Tag: sit

Great trick for small dogs


Its amazing how experienced trainers learn new training tricks through their training sessions.

If you have a small dog (5lbs or under) this can work for you.

Training sit can be a great fun but if you have a small dog that seems to jump instead of sit, it can become frustrating.

If you are having a similar problem I have your solution . When asking your dog to sit try using a low coffee table. When you ask for sit (using tips from my sit blog ) ask for it under the table. When your dog wants to jump he is limited in space and will actually be forced to sit. Continue asking your dog to sit until they are consistent . Then start asking for sit out from under the table . If they jump again ask one more time if still jumping then move back under the table.

This little technique is a great way for people with little training to experience real results.

In some cases people use a wall where you ask for sit and the dog sits because there is no more room to go and they naturally sit.
The table is a similar trick.

Happy training!!

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How to Sit


Sitting is a fundamental behavior in obedience training. This should be starting right when you get your dog. There are many ways of starting the process but today we will learn how to use positive reinforcement training to do “sit”.

Bring your dogs favorite training treats and get your dog positioned in front of you. We will use a verbal signal paired with with a hand signal. Say the word “sit” and move your hand with a treat in it from your dogs face back toward their back. Your dog will begin to follow your treat and naturally fall back and sit, the second your dog sits say ” good” and reinforce that behavior. Do it again and again, reinforcing only when they completely sit. That is key because if you say good and they are not sitting they will take advantage of your mistake and do less and less . So only reinforce behaviors when it is complete also reinforce immediately. The probability of a behavior reoccurring is increased by the immediacy of the reinforcing.
Now if your dog doesn’t emit sit we will LRS. It is called the least reinforcing stimulus . It is like a 3 second time-out. All you do is ignore the wrong behavior. So you say sit and he always sits and now you say sit and they are still standing. Ignore that behavior which lets your dog know something is not right and then ask again.

Sit is an important behavior. It is the “gateway” behavior to a world of other behaviors. I personally don’t let any of my dog clients get freebies. Before they go for a walk I ask them to sit whilst the leash goes on. When I come home and the dog runs to greet me I say sit immediately.
Let sit work for you!

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