Sit Lesson

I SAID SIT-DOWN...

LESSON TWO

BY KAREN TAYLOR, My Best Friend Obedience

So you have read the last installment of “On Training” (available thru the site map of valleypetnews.com) and now you are ready to teach your dog to go get a beer, the television remote, answer the phone … Ok, one step at a time. But really these things are not as difficult to teach as you might think. In fact complex behaviors are a product of many simpler ones chained together, so we need to teach your dog some basic commands first, like SIT and LAY DOWN. In order to teach this we will use a technique called “luring.”

Luring is used to coax the dog into the positions we will be teaching. There are a number of ways to teach the dog to follow your direction. I have found that luring the dog with a treat is the most effective way because it does not require you to touch the dog, which could distract him from what you are teaching. Nor does it require you to be physically forceful in any way to get him into the position. It also helps the dog to begin recognizing the hand motions, that will later become “hand signals,” that you can use as a separate non-verbal command to instruct your dog. Besides, dogs are already more body language oriented than verbal, so they understand things better when you communicate with your body instead of your mouth.

TO REVIEW:

You understand how to “mark” a desirable behavior (this could be with a clicker or the word “yes”) the moment your dog offers you the behavior you desire.
You have discovered the rewards your dog considers valuable, and have five available now that are valuable enough to keep his attention given the present level of distraction. For example: Your dog greets by jumping up because he/she wants petting or to get what you are holding in your hands. Getting whatever you have in your hand, or petting, becomes the reward in that situation.
You have trained your dog to recognize a marker using an appropriate reward for each behavior desired using the “mark and treat” method.
You have experimented with marking behaviors you like, or the absence of behaviors you don’t like. Such as, teaching your dog NOT to jump up by marking and rewarding a behavior that is incompatible with jumping up. Like teaching puppy to greet you while standing on all four feet, sitting or laying down.

EQUIPMENT:

A flat, leather or nylon leash. Retractable, chain or rope style leads are hard to handle during training.
Five rewards (preferably food type for this exercise).
A fanny pack or a construction nail bag to wear around your waist to keep your treats in for easy access. I find it is easier to just put the treats in a pack without using a plastic bag to contain them. The dog will often react to the sound of the plastic bag instead of your marker.
A “marker” … the word “Yes,” “Good,” a clicker, maybe even a plastic bag to crinkle … the sound of digging for treats.

SIT:

Put your dog on a leash and stand (or kneel if you have a small dog) on the leash so that your dog can only move a few feet from where you are. Get a treat in one hand, and if you are using a clicker, put that in the other. Get his/her interest in the treat, without giving the treat to the dog. Now we will LURE your dog to SIT using the “treat hand.” Since you are on top of your dog’s lead, he/she will not be able to move very far away. Put your “treat hand,” in front of you about six inches above your dog’s nose. Your dog should be somewhere in front of you by now, facing you, and eagerly awaiting the treat. Now you can move the “treat hand” away from your body, still keeping it about three to six inches above your dog’s nose. As his/her nose reaches upward toward the treat, trace the treat over his head, along his spine, and back toward his tail. Since he/she cannot go backward with you standing on his/her lead, his/her “rear” should end up on the ground. It is as if you are drawing an invisible line from the dog’s nose to its tail in order to lure it into a sitting position. As soon as your dog’s rear-end hits the ground … MARK it and REWARD.

When do you say the word “SIT”? When your dog will follow the motion of your hand with the treat … readily … into a sitting position. Why? Because your dog will not understand what the word means until you can have him “sitting” when you want. Saying “SIT” beforehand is meaningless to your dog because it doesn’t understand what the word means. While your dog is allowing you to lure him/her into a seated position, he/she is thinking of what you are guiding him/her to do, not of what you are saying. First, do a few repetitions luring your dog into the SIT position without saying the word. Once you have completed that successfully then you may say, “SIT” prior to luring your dog into the position.

If your dog seems to be having difficulty, try doing the luring motion faster. Or maybe you need to go slower, clicking/marking each small move his/her butt makes toward the ground, to help your dog understand he/she is “getting warmer.” Maybe you need to lure with a better treat? If you are still having trouble it may be necessary to gently guide your dogs rear to the ground with your “clicker hand” while luring your dogs nose upward with the “treat hand.” If your dog tries leap for the treat it may be too far from his nose. If he/she is not following the treat try letting them nibble it a little more and move it again.

LAY DOWN:

Now that you understand the process, LAY DOWN should be simple to teach. Get your dog sitting using the process above. From the sit position you will lure your dog into a DOWN. To do this, kneel down next to your sitting dog and put your “clicker hand” on his shoulders. Put your treat hand in front of your dog’s nose and let him nibble the treat while you lure his nose straight down between his front paws to the ground. In order to get him/her to come forward without getting out of the seated position you may need to use your clicker hand to keep some gentle pressure on his/her shoulders, back or rear-end, so he/she does not get up. With your dog nibbling the treat on the ground between his front paws, lure your dog’s head forward slowly. This should cause him to drop down onto his front elbows. Once his chest touches the ground, click and allow him to eat the treat. Basically you will be tracing an “L” with the treat in front your dog starting with your dog sitting and his nose facing the top of the “L,” then tracing the vertical line of the “L” down to the ground (between your dog’s paws if his is still sitting) and pulling the dog forward with the treat to a reclining position, completing the horizontal part of the “L.”

When do you say the word DOWN? Of course you already know the answer to that it is the same process as with SIT. I will caution you though, if you are using the word “DOWN” be sure not to use that word in conjunction with other things. For example, if you use the word DOWN to mean “get off the furniture” or “don’t jump on me” it may be better to choose another word such as “Crash,” “Place” or Lay” for the LAY DOWN command.

If you are having a problem getting your dog down … right same answer as above. Maybe you need to go slower with the treat, clicking each step toward the ground. Or maybe you need to go faster, or gently guide you dog’s front feet out from under him. Maybe you need a better treat … oh, you know the drill. If things do go awry, don’t worry. Just get your dog sitting again and start over. Keep at it and you will get it in time.

The key is to go slow teaching each thing. Keep calm and remain patient. You dog will sense your frustration or anger quickly and loose interest in playing training games with you. If either of you make a mistake it is not a big deal … just do it again and try something a little different. Try to trouble shoot by asking yourself what you could be doing differently to help your dog understand. Most dogs are eager to learn as long as you keep your patience and have a yummy treat in hand. How do you do it without a yummy treat in hand? That answer, and more, in the next installment of Dog Training the MY BEST FRIEND OBEDIENCE way.