Dog Training 101: First Phase of Sit Training

After getting your dog comfortable on the leash, SIT is the first command you're going to teach him. One approach to dog training is to break it down into two phases: an early phase in which treats are utilized to encourage a desired behavior, and a more advanced phase that teaches and solidifies the behavior without treats. In this short article we're going to use treats to begin to train our dog to sit.

Dog Training Phase One: Sit
In phase one of dog training for the sit command, we will use a treat to encourage our dog to assume the "sit" position and begin to associate the word "sit" with actually sitting down. You can do this in four steps.

1. Have your dog on leash and stand to the side. Hold the leash with your right hand and show the dog a treat in your left hand. Hold the treat just in front of the nose.













2. Slowly lift the treat up to encourage the dog to look up. Don't worry! Dogs will naturally follow treats with their noses!












3. Keep raising the treat up until the dog assumes the sit position. When the dog sits, say "(Dogs Name) SIT".













4. When he sits, Praise and pet! (Dogs Name) Good Boy (girl)!

Repeat about 5 times per session. After about 3 days, you will be ready for phase two of dog training for the sit command, which we will cover in a future article.

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