How To Teach Your Dog To Sit

I have what are basically the two cutest dogs in the whole wide world. But, they can be a total pain sometimes and that’s why we have worked to train them.

This post is sponsored by The J.M. Smucker Company. All opinions are my own.

My favorite thing they know how to do is to sit and wait on treats. It’s hard for them, because they’re dogs! More than anything they just want to devour those completely delicious treats as fast as they can.

The thing about teaching your puppers to sit is that it’s all about positive reinforcement. Dogs react REALLY well to positive reinforcement, and they respond even better when that positive reinforcement is a treat! When you’re teaching them to sit, you want a treat like Pup-Peroni® Jerky Bites with the premium ingredients like real pork or beef. You can find both flavors, pork and beef, at Walmart in the dog snacks aisle! Because it’s not just something they love, it’s something you can feel good about giving to them! They’re made with real pork or beef (as the #1 ingredient) and have no grain, meat by products, fillers or artificial flavors added.

First thing’s first. When you go to give them a treat, say the word “SIT” loud and strong. Not in a mean way, but in a way your dog understands what you mean. Nugget (my Yorkie) is just now learning this trick, so he sometimes needs a little help understanding what to do when we tell him to sit. So we just give him a little push on his backside. Not hard or anything, but just so he knows to sit down. Sometimes all it takes now is a little scrunch. I usually tear the Pup-Peroni snacks into pieces for him because he’s just a six pounder.

Now, here’s the tricky part. You don’t want them to just sit for a second, you want them to wait, too. This part can be tricky for puppies, so you just give them a little scratch right under their chin and make eye contact. So they know you want them to wait.

Once you have them sitting and waiting, move your hands and have your puppy wait just a few seconds without you touching them at all. This is them actually doing the trick! Go little dog go!

And if you are wanting to try out a super advanced technique, you can even put the treat right on their nose! Just be sure to have them sit there and wait. Our bigger dog, Lulu has been working on this trick for a while! Look at her go!

But you don’t want to make them wait too long! After all, those treats are completely delicious and they really really want them! Sometimes though, when you’re training you have to stop everything and just do a reset to kind of start over and have them sit back down. But you don’t want to do this too many times, or else they won’t associate the treat with the action of sitting. And that’s the part you’re trying to train them to do.

And remember, after they spend all their time working on their sitting and waiting, be sure to show them some extra special love and snuggles. They are going to be pretty tuckered out after all that work!

I mean, after all, that’s what pups are all about, right? (Side note, my husband swore to me he wasn’t going to fall in love with my Yorkie when I got him, and now I can’t separate the two!)