The order sit, sit or sit is quite common in dogs , it is an easy behavior to teach and helps us to control the dog, for example, when we want it not to bother other animals or people. The ideal age to teach the dog to sit is from six months of age, before it is difficult for the canid to pay all the attention that is required to practice it. Before that age, they can be educated so that they know how to differentiate a good behavior from a bad one; She can even be reprimanded, as her mother would if the puppy were to continually bother her, but we do not believe that before 6 months is an ideal age to apply this training.
In this exercise, as in all exercises, we use prizes as a reward for the dog, which we will give it in the cases in which the animal adopts the behavior that we want. It is also essential that the dog is concentrated and totally relaxed, otherwise, it will be impossible to put this teaching method into practice, in any case, we must postpone it until the dog is in optimal conditions to perform it.
If we want our dog to sit down, we will teach him a snack to attract his attention, we will hold it up so that the dog cannot reach him and we withdraw from the dog about half a meter; Subsequently, we will place the hand with which we hold the snack above its head, we will be able to observe that in most cases the canid will tend to sit up, with which we will reward its behavior to reinforce that behavior. Once this exercise has been repeated a few times, we will introduce the command “sitting” or “sit”, but following the steps detailed above, so we will see that the animal will end up relating the command to the exercise.
The next step will be to introduce the order, but without the movement of the hand, it is an easy task, since if the animal has assimilated the learning, it will sit down without difficulty, it will also be time to progressively reduce the reward, which we can replace by cuddling to positively reinforce good behavior.
Once the canid knows how to sit, it is important to repeat the exercise in different environments, so we will get it to obey in any desired place.
There are times when the dog, due to its character, does not pay attention to the exercise. In these cases we will help it to sit up, pressing the dog’s rump with the help of our hand. Once it is seated, we will present it with a prize; We will repeat the procedure until we get the animal to sit without the help of the hand, then we will introduce the order following the steps detailed above.
