© 2013 Jerry D. Patillo, CPDT-KA

How many times have you barked to your dog, “Sit, sit Sit, SIT, SIT!”? You’ve walked away and your dog still isn’t sitting. You’ve just taught your dog NOT to sit on command! You’ve taught it that “Sit, sit Sit, SIT, SIT!” means that it can continue doing whatever it wants to.

Remember, you‘re the leader; this is the dog. Yeah, yeah, you say you’re the Alpha. Really? So, how’s “Sit” working for you right now? Is your dog sitting at least 80% of the time, in 80% of the different situations it’s in? Does your dog sit 80% of the time when you’re 10 feet away from it? Let’s start all over from the very beginning. Let’s reestablish you as the leader. Okay?

Your dog already knows how to sit. It’s known this since birth. Your job now is to teach it (or re-teach it) to do something it already naturally knows how to do, ON COMMAND.

Keep your training sessions short and sweet, just two or three minutes at a time. Train your dog several times throughout the day, but each time should be only two or three minutes in length. This is good for your dog’s attention span, and definitely good for your patience span!