Dog Training Nuggets Blog

Training a Puppy to Sit

Training your puppy how to sit it will be very important in many instances. One of the ways you control your puppy will be through the command of getting him to sit. As a responsible dog owner, you need to teach your puppy this command as soon as possible to keep your dog well-mannered and safe.

By far one of the simplest commands to teach your puppy will be the command to sit. Your guests will surely be impressed by your dog responding appropriately to the "Sit" command. However, many other benefits exist that have greater importance like sitting when guests come, or when you run into a neighbor to talk, or to cross a busy intersection. A dog’s ability to sit will undoubtedly help keep him out of trouble in many different situations that you will never even think of until the need arises.

Teaching your dog to sit will be simple for one good reason, you can ask him to do it for any reason that you like so there will be many opportunities for practice. Some obvious examples for sitting will be to wait for his meal to be served, to go outside, to have his leach attached, to cross the busy street in order to avoid cars or to simply wait for a treat.

The way to teach him the "sit" command is by saying his name to get his attention and then saying the command. Every command you teach should be preceded by his name to claim his attention so he knows you are talking to him and no one else. You want his full attention on yourself when giving him a command. You will find that puppies love to have a name mainly cause they love attention. Later when they are older, adolescence sort of affects there brain and they sometimes don’t want to respond always. Reinforcing it now will help for your dog to respond better later in the future.

The simplest process of training him the "Sit" command will be to gather a response by holding a small treat just above his nose enough for him to have to look up. As he looks up, slowly move the treat back wards out of his reach and within eye view. With practice, he will properly follow it and eventually find himself in the sitting position. As he does move into the sitting position say the "Sit" command. Once he gets into the sitting position, then reward him with a very small treat while saying "good dog" in a higher pitched voice. Rewarding him with both praise and a treat will help reinforce his learning of this command.

Directly above we talked about the motivational approach where he finds his sitting position on his own. Another way requires your assistance to gently push his rump to the ground. Simply sit beside him in order to hold the treat above his nose as before while moving it back wards. At the same time, voice the same command while using your other hand to gently push his butt down to the ground. If he wants to push back up with this butt in obvious force, simply distract him in order to start all over.

Let’s talk a little about rewarding him. Above we discussed using two ways about rewarding him at the same time. Those were giving him an edible treat along with giving him loving praise in a high-pitched voice. Eventually you’ll want to not give him a treat every time you command him to do something. It will be good to give him praise, but you do not want him to expect to treat all the time. A tree will be very important when your dog is young like a puppy stage or adolescent stage. You’ll need your dog’s full attention, so using food at these stages of growth will help bring his full attention to you. Later you can slowly remove the usage of a food treat reward.

With this command well learned, you have a priceless tool to help control your dog in many situations. When possible, you will want to continue the learning in places with many different kinds of distractions. This will prepare your dog for many different kinds of scenarios where sitting will assist you to keep your dog under control.

Seek out more information by finding out how to become a better dog owner through positive dog training and crate training your puppy at http://www.dog-training-obedience.net.

Dog Training Aids: the Art of Training your Dog With a Whistle

One of the most commonly used dog training aids is the whistle. Historically, the whistle was used to train hunting herding dogs. 

Stop a Barking Dog 

Some dogs have a keen ear for the obvious. I have told my most prevalent barker - Thank you, I would not have known there was a helicopter flying overhead

Dog Training The Gentle Way - The Sit Command
 by: Jennifer Ivey 7eb

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Dog Training using positive reinforcement techniques is the gentle and humane way to teach your dog the rules. You will be fostering a loving relationship with your dog instead of intimidating and scaring your dog into submission. In this article you will learn the basic steps to teach your puppy or adult dog to sit.

1. Put a leash on your dog so they cannot wonder off while you are working with them.

2. Put some treats in a closed fist so they can smell them but not see them. If your dog sees the treat each time he will learn to only obey when you have food in your hands.

3. With your finger draw an invisible line from the dog’s nose between the eyes to the top of the head as you say sit. The head will move back to follow your hand and therefore push the bottom down to the ground.

4. As soon as the dog’s bottom touches the ground, say ‘Good Sit’ and give them a treat and praise them excitedly.

Below are some Dog Training Tips for successfully training your dog to sit.

1. Keep your bait hand low. While moving your hand over the dogs head, make sure that your hand is not too high or the dog will jump to reach the treats. Your hand should only be a couple of inches over the dogs head.

2. Do not force the dog. Resist the urge to push the dog’s bottom down if they are having a hard time learning how to sit. Just be patient and keep trying to slowly draw a line over their head with the treat and they will learn.

3. The dog will need to be weaned off the treats. During the first week use the treats heavily. During the second week start mixing the treats up giving every other time or every third time while continually using praise and excitement. After about 3 weeks treats will no longer be needed and you will be the only reward your dog will need.

4. Even after you wean off the treats, continue to use the sit hand signal as well as your voice. The benefit of using hand signals and voice commands simultaneously is so when you are in a situation where you cannot use your voice to give your dog some direction, such as talking on the phone, you can give your dog a quiet hand signal without disrupting your phone call.

5. Label your commands. When giving your dog a training command, label the action, not the dog. When your dog sits, tell them good sit, not good dog. Your dog will learn the command faster because they hear the command word again and they are praised for the specific command.

6. Keep training sessions short. If you are training a puppy, keep your training sessions under 10 minutes. It is best to have several short training sessions per day so that your dog will not get distracted.

7. Be consistent. Everyone in the family should be involved with training your dog. Children as well as adults should learn the commands so the dog sees ALL humans as dominate and therefore listens and obeys everyone equally.

About The Author

Jennifer Ivey is a positive reinforcement http://dogtrainingbehavior.blogspot.com who writes articles on many dog related topics. Read more of Jennifer’s articles at http://www.bestdogarticles.com.

This article was posted on August 28, 2006

Teaching you dog to ‘Sit’

Teaching you dog to ‘Sit’. There are many ways to teach your dog to SIT.

Hand Signals On Dog Obedience Training 

Since we don’t have an official hand signals on dog obedience training we practice commonly used basic commands and these are the heel, sit, stay, down and come.

Easy Tips For House Breaking Your Puppy
by: Dy Witt 7eb

Click here to get your copy of SitStayFetch!

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If you are lucky enough to get a 7-week-old puppy, there is no excuse for any bad habits to develop over his lifetime. Puppies learn INSTANTLY when they are that young, and if you use the proper training methods, gentle but consistent, he will behave like an angel his whole life through.

The most important training, of course, is housebreaking. Boys are easier than girls because exploring outside is their favorite thing. They just cannot get enough of all the new smells out there!

The main key to housebreaking is watching. Watch your puppy AND the clock. Once every hour is not too often on a day he is active and the weather is good. The younger the pup, the more often he needs to go out, mostly because he is growing so fast. He must drink more water to fuel his metabolism than he does as an adult. Also, since he eats three or four times a day, you know what that means.

Watch him for subtle changes. If he is happily chewing his toy, and gets up suddenly with his nose to the floor, move quickly! He is ready to squat! If he has had a nice nap, get him out of his crate and outside right away. If he has just had a good grooming, it stimulates his circulation and guess what? Time to go out again. And of course after a meal, watch him extra close.

Things to remember:

—Do not punish him for mistakes. They are YOUR fault. Every time you take him out he will go, and praise praise and praise! Happy face, laughter, happy noises! He loves your happy face. When he makes a mistake, your frown and your face turned away from him is all the punishment he needs. He will get the point.

—He is learning English, you must use the same phrases over and over. "Good go potty!" "Hafta go potty?" "Wanna go potty?" He can learn in one afternoon that "go potty" means a jaunt outside and your happy face. Whatever phrase you choose, stick with it.

—I cannot recommend strongly enough getting a crate. They truly help with all phases of his training. They make him more secure, provide him with his very own private space and a place for him to hide his favorite toys and chewies. This is even more important if you have other adult dogs in the house.

Be consistent, always be kind and gentle, and be patient as he learns your language, and your puppy will always look forward to his training sessions. Dogs love to work!

About The Author

Dy Witt has shown, bred and trained standard poodles for 25 years. To read free articles, more about her dog and puppy training techniques and her new ebook, visit: http://www.DogTraining15MinsADay.com.

This article was posted on November 10, 2005

  Dog Toilet Training

 You should train your dog to urinate and defecate outside or in a designated place.

  Use a Crate Properly for Training a Puppy | youguysshouldknow.com

 Don’t leave your dog or puppy in the crate for extended periods of time. Other than when confining him in the crate at night for the purposes of housebreaking a puppy, your pet …   Read more…

Coming home with a puppy is a wondrous feeling. This cute little being arouses a storm of emotions in most of us. Congratulations to the start of another kind of life!