Sit is the first command we want to teach our new puppies. Sit is the basis for a lot of great things, it can be used in many situation when you need your puppy to focus its attention and behave in a calm way. For example, saying hi to new people, crossing roads, waiting patiently for dinner and when entering or leaving the house.
You can teach your puppy to sit by following these easy steps:
1. Hold a tasty treat by your pup’s nose and slowly draw it up towards you.
2. His head should follow the delicious treat and as it goes up, his bottom will go down and you will have a sit!
3. Give him the treat when his bottom touches the floor, so he associates his bottom on the floor with an excellent reward.
4. Repeat this until your puppy is sitting reliably then you can add the word ‘sit’ as he is in the process of sitting so that he begins to associate the word with the action.
5. When he is sitting then times out of ten, start saying the word “sit” as you present the treat to him.
Top tip
Puppies only have a short attention span so you only want to do a few minutes of training at a time throughout the day. The time it takes for an advert break or a kettle to boil is a perfect training window.
