regular readers, I know this is a no-brainer… I think some of them are better at this than I am! But for so many people today, there are so many activities that we have to do or really want to do, that time  to train or play with our dogs can slide down off the to-do list.

This happened to me recently, when my husband and I made a two-week trip to California. It took a good bit of the two weeks beforehand to get ready, and most of the two weeks after to get back to our normal routines. Total dog training time in that six weeks: 0.

So here’s the suggested action: think about when you are going to do some dog training. It can be 5 minutes a day… really, that will make a good difference over time. It can be two sessions a week. Only you know what you can commit to with a realistic chance of doing it. Write it down someplace. In your planner, if you use one. On something attached to your refrigerator. Writing it down makes it more likely that you will do it– that’s a scientific fact! And putting the plan where you can see it also improves your odds.

What are you going to train? Maybe you know right off, or you may want to think about that. It never hurts to start out with a review of what the dog already knows.

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When do YOU train your dog or dogs? Do you have a regular routine? Please post a comment below; I’m sure it would help others to make their own choices.