#136 Distance Makes the Sit Grow Stronger

"Sit" seems like the simplest command until you ask your dog to do it from across the room. Suddenly, your well-trained pup comes running to you before planting their bottom on the ground. Sound familiar?

Chapters

• 0:02 The Common Sit Command Confusion
• 0:43 How Dogs Learn Patterns Accidentally
• 1:15 Fixing Sit: Changing Body Positions
• 1:45 Building Distance Gradually
• 2:51 Practice Makes Perfect

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Let's talk about a little training hiccup that a lot of us run into, thinking that our dog understands sit. Well, at least they do, until we ask them to sit from across the room. We've all been there. Our dog is across the living room, we cue sit and instead of sitting he runs all the way over to us and then he sits. And it's not because he's stubborn or he's ignoring us. It's because we accidentally taught them that sit means walk over to your human and then put your bottom on the ground and then put your bottom on the ground. We didn't mean to, but dogs study patterns and most of us teach sit the same way. Every time we're standing in front of our dog, they're looking at us and we're usually holding a treat, so of course they think that whole picture is part of the cue. If that sounds familiar, you're not alone. It's a super common training track. But the good news is it's also super easy to fix.

Speaker 1: 1:15

We just need to start mixing up the way we ask for a sit. One way to do it is to change our body position. Try cueing sit when you're sitting on the couch or when you're kneeling, or even when you're laying down, if your dog only knows how to respond when we're standing upright with perfect posture. That's not going to help us a lot in real life. Then we can start working on adding distance. We don't have to go from right in front of them to across the yard, but we start small. Maybe take one step back away from your dog and cue sit. If they try to move towards you, just back up again. Keep trying that until they sit when you're a step or two away.

Speaker 1: 2:06

And another trick that I found helpful is to put something between me and the dog, like a coffee table or a kitchen island. That way, if they try to come to me before sitting, I can move around the object so they can't catch me and eventually they're going to stop moving, look at us and realize that we want them to sit right where they are. And when they finally offer that, sit from a few feet away, throw a party, praise, treats, whatever it is that makes your dog happy, because what we're really doing is helping them understand that the word sit means sit, no matter where we are or what we're doing. That kind of reliable response doesn't happen overnight, but it does happen if we stay consistent and practice in small, manageable steps. So if your dog thinks that sit only works when you're face to face, no judgment. It just means we taught the pattern really well and now we're ready to teach a new one. And let's meet them where they are, work in a little distance at a time and build up from there. They'll get it. Honest.