Teaching the "sit" command.

Today, we start the first lesson in our At-Home Obedience series: Teaching the "sit" command.

This is not a difficult command to teach, at all -- the problem
comes in when the dog performs the first or second time, and the
owner thinks his job is DONE! {grin} It's not... it's just starting.
This isn't meant to undermine your feeling of euphoria at having
taught your dog to *do* something... it's simply meant to help you
to bring your expectations more in-line with reality. Training
a dog takes WORK -- anyone who says differently is trying to SELL
you something... usually one of those handy-dandy shock collars.

Motivating your dog to WANT to learn:

This is an important concept, and has absolutely NOTHING to do with
correction or punishment. What we're teaching here, is the idea
that your dog will work for fun, for interaction with you, for a
PAYCHECK... just like YOU do. Motivation is the reward for behavior.
In every facet of your dog's behavior (or, MISbehavior, as the
case may be {grin}), you have to look for the dog's motivation.
For example, if you're trying to teach your dog to ignore all other
dogs (which is NOT a realistic expectation), a MilkBone doggie biscuit
is NOT going to motivate him to comply. The reward must be commensurate
with whatever the dog may be giving up in order to
comply... it must meet or exceed the relative value of the reward
that the dog would gain, if he chose NOT to ignore that other dog.
Sometimes, that's not an easy task to achieve. lol

So, in teaching your dog, follow these simple rules:

1) Cut his meals in half, to increase his interest in the food rewards
you're using. No, it's not "mean" to do this -- if you're working
with your dog several times a day, chances are you're making up
the calories with the Really Good Stuff... you don't want him to become overweight.

2) Use the Really Good Stuff -- NOT store-bought "doggie treats".
Use his very favorite foods, and mix them up, and ONLY use them
for rewards. Things like sliced hotdog (beef, pork, or chicken
-- NOT turkey! Turkey, when processed for human consumption, contains
lots of preservatives that have been shown to cause epilepsy in
dogs!), cubed cheese or chicken, liverwurst, grapes, watermelon,
apple, popcorn... whatever your dog REALLY likes. Store-bought
doggie treats contain lots of chemical preservatives and artificial
colorings -- plus, they often contain corn and wheat... lots of
dogs can't handle these, as they're prone to allergies.

3) Start in one area, work there for a day or 2, and then move to
a new area. And, when you move to the new area, back up your expectations
a little: dogs don't generalize behaviors like people do, so when
you change environments, you need to lower your expectations and
re-teach the behavior. When you've taught the same behavior in
several different locations, you can start taking him for walks
and having him perform in several different places along the way
-- this helps him to understand that "this word means this thing in every situation".

4) Make sure that everyone uses the same word to mean the same thing...
for example, I use the word "off" to mean "get off the sofa" --
but my sister uses the word "down" to mean "get off the sofa".
That's very confusing for my dogs... because "down", to them, means
"lay down". And, don't *combine" things like "sit down" ("sit"
and "down" are 2 separate commands). Use single-word commands,
to keep from causing confusion for your dog.

5) Before starting to teach the commands to your dog, decide what
your goal is in his obedience. If your end goal is to simply teach
your dog to be a companion, then these following guidelines will
help you to achieve that end. If your end goal is to compete in
obedience, I *highly* recommend purchasing the book "Clicker Training
for Obedience", by Morgan Spector. This book is a highly-acclaimed
work following the principles of clicker training -- your dog will
learn everything he needs to know to compete, without using correction.
Competition obedience *does* differ from companion obedience, so
if you're planning to show, train your dog with this in mind.

6) Dogs tend to internalize visual signals much more quickly than
they do the verbal commands -- so, I always use *both* the hand
signals and the verbal ones when working with dogs. If you intend
to use only verbal commands, it's much easier on the dog if you
go through the process of luring the dog into position, then adding
the verbal command, then *fading* the hand signal. I've found that
people are much more impressed by dogs who respond to hand signals, though. {grin}

7) "Fading" the use of props or rewards: a prop is any item that
you use to facilitate "getting your dog to DO something". Props
can be toys, treats, a clicker, your foot behind the dog for the
sit, etc. Fading is a hard concept for some... lots of people tend
to feel that if you use "bait" to train the dog, that you'll always
NEED that "bait" -- this isn't true, so long as you "fade" the "bait"
or prop properly. Fading is done by S-L-O-W-L-Y removing the bait
or prop from association with the behavior... in the instance of
using your foot, as in teaching the "sit", you simply move your
foot closer and closer to the original position beside your *other*
foot. With food, it's a little trickier -- because your dog will
always work best if there is a reward involved. HOWEVER, it's completely
feasibly to fade food rewards *ALMOST* all the way out -- and, in
fact, the dog will work even HARDER if you DO this. Please read
the article on Positive Reinforcement for more on "extinction".

Teaching "sit":

In the initial phases, use food treats to lure the dog into position.
Simply hold the treat between thumb and forefinger, and raise it
above (just slightly out of reach) and toward the back of the dog's
head. In most instances, the dog will follow the treat with its
eyes, until it naturally sits down -- give the reward *as* his butt
touches the floor. If your dog doesn't sit using this method, simply
place one foot behind his 2 back feet, so that he can't back up
comfortably... as he becomes more proficient, fade out the placement
of your foot by sliding it further from him each time. Continue
doing this until the simple hand motion causes your dog to sit --
then, it's time to give the cue (verbal command). When the dog
sits on cue, the command can be generalized to other areas, then proofed using distractions.

A word about direction: the way your dog faces when seated is of
some importance, under certain circumstances. My dogs are trained
to sit automatically at my side facing the same direction, if we
stop at a street corner. If I give the "sit" command, they sit
wherever they are, facing whatever direction they're facing. And
{grin}, the "front" command means that they're to move IN FRONT
of me, and sit FACING me. For now, at the beginner level, it's
best to work on a simple sit -- wherever you are, plant your butt
on a surface. In time, you can work on more defined versions of this.

If at any time your dog looks confused, please don't just write
it off to stupidness, stubbornness, or dominance. Your dog's confusion
is much more likely to be caused by distractions, or a change of
location (lack of generalization) than by any of these. Lower your
expectations, and keep working *happily*. You'll get it.

Brenda & Kim