How to train a puppy to sit and stay?

Last Updated on May 14, 2023

 

Your dog living a good and peaceful life has much to do with how well they understand and act on your command. One of the first things the owners need to teach is “how to train your puppy to sit and stay?”. Puppies are energetic and thrilled to learn new tricks. Teaching them how to sit is a good start for the training phase. 

Puppies learn fastest and best with positive reinforcements. But they don’t understand your language or words. So how would you train them to follow your command? You will learn about training your puppy to sit and stay in the blog. 

Listen to this article below. 

Why Should I Train My Puppy to Sit? 

 

Teaching your pup to sit is one of the first few things you would familiarise them with. But the question is, why should you train your puppy to sit? Well, there are a few reasons why you should teach them to sit. Such as- 

1. Teaching pups how to sit makes managing them more convenient for you. How? Let’s suppose you are cooking or doing household work, and your dog is walking around the house with you, running outside, or tripping on you; how risky would that be? If your dog knows how to sit, it will play with the toys or wait for you patiently while you do your work. 
2. Giving your pup the command to sit will divert its mind from distractions. It reduces the possibility of being dragged to the ground, injuring yourself, and preventing your dog from entering a potentially dangerous situation. Imagine how the sit command will help you manage multiple dogs on a walk. 
3. Sitting will teach your puppy self-control. You can gradually increase its use as your pup learns that sitting equals good things. Ask your puppy to sit for whatever it desires. For example, tell your puppy to sit first if it gives you something to throw. Then let it go and throw the ball. The prize is chasing the ball.
4. Training to sit helps to calm them down around people. We all know how excited dogs get when they see someone. And one of the ways dogs show their excitement is by jumping on people. It sounds fun but can be pretty dangerous with bigger dogs. Training your puppy to sit will help them calm their nerves around people, and more importantly, they won’t jump. 

 

How to Train a Puppy to Sit and Stay?

Training your puppy to sit doesn’t take a lot of effort. Puppies know how to sit. The challenge here is teaching them how to sit on your command. It takes one or two weeks to train. The training requires a lot of positive reinforcement and patience from your end. Puppies don’t understand your command but know what will give them treats, and that is paying attention to your cue. Following are the few steps you can use to train your puppy to sit and stay

 

Step 1- Choose a place with fewer distractions. Make sure that they are paying attention to you and that they are hungry. Because if they are not hungry, they will not be excited about the treats.

Step 2- Stand in front of your puppy with a high-value treat in your hand. Let them sniff your hand first to ensure that they know you have a treat in your hand. 

Step 3- Now say ‘sit’ with an authoritative tone and move your hand above your pup’s eye level. Its eyes will follow your hand, making your puppy’s bottom touch the ground. Now reward the puppy with a treat. 

Step 4- Once they are sat, say ‘stay’. Now move your hand with the treat around and sideways. The pup’s eyes will follow your hand while waiting for the command. Say ‘stay’ a few more times to familiarise them with the command. Once they pass the test, reward them with another treat. 

Step 5- If your keep training every day for a week, your puppy will begin to sit and stay whenever they hear you say ‘sit’ and ‘stay’. 

Here are a few things to keep in mind during training-

1. The treat should be small in size because you are going to give the treats frequently. 
2. You should use an authoritative tone because dogs understand the tone of your voice to interpret the message just like humans. 
3. You must train your dog to sit and stay for a week or two every day. 
4. Your puppy may not always get your command and act accordingly. So you must be patient. 
5. Keep training them occasionally to keep them familiar with the command. 

Conclusion 

Your puppy’s safety depends a lot on the training. So spending some time every day to train them will teach them to behave and keep them away from a lot of danger. And most importantly, you are spending time with your best friend so they can live safely with you for a long time. 

 

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