How to Teach Your Dog to Sit
Quickly and Easily
By Krista
Cantrell
Why should we teach our dogs to sit?
Well, I can think of a whole bunch of reasons...
First of all, it prevents problems. If Aunt Mildred
walks in the door, you can tell your dog to sit and
prevent him from jumping on visitors.
If you're carrying groceries in from the car, you can
say "sit" and the dog doesn't jump up, and the grocers
stay in your hands, instead of all over the floor.
What else is good about teaching sit? Well, we want
our dogs to sit calmly at the veterinarian, for example.
If the doctor needs to look at the dog's teeth, we can
tell our dog to "sit" calmly -- rather than having a big
St. Bernard leaning over and making things difficult. It
stops that happy Aussie from chasing the cat.
And if the door is open, you can say "sit" and the
dog won't run through the open door. Or, if you have
kids and they're running around, you can tell your dog
to sit and not get involved. The kids can still run, but
the dog stays seated.
So you see, we can use it all the time. The other
reason why I like teaching sit is that it gives a way to
calm your dog.
This is important! If the dog is bouncing all over
and getting over-excited, you can just say "sit" and
immediately change his state of mind. It's the perfect
skill to learn!
Teach Your Dog to Sit By Giving Your Dog a
Job
Dogs need jobs. This is just something that's
hardwired into their brains from the day they're
born.
By teaching your dog to sit, what are you doing?
You're giving her something she can do that will focus
her attention.
One of the easiest ways to actually teach the "sit"
skill is to start out by using a food lure. By the way,
when you watch this being demonstrated with video, it's
SO SIMPLE to learn this.
In a second, I'm going to tell you where you can find
videos that show how this is done step by step. So just
hang in there for one second, and I promise we'll cover
that.
Now, here's a really easy way to sit by using
food.
Step 1: Take a small treat and hold
it just above your dog's nose -- just slightly above her
head.
Step 2: As the dog looks up to the
food, she should sit automatically as she tracks it with
her head.
Step 3: Now, repeat the exercise.
You don't want to be saying anything at this point. You
simply want to get the dog into the physical process of
sitting.
Step 4: Now you can try and
associate a word with the behavior. Repeat the food lure
exercise, but now as your dog sits, say the word "Sit."
You'll want to repeat this step several times.
Step 5: Now, this is important.
Don't stand there and repeat this exercise for two
hours, or even for 30 minutes. Do it a few times and
then remove the food from the equation. Walk your dog
around for a few seconds, stop, and say "Sit."
Did she sit?
If she did, great! She's getting it! Keep practicing
until it works every time.
If she didn't sit, that's okay. She just needs more
time to learn the word. So, once again, keep
practicing.
Remember, if your dog doesn't sit when you ask him
to, it's simply because he just doesn't know how...yet.
You haven't spent enough time teaching them.
So take a few minutes every day to teach your dog,
and eventually it will become second nature.
Now, let's talk about those videos I mentioned
earlier. This technique is so much easier to learn when
you can watch it being done, rather than just reading
about it. So...
I want to go and check out this teach your dog to sit lesson on my blog.
You'll get the step by step videos that will show you
exactly how to teach this basic skill. And the great
part is, it only takes a few minutes!
Hope this helps. And let me know how you do!
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Krista_Cantrell
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