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Dog Home Obedience Training - Teach the 'Sit' CommandDog Home Obedience TrainingFor the sit command, start out with your dog on leash. He should be outfitted with a dog training collar, preferably a pinch collar. See Dog Training Products Apply a small amount of upward tension on the leash with one hand as your other hand places downward pressure on your dog�s rear. As you see his rear legs begin to bend into the sitting position give him the command �sit�. Remember to give the dog training command in a calm even tone. Keep repeating the command until his rear hits the ground. As his rear hits the ground praise enthusiastically. If you want to use treats you can give a treat at this point. If you do use treats, make sure to phase them out eventually. You don�t want your dog�s obedience to be dependent on treats. If your dog struggles against the tension, just keep going. Keep manipulating his body until he sits. Repeat this process over and over. Do several five minute training sessions of dog home obedience training per day with this exercise. You will soon reach a point where upon hearing the command �sit�, and feeling the leash tension, he will immediately sit. When he does, you can progress to the next step. The next step is to take out the helping elements. Up until this point you have been helping your dog by using leash tension and pressure on his rear. Now, we need to take those training pieces out so that your dog will sit of his own volition, and not your helping hand. Start the next training phase as you did the last one, with your dog on leash. This time tell him �sit� but keep a loose leash. If he sits, great. Give him some praise. If he doesn�t sit you are going to give an upward jerk on the leash (called a correction) as your repeat the dog training command �sit�. This time if he sits you must still give him immediate praise for a job well done. If he doesn�t sit, even with the correction, you must keep going. Repeat the corrections and the commands until he complies. If you don�t persevere your dog will soon learn that he can wait you out. He will learn that you aren�t serious when you give a command. The ideal is to teach your dog the black and white of the �sit� exercise. Sitting is pleasurable because there is praise and not sitting is not pleasurable because there are corrections and a lack of praise.
It is important to follow the following formula. The dog always receives a �free command� (A free command is a command with no correction. This command gives your dog the option to obey or not.) Compliance with the free command always merits praise. Non-compliance always merits a correction until compliance is achieved. Once compliance is achieved, regardless of the amount of corrections it took to get there, praise is always given.
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