If you want to know how to teach a puppy to sit, this article is perfect for you. Teaching your puppy how to sit can be quite challenging if you’re not sure where to start. Training your dog is part of your responsibilities as their owner, so it’s important to get used to the entire process from an early stage. Teaching your puppy how to sit is a great start which will help your pup get used to what you expect from them during training. It’ll also help solidify your relationship and drastically improve your relationship with your dog.

So without further ado, let’s take a look at a couple of tips to help you teach your new puppy how to sit.

Getting started with training your puppy

To get started, there are a couple of important foundation points that we need to make.

How do you train a puppy?

If it’s the first time you’ve owned a puppy, then it’s important to understand the fundamentals of training.

It’s all based on positive reinforcement. You get your puppy to do something you want them to do, then you shower them with love and rewards to encourage them to do it again. You’re essentially rewarding them for their hard work. However, there’s a very fine line between rewarding your dog for positive behavior and bribing them by giving a reward first. You should always limit the reward for after their behavior and not before it!

In addition, some people may feel that punishment can also help with training a puppy. Unfortunately, this will only confuse your puppy and make them uncertain of what they’re being asked to do. You can’t expect a dog to read your mind or know what you want from them, hence why you should never punish your dog for being unable to respond to your calls. Patience is important for establishing a strong relationship between you and your puppy.

When should you start training your puppy?

Ideally, you should start at an early stage such as between 8 to 12 weeks. The earlier it is, the more likely your puppy will commit the training to memory and the more refined your relationship will be. You can generally start training your puppy as soon as you adopt them into your family, but there are a couple of considerations to keep in mind to maximize the efficiency of your training.

How long should puppy training sessions be?

Puppies should only be trained for around 5 to 10 minutes at most. This can increase as they get older, but you should generally start with 5-minute sessions to help them get accustomed to the idea of training. As they get used to the process, you can gradually increase training to 10 minutes if you feel that they’re paying attention and enjoying the process.

What kind of reward should you give your puppy?

Optimal rewards will depend on the puppy. But in general, a combination of praise, treats, and play is a good place to start for your puppy. You’ll need to try different things to see how your puppy responds to each.

It’s important not to rely on just treats and food as a reward as this can be disruptive to your puppy’s health and weight. You should ideally cycle between different rewards and give your puppy something new each time. This will teach your puppy to appreciate all of the different kinds of rewards they can get, and it’ll also help you identify which rewards they like to most. This way, you can save their favourite reward for when they really impress you or hit a new milestone.

Basic commands that all well-behaved puppies should respond to

There are a couple of simple commands that all well-behaved puppies should respond to. These are:

• Sit
• Down
• Stay
• Come
• Heel
• Off
• No

Depending on your personal preferences or preferred language, these commands can change. The important thing here is to always use the same word so that your dog learns the sound of your voice and responds to it as they’ve been trained.

In this post, we’ll only be covering how to teach a puppy to sit, but these are all important commands that you should try to teach your puppy as you develop your relationship.

Teaching your dog to sit

First, start by picking a word that you want to use. “Sit” is the most common word, but you can also use a different language if you prefer. The key here is to be consistent with that word so your dog learns it.

Next, we’ll be covering two different methods; capturing and luring.

Capturing

• Start by standing in front of your puppy.
• Hold out some of their favorite treats or some dog food.
• Say “sit” and wait for them to sit. It can sometimes help to indicate with your finger but don’t get used to this as they’ll start to associate the hand movement with sitting as well.
• Once your puppy sits, offer verbal confirmation such as saying “yes” or “good boy” and give them the treat or food.
• Next, move somewhere else to encourage them to stand up and follow you.
• Wait for your dog to sit again, then give another treat and verbal confirmation.

Luring

• Start by standing in front of your puppy, but sit down or kneel down to their level.
• Hold a treat out in front of them, raising it above their head so that they lift their head.
• This will cause them to sit as they sniff at the treat.
• Once they’re successfully moved to a sitting position, give them the treat and praise them.
• Move away and encourage your puppy to follow you, then repeat this process but without the food. Instead, reward them something else such as praise or petting.
• Once your puppy gets used to the hand signal to sit, you can start adding the word “sit” before you give it.

Repeat these processes for about 5 minutes at first, then push it to 10 minutes as your puppy gets more accustomed to the training. You can also make it more challenging, such as speeding up the process or moving further away. Make sure you never force your puppy to sit down as it can be a little confusing for them.

Hopefully, these tips have given you a good idea of how you can teach your puppy to sit down with a simple training process.

Get 15% off any of our dog food and treats. Use voucher code: PUPPY15

Voucher Terms & Conditions

• The coupon cannot be used in conjunction with other coupons.
• Usage limit per user x 1
• Valid for Bon Appetit, Natura Wild, Natyka, Perrito & Wolf’s Mountain