Sitting on cue is one of the most common basic obedience skills in the pet world. This is for good reason! “Sit” is a simple, versatile behavior that can make it easier to live with your dog. It's also a great starting point for more advanced tricks down the line.
Here's everything you need to know to teach your dog or puppy to sit. Why should you train this behavior? What supplies do you need to get started? How can you troubleshoot problems along the way?
Take a seat yourself and read on!
Sit is a great position for your dog to be in when you:
Sit is naturally a more relaxed posture than a standing position—but it's more active than lying down. This makes it an ideal middle ground situations where you want your dog to be still for a short time while still feeling like they can easily get up and move again.
(Down, on the other hand, is often ideal for distance stays.)
Holding an upright sitting position for different periods of time can also help build your dog's core strength. (You can read more about the importance of physical exercise in our guide here.)
A solid knowledge of how to sit when asked sets your dog up to learn more advanced skills. These include tricks like shake, sit pretty, holding objects in their mouth (it's easier for many dogs to do this when they're stationary in a seated position), and more!
When we ask our dogs to work for us, it’s only fair we “pay” them for their efforts. Reinforcers (often called rewards in everyday conversation) are things 1) our dogs love that 2) are easy for us to give them during a training session.
If possible, let your dog decide what they like best. Consider setting out multiple toy and treat rewards, seeing which one they go to first, and choosing that to teach new behaviors! (You can also vary between a few favorites to keep them interested.) The more excited your dog is for their reinforcer, the more motivated they'll be during your training session.
You can read more about reinforcement and operant conditioning in our Dog Training 101 article. It’s a great introduction to all things technical when it comes to working with our pets—including operant conditioning, classical conditioning, and basic canine cognition principles.
If you’ve heard of “clicker training” (first popularized by marine mammal trainers) then you’ve been exposed to the idea of a reward marker.
In technical terms, a marker is a conditioned stimulus that predicts a primary reinforcer. Put more simply? A reward marker is a sound or signal that “marks” exactly what your dog did to earn their reinforcement. This makes it possible for us to communicate clearly during training sessions—even if we’re unable to deliver a treat precisely when our dogs offer the right behavior.
No marker is inherently better than the others for all dogs and situations. What matters is that you pick one that works for you and stick to it! Consistency is key.
To make sure your dog understands that your marker sound or signal predicts a reward, spend a few sessions conditioning them to the stimulus. (If you already use reward markers in your training, skip on to the next section.)
You can charge your dog’s reward marker by:
Eventually your dog will start to respond to the noise itself. They might run towards you before you even reach for their treat or toy. This is a great sign they’re forming the right association.
Once your dog is conditioned to your chosen reward marker, you can start using it in training sessions to teach new skills.
It’s important to mark the right behavior the instant your dog performs it. Accurate timing makes for more effective teaching! And remember to always follow your marker with a reward. You have about 1.5 to 3 seconds to deliver reinforcement, give or take, to keep up your dog’s conditioned association.
Dogs pay a lot of attention to the world around them. Their sensitive ears and noses are especially affected in loud, busy situations. This can make it hard for them to focus on learning new things.
When teaching your dog to sit—or asking them to learn any new skill at all—it’s a good idea to start in a calm, familiar environment with limited distractions. An open room of your house, your own yard, or a favorite Sniffspot that you visit regularly (so your dog is comfortable there and used to any stimuli that might shorten their attention span) can be great options.
Before working with your dog, make sure you’re in a good headspace. It’s not always easy to communicate with another species. Even simple behaviors like sitting on cue can confuse our pets at first!
Be prepared to take things slowly and make your training sessions upbeat. Offer lots of praise and affection when your dog makes an effort—and keep things simple to get more buy-in from your dog, especially if they are an adolescent.
Above all: Remember that while training is important to live a harmonious life with your dog, it’s also meant to be fun. Learning to sit isn’t the end of the world. It should be a process where you bond with your dog—not one that makes you both feel stressed out. (That doesn’t mean you’ll never get frustrated or wish things were moving faster. We’re only human! Just be aware of your emotions. Try to stay focused on what matters most: spending time with your best friend and building valuable skills over time.)
Now that we’ve gone over the foundation of what you need to get started, you and your dog are ready to get moving (or should we say, sitting). Here are the nitty gritty details to teach your pup to sit on cue!
Luring is the most common method to teach our dogs new skills. It’s especially great for pets who are easily distracted or crave constant feedback from their owners.
Here's how to teach your dog to sit using a food lure:
Capturing your dog’s offered behaviors, and then shaping them into the final picture you want, is another way you can teach your dog to sit on cue. These sessions tend to be more mentally draining than luring, making them a great option for dogs with excess energy!
Capturing can be frustrating for pets who are anxious or insecure, though. Pay attention to your dog’s body language and change things up if they seem stressed.
Once your dog seems to be getting it—they reliably respond to your raised hand or even offer a sitting position on their own because they’ve learned it gets them treats—it’s time to add a visual cue.
Since most dogs learn to sit by luring, your hand signal will likely end up as a natural shortening, or smaller version, of that hand lure—just without the treat inside and perhaps an open palm or pointed finger.
(Most dogs find it easier to pay attention to our body movements than our words, but that isn’t a hard-and-fast rule. If you know your dog is particularly verbal and want to skip the hand signal to go right to a verbal cue, feel free! Just remember to change things up if your pup is struggling, as some dogs will get so frustrated they check out completely.)
To add a verbal cue, pair your new learned behavior stimulus—the word “sit” or whatever you choose—with your dog’s already-known hand signal:
Some dogs have a difficult time separating the pieces of a training picture from each other. If your dog is struggling to learn a verbal cue, make sure:
Never push your dog's butt to the floor with force. This aversive training technique not only risks causing physical pain—it can also be frightening for your pup. That will end up eroding your bond instead of building it.
Here are some common issues to think about if you’re having a hard time teaching your dog to sit.
Some pups hesitate to sit, lie down, or offer similar behaviors on cue because it’s uncomfortable for them due to arthritis, an acute injury (like a pulled muscle), or chronic health conditions.
If you notice that your dog is stiff or seems stressed in your sessions—especially if they used to move more willingly and now seem reluctant—consider visiting your veterinarian for a pain assessment. They’ll help you come up with a treatment plan to get back in the training groove!
Our dogs experience the world differently than we do. Sometimes we think we’re communicating one thing when they’re actually perceiving another.
If your dog seems confused about shaking on cue even after multiple short, upbeat training sessions, try to:
It’s what trainers are here for! If you and your dog are struggling to polish up their “sit” cue or any other tricks or obedience skills, reach out to a force-free professional trainer who can work with you in one-to-one training sessions. Personalized training is a great way to take your dog's training repertoire to the next level.
You’ve followed these steps, and after several training sessions your dog can reliably sit on cue inside your home. Yay! Your work is over, right?
Well, not quite.
Dogs often struggle to generalize behaviors. This means they might be able to Dogs often struggle to generalize behaviors. This means they might be able to follow basic cues in a familiar training environment but still struggle to perform out and about. Don't worry: This is completely normal, and it doesn't mean anything is wrong with your training! It just means your dog needs more practice to understand that “sit” always means to sit, regardless of where they are.
There is so much misinformation out there, and we want to make sure we only provide the highest quality information to our community. We have all of our articles reviewed by qualified, positive-only trainers.
This is the trainer that reviewed this article:
Kaia Wilson
CPDT-KA, Owner - Dogspeed Training
kaia.dogspeed@gmail.com dogspeed.dog
Find us on instagram 🐕@dogspeedtraining
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