Training to sit

Hey guys and gals, I have a quick question and was hoping someone could answer. So I've begun training my puppy, Sonic, to sit. Even from the first day that I got him, he would normally follow me, stand in front of me and sit without me even saying anything. Is that a sign that he will learn the "sit" with ease? Or is that just normal behavior for a puppy his age? He is 10 weeks now.

Thanks

 

Hi @JZSmooth

It's normal behaviour for puppies to follow you around. And such following at that age can be somewhat hard work so they do tend to sit

Watch the video by Pippa and start on recall training while it is a naturally occurring behaviour.

https://thelabradorforum.com/threads/attention-new-puppy-owners-let-your-puppy-off-the-lead.1333/

 

Dogs learn to sit quite easily and a lot of times they do it naturally, which seems to be happening with your dog. I would just start keeping treats or kibble in your pocket and and start saying sit when you sense or can see that he is about to do it. Then give him a treat and praise him. Enough repetition and he will start doing it on your command.

It’s never too early to start training your puppy. I started the moment I got mine. You just have to keep the sessions short when they are really young because they have short attention spans and you want them to have fun with their training.

 

Thanks, I try and keep them short. I usually do it for about 5 to 10 minutes.

 

This is what we call "manding" (in Puppy Culture terminology) and a "Default Sit" (in everyone else's terminology!).

Remember that just because you haven't asked him to Sit, doesn't mean you can't reinforce it. The more you 'pay' the Sit when it happens, the more frequently and often the dog will 'guess' a Sit - and a dog which is guessing a Sit, is not jumping up or attempting to get what they want in any other way. So it is excellent practice to reinforce.

Here I am, working on manding with our last litter - it's really hard with a whole litter because everyone attempts to get the treat each time(!), not just the sitting puppy - I think they were about 5-6 weeks here:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1091216540966835