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By Jennifer Ivey
Dog Training using positive reinforcement techniques is the
gentle and humane way to teach your dog the rules. You will be
fostering a loving relationship with your dog instead of
intimidating and scaring your dog into submission. In this
article you will learn the basic steps to teach your puppy or
adult dog to sit.
1. Put a leash on your dog so they cannot wonder off while you
are working with them.
2. Put some treats in a closed fist so they can smell them but
not see them. If your dog sees the treat each time he will
learn to only obey when you have food in your hands.
3. With your finger draw an invisible line from the dog’s nose
between the eyes to the top of the head as you say sit. The
head will move back to follow your hand and therefore push the
bottom down to the ground.
4. As soon as the dog’s bottom touches the ground, say “Good
Sit” and give them a treat and praise them excitedly.
Below are some Dog Training Tips for successfully training
your
dog to sit.
1. Keep your bait hand low. While moving your hand over the
dogs head, make sure that your hand is not too high or the dog
will jump to reach the treats. Your hand should only be a
couple of inches over the dogs head.
2. Do not force the dog. Resist the urge to push the dog’s
bottom down if they are having a hard time learning how to
sit.
Just be patient and keep trying to slowly draw a line over
their
head with the treat and they will learn.
3. The dog will need to be weaned off the treats. During the
first week use the treats heavily. During the second week
start
mixing the treats up giving every other time or every third
time
while continually using praise and excitement. After about 3
weeks treats will no longer be needed and you will be the only
reward your dog will need.
4. Even after you wean off the treats, continue to use the sit
hand signal as well as your voice. The benefit of using hand
signals and voice commands simultaneously is so when you are
in
a situation where you cannot use your voice to give your dog
some direction, such as talking on the phone, you can give
your
dog a quiet hand signal without disrupting your phone call.
5. Label your commands. When giving your dog a training
command, label the action, not the dog. When your dog sits,
tell them good sit, not good dog. Your dog will learn the
command faster because they hear the command word again and
they are praised for the specific command.
6. Keep training sessions short. If you are training a puppy,
keep your training sessions under 10 minutes. It is best to
have several short training sessions per day so that your dog
will not get distracted.
7. Be consistent. Everyone in the family should be involved
with training your dog. Children as well as adults should
learn
the commands so the dog sees ALL humans as dominate and
therefore listens and obeys everyone equally.
About The Author: Jennifer Ivey is a positive reinforcement
dogtrainingbehavior.blogspot.com who writes articles on
many dog related topics. Read more of Jennifer's articles at
www.bestdogarticles.com
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