Sit

Sit = focus. 

What

Training your dog to Sit on cue is one of the first things we like to teach our dogs. It requires the dog to place their but on the ground when they see or hear the queue to sit.  

Note: Not all dogs find sitting comfortable or enjoyable. 

Why

It's a helpful precursor towards teaching certain behaviours like Eye Contact, Down or Paw. 
It's useful when we need our dogs to focus on something. 
It's a good behaviour to teach the dog for dog-to-human interactions since it puts most people at ease. 
It can be helpful in a lot of impulse control exercises. 
A sit can be used in place of other undesirable behaviours like chasing, sniffing, digging or jumping. 

Luring	Shaping	Capturing	Modeling (Last resort)
Charge up your marker Hold a treat an inch away from your dogs nose When your dog moves towards the treat lift your hand over your dogs head and towards their shoulders.	Charge up your marker Ask the dog to sit Put a treat to their nose and slowly move it towards the floor. When the dog's head dips, mark and reward a few times. Now move the treat lower and only mark and reward the dogs when their knees bend repeat a few times. Now move the treat on the ground and only mark and reward the dog when their chest or abdomen touches the ground when this happens provide a jackpot reward and say the word DOWN. Once your dog is completing the down in one swoop reliably a few times add a visual signal to the behaviour. Now while standing up ask the dog for to go down using only the verbal and visual cues. Mark and reward a successful completion by putting a treat on the ground in between the dogs front paws.	Start in a small roon free from any distractions. Sit on a chair and don't interact with or excite your dog. When the dog gets bored and lies down mark and reward the behaviour. When your dog repeats this behaviour a few times start to add the visual cue and the word DOWN just as the dog is half way to the ground. then mark and reward. Repeat the exercise in different areas of the house.	Ask the dog to sit. Place one hand gently on the dog's shoulder behind the neck. DO NOT push the dog down simply leave your hand there adding a little gentle pressure without moving until the dog lays down to move away from the hand. When this happens mark and reward with your other hand. Repeat the process this time using a hand signal with the other hand and the word DOWN as the dog is halfway to the ground. Mark and reward. Remove the hand as soon as the dog is reliably performing the action with just the hand signal and verbal command.

Please see the videos below to learn more about trainign the behaviour from trainers around the world. 

More resources:

Sit

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