Sit
Sit is one of the most basic and easy commands to teach your dog. Since it’s rewarded so often the dog tends to offer the behavior up often, which results in a polite dog in a neutral position. It’s also an easy go-to-command for when you need to give your dog something to do quickly.
Videos
Teach Your Dog to Sit
Learn the steps in teaching the “Sit” command.
How to Teach Sit
Steps
Phase 1 - Acquisition (Learning and Luring)
Lure your dog into a sit by putting the treat up to their nose and slowly moving the treat backward and up. Palm up.
Keep the treat lure close to your dog’s nose. Be careful not to move your hand up too quickly or too far away from their mouth, they may give up and lose interest.
A dog’s butt goes in the opposite direction as its nose. We are trying to get them to look up.
As soon as your dog’s hindquarters hit the ground mark and treat. Mark and treat every sit. Repeat this a handful of times
Now remove the treat from your hand and do the same motion as before, this time there is no treat. Mark and reward when they sit.
Slowly start shaping your hand signal from the hand lure. Moving your hand further and further away from the dog until you can get them to sit every time on your hand signal alone.
*Since we are just in the luring stage and teaching a behavior without a verbal command that has an implied stay you can use either your continuation or terminal marker.
Phase 2 - Automatic (Motivation)
Now you can name it as long as they are sitting 5/5 times from your hand signal alone. Say “Sit”, THEN cue with the hand signal, mark when they sit, reward.
Once you have added the command I like to use the terminal marker for the first handful of repetitions or until I know they understand the verbal command. This gives you the opportunity to do multiple repetitions in a short amount of time and relieves you of the added pressure of trying to reinforce the stay. Plus they’ll learn to perform more quickly because they will learn the faster they perform the command the faster they are released and rewarded.
Say “Sit” THEN do your hand cue. Once they are beating your hand cue it’s time to move onto the next phase. (Remember, if they don’t start to sit after a second you should help them with the hand signal. Don’t get frustrated.)
*I’m a fan of “Don’t name it until you love it”, meaning I won’t add the “Sit” command to this until the dog performs the sit the way I like it (not sloppy, or leaning, etc.) every time with my lure/hand signal. So for the first week, you might not make it to step 5 and that’s ok! We’re just getting the dog used to certain behaviors that we like and are rewarding them for it.
Phase 3 - Generalization (Distractions)
So now your dog sits every time you say “Sit” and you rarely need to help them with a hand cue. Congratulations! It’s time to show the dog that “sit” means “sit” everywhere else too. You can reference the Phases of Learning page to get more ideas on how to help generalize. Here are a few to get you started:
You’ve probably been standing in front of your dog doing this for a day or two in the same room. That’s the only picture the dog has seen for this sequence of events to give him a reward. Try to change it slightly.
Have your dog next to you instead of in front and say “sit”. Be prepared to follow it up with a hand signal. If they still aren’t getting it go all the back to luring with a treat in your hand. This is ok and they’ll catch on rather quickly.
Practice in all rooms in the house and have the dog in front, on the side, back facing you, etc.
Go outside in a low distraction environment (might need to let them explore for a few minutes first). Practice again and be prepared to start all over with the lure.
Back in the house once the dog seems proficient at it in all rooms, start adding distractions like throwing a toy or someone being goofy on the other side of the room. Helps to have them leashed so they can’t go and reward themselves if they get distracted. If they are too distracted, increase how much space is between them and the distraction.
Week 1 Homework
Practice Phase 1 (luring) every day 1-3x a day.
Once you’ve had a couple of successful luring sessions, try moving your hand in an upward sweep towards you instead of over your dogs head. Slowly shaping a hand signal that you do while standing straight up and not needing your hand directly in the dogs face.
By the end of the week you should easily have a dog that sits, if not distracted, every time you signal with your hand.
Remember to try to remove the food from your hand lure as soon as possible.
Week 2 Homework
If your dog will sit on the hand signal 5/5 times then you can start saying “Sit” before you give the hand signal.
Practice the steps in Phase 2 every day 1-3x a day.
The goal at the end of this week is to have your dog sit on either the verbal or physical hand signal without food in your hands.
Week 3 Homework
Continue asking your dog to sit with either verbal or visual cues. They should respond equally well to each one.
Don’t hesitate to HELP them with a hand signal after your verbal command if they are distracted or confused.
Start fading the treats (intermittent reinforcement) when they are responding to the verbal command most of the time without needing help.
Start working on generalizing the “Sit” by practicing the steps in Phase 3. Go back to 100% reinforcement in any new or distracting environment.
You may also be able to work on the implied stay if they are responding well to the verbal command.
Week 4 Homework
Start asking for sits randomly throughout the day and before you let your dog do something they enjoy, like going outside, getting food, toys, etc.
Continue to work on saying the command only once, then following up with hand signal if they need help. Repeating yourself is not helping.
Continue practicing the implied stay and creating distance and duration.
The goal at the end of this week is to have a dog that understands “Sit” means to put their butt down wherever they are (not always in front of you) and to stay in their sit until released. Try for a 1 minute sit-stay while you walk 5-10 feet away.
Week 5 Homework…and Beyond
You will continue to help them generalize “Sit” and to work in more and more distracting environments.