My dog won't sit on command

“My dog won’t sit on command. I tell him to sit and he just looks at me or steps around me like he thinks I want him to dance or something. What am I doing wrong?

Ah, the sit! A much loved trick and the perfect people greeting position for all dogs. Your dog doesn’t understand what you want yet. Communication is the key to all training. I can ask you to “scuttleboogie” but unless you know what that word means you’re not going to do it for me. I have to show you what I mean.

Sit can be taught at any age, puppies or old, old dogs. It’s pretty impressive when your eight week old pup sits on request to greet a visitor. Sit is usually one of the first things we teach our dogs, isn’t it? That’s probably because it’s an easy position to get a dog to take. Let’s face it, when they have to turn that little nose up to the sky to see a treat above their head, the butt goes down and that little behind touches the floor.

Some trainers will tell you to train in a quiet place, stand in front of the dog, don’t do this, don’t do that. Not me. I say train where you live, anywhere, any time. Dogs are smart and they live in a loud, moving world. Squirrels, cars, people walking by, smells, grass, bunnies, other dogs; these are all the things in their environment. They already know these things. All you have to do to be a successful trainer is to be more fun and more interesting than all of those things. That’s not hard! If you’re training outside or someplace your dog can move more than ten feet away, use a leash. If you’re in a confined area, a leash is not necessary. And laugh while you teach…laugh a lot! Dogs love laughter.

Dancer was on a sit stay in the back of the car yesterday watching me walk around picking up trash. We’d had a terrific wind the night before, one of the dumpsters had blown open and released it’s insides to the skies. She was so funny. Her butt was planted, she would lean forward as far as she could so she could see me walk around outside the side of the car. She could have simply looked out the window, but her way was much cuter. Dancer leaned far forward and tilted her head as if to say, “I’ll come and help if you’ll just let me lift my little bottom up.” Dancer has a really good sit stay. (Hey, what a great name for a Store! Sorry, I can’t help myself, I love saying that.)

The only dog I’ve ever had trouble teaching to sit on request was a little teacup mixed breed who was so close to the floor that it was hard to tell if she was already sitting or if she was standing. Lying down was pretty interesting too. It was just hard to tell but I think I did it. When I asked her to sit, her bottom seemed to be a little lower. I gave her cookies anyway because she was just too precious.

So let’s talk about dogs who are higher above the ground, these are the easy ones, you can really tell if they’re sitting. Decide what hand motion you want to use for the sit, you do need one. I’ll teach you the one I like best, it’s palm up, curl the fingers all the way to the palm, curl the wrist. I like it because it’s the way I give treats to my dogs, it’s a natural gesture. Use a leash, you’re dog can’t go anywhere and just in case a squirrel comes by, we won’t get separated. (Squirrels are the biggest reason Dancer has such a great sit stay. I’d have her sit, a squirrel would come by and just before the squirrel got to the tree, I’d tell Dancer she was good, go get him! What a great reward! There’s no way she was going to catch that squirrel but the size of the reward was excellent.)

So dog is on leash, standing, treat is a favorite held between your thumb and forefinger; let your dog sniff it and quickly take it up higher so the nose follows the treat. Nose follows treat, turn your palm toward the ceiling and pull the fingers back toward you, don’t get too far away from the nose, you want the dog to follow the treat. Nose follows the treat upwards, head follows the nose, and by the time the butt goes down, you have made a fist. That’s my sit gesture. A fist, wrist curled, fingers facing my face. Cool, right? Mechanically, the nose goes up, the butt goes down. As quickly as that little bottom touches the floor, give the treat. This is called luring.

I like to toss a second treat quickly after giving the first one so the dog will get up and go get it, later you’ll add a release word when you toss the treat. It releases the dog from the sit. Don’t worry, your dog will come back to see you do this again. Do the sit again. Words are not necessary yet unless you want to add them now. It’s okay, your dog will understand soon what you mean. You can add the words later after the dog is doing the sit. I’ve trained it both ways and it works both ways. Do the sit three times and wait to train again later. Rewards come quickly at first. After the dog knows “sit” and you want a longer sit, the reward is delayed, longer sit. Pretty soon, your dog will sit at your request any time you like and will stay there until you say to get up.

If you just can’t get the lure to work for you, simply sit down with your dog and wait. Wait for your dog to sit and then give him a treat. That’s it. Just wait and watch. Starts to sit, wait for it, say sit as the dog’s behind touches the floor. Works for “down”, too.

I love clicker training. I think clicker training is the very best way to train a dog. It’s fast and fun and the dogs love the game. The dogs I train with a clicker learn faster, the trained behavior is solid, and we have a lot more fun! With clicker training, the dogs get to decide to do what you want instead of being lured to do it. Stay positive, stay relaxed and have fun. It will come.

You might reward that little dance he seems to like doing now, name it “dance” and circle with your finger as the gesture. Work on “sit” later. I love training dogs!