Teaching your dog new commands is fun
It’s easy to teach a dog to sit and is going to make your life and your puppy’s life much more convenient. I started to train my dog at an early age, right when I brought him home. It took him only two days to get accustomed to the new environment and with me. I gained his trust and the training started. Every training session is a bonding experience between you and your puppy. You need to be patient with your dog and to enjoy every moment.
Your little puppy doesn’t know the meaning of a word. Put yourself in his place. He is hearing something, seeing you making weird signs that he is not aware of. If you lose your patience everything will be in vain. You need to make him understand what does a sign means and what a specific word means. It is confusing for your dog at first.
The sit command is essential for every dog, especially for Siberian husky puppies. Siberian Huskies tend to jump on everyone. Huskies will jump on your neighbors, your family members, on you, or on strangers while you are walking him on the streets. When you are walking your dog, other people tend to call him or speak in a high pitch voice. This action will trigger him and he will try to jump. You can’t stop strangers from doing that because you can’t be rude to everyone. And if you can’t train humans, then you need to train your husky. You don’t want to be the owner of that dog that jumps on people, or even worse on children on the streets or at parks.
By teaching your pet to sit while greeting instead of jumping on everyone, you will eliminate the possibility of knocking people over or injuring them. Especially when we talk about big and strong boys such as our beloved Siberian huskies. Even if it’s cute to see your puppy jump all over you when he’s a puppy, this behavior will be dangerous when he grows. And he will grow into a strong and beautiful dog that can knock people over, especially children. If you already have a Siberian husky, then you know that they are very excited when they see little kids. Kids love huskies a lot too.
Why should you teach a dog to sit?
As I mentioned earlier, teaching your dog to sit is the most helpful command that you can train your puppy. With active and energetic dogs, such as Siberian huskies, is a must.
Teaching your dog to sit it is convenient for you
My husky was overexcited while preparing his food and he was jumping all over me, so I need to teach my dog to sit at an early age. Huskies are super smart and he got it fast. Additional to the sit command, when he jumped on me while I was preparing his food, I did an extra thing. Each time he jumped on me, I took a step back from the bowl and table and crossed my arms. I had to do these a few times, to make him understand that if he jumps, he only delays his food. He loves his food, so he stopped jumping really quick.
Every member of the household has to do this before feeding. If the husky gets away with jumping on the person that is feeding him, then he will try again with the other member of the household. As I said before, it might be cute to see him jumping when he is just a sweet little puppy, but when grows he will easily injure somebody. Siberian huskies are big and strong dogs and they will act upon their instincts. And it’s not their fault if they misbehave, it’s yours. Dogs don’t know how to behave if you don’t teach them. It’s all on us, the owners.
Teach your dog to sit for safety reason
What does a simply command such as sit have to do with the safety of your dog? Well, a lot. Think at the moment you are taking out the garbage or you want to simply get out to the door. What does your puppy? Is he sitting patiently or he tries to get out the door? If your dog isn’t trained or scared of the outside world he will try to get out at any cost. You really don’t want to have him run into the street where there are cars and other dangerous things. Siberian Huskies are escape artists and they love to explore the world with any chance they have. It’s pretty tricky to make them come back to you. Especially when if you don’t have a recall.
This is why you have to teach your dog to sit for safety reasons. You don’t want your dog to run on the streets in front of the cars or to lose him outside and spend hours to find him or make him come back.
If you don’t want to go through those bad experiences, you can give him the sit command while you are going out to the door. It’s an easy command that can save your dog life. Give him the sit command when you are letting him in or out of the door, even if he is in leash. Make your dog sit before you give him food and even before you pet him. Reinforcing the sit command and other training commands on a daily basis for the first year of your dog’s life will make him a well-trained adult dog.
What you shouldn’t do when you try to train your dog to sit
Don’t force your dog into a sitting position
Don’t force your dog into a sitting position. Your dog will not understand what do you want or what you need for him. It’s nonsense and it’s not comfortable for your dog. Your puppy is not a toy or a doll or a puppet. It’s a dog. You can’t force a body position. If you are trying to force an adult dog into a sitting position, you will not get away how you get away when you try that with a puppy.
Put yourself in your dog’s place. What would you do if somebody tries to force you to sit in a position by using physical strength? You will retaliate. So will your dog. He will feel constrained and hear you probably screaming at him nonsense. Remember, he has no clue about what “sit” means. Your dog’s instincts will kick in. The dog might bite you or panic if you force him.
You should never use the leash to yank the dog into a sitting position
Yanking, pulling or pushing the dog’s bottom to the ground it’s plain stupid. Nobody should do that to a dog while trying to train him. It’s an ineffective technique and it will torment the dog. If you are using the leash while doing these things, the dog will be frightened when he will see a leash, even when it comes to taking the dog for a walk.
Let’s see how you can teach your puppy to sit
The sitting command is an easy training command. You don’t need the help of a professional trainer. You got this. It requires patience and a little effort.
As I start training my dog at an early age, I use the method called food-lure training. My husky puppy really enjoys his treats, and he will do anything for them. Puppies are capable of learning much from an early age, so you don’t need to wait until a specific age to start training them.
I used treats to train my little buddy. How you can do that too?
Preparation
Find a place, preferably a quiet room in your house. Your puppy is easily distracted. Remember, everything is new to him. He just arrived in this world. After you found a place that has no distraction or temptation, you can start the training.
Don’t forget about the tasty treats. You are going to work a lot with your dog and during training you’ll give him lots of treats. Use small treats because you want to keep his diet balanced. You can read here about a balanced diet. There are many doggy treats, but they usually are high calorie, so I added fruits to the training sessions. Frozen fruit treats make miracles during the teething period too.
Read here about Feeding fruits to your dog
Let the dog training begin
After you prepared the scene and treats, then it’s time for business. You’ll have a great time with your puppy.
- Show the tasty treat to your dog and get down in front of your puppy.
- Put the treat right in front of the dog’s nose and use a hand signal for the sit command.
- Slowly lift the treat above his head. He will probably sit as he lifts his head to get the treat and his bottom touches the ground.
- Allow him to eat the treat when he sits. He deserves the treat because he is such a good boy, right?
- Repeat
Once your puppy understands the hand signal that you picked for the sit command, you can begin saying “sit” right before you give the hand signal.
You might need to repeat the command using treats a few more times. After he learns the command, you can try without the lure. Tell him “sit” as you move your hand exactly as you did before but without holding the treat in it. Your puppy might struggle without the treat in your hand. And that is ok! Get back at training him with treats, and try without the lure again in the future. He will do it!
Use the sit command in different places
Your puppy might not listen to you when you are giving the sit command while you are somewhere else. These will happen at first on the new and busier location. I gradually increase the difficulty. First, I started in the house, in a quiet room. My little buddy was easily distracted, so I really needed a place where I could make him focus on me. After that, we did the sit command in the yard. With and without the leash. I was teaching him to walk on the leash too and he learned to love the leash. In the yard, there are a lot of distractions, such as cats, frogs, snails, and even leaves. You need to keep his focus on you.
After we did that, I started to give him the sit command outside when we went for the daily walks. Outside training is different from the training that you do in a controlled environment, such as your house or your garden.
You can use a clicker while you are training your dog. I didn’t use a clicker with my husky boy until he was 4 months old. There was no reason for not doing the training with a clicker. For him, with a clicker or without it’s the same thing. Though my husky lady really enjoys the clicker training and she responds much faster at the commands. It differs from dog to dog, and that’s ok. Your dog might get frightened at first from the click sound, so don’t force it. Let him get accustomed to the clicker and use a clicker that doesn’t make too much noise. Make your dog understand that every click comes with a reward. He will grow on it.
Final toughs
Training your dog will make your life easier and your dog’s life happier. You could have training sessions daily with your puppy. Repeating the commands on a daily basis will make your dog to not engage in improper behaviors. During session you have to be calm, clear and consistent. Everybody has to follow the same steps of the training commands if you have more members in the household. Don’t get your buddy confused.
I hope you enjoy this article. Don’t forget to leave a comment with your training method. I’ll be happy to read what works for you and your superstar buddy.
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