Training Your Pitbull to Sit

The sit command is one of the most basic yet recommended commands for every pitbull owner out there. This command is particularly useful when training your puppy various of other commands. What we’re going to try to accomplish is make our pitbull puppy sit when we give him a vocal command prompting our puppy to do so.

Here’s what you will need: :

1. A pitbull 2. Yummy dog treats 3. 15 Minutes a day 4. Enthusiasm

The first step is to get the puppy’s attention. Remember if the puppy isn’t paying attention you can either find a quiet place or simply do it another time. As soon as your puppy gets bored and doesn’t want to do command learning anymore stop and continue later on.

Once you got your puppy’s attention with one of his favorite treats (place it in your hand in front of his nose but don’t let him eat it) make sure he’s in a standing position and give him the command -Roxy, Sit!-. Keep in mind that you need to first call out your puppy’s name to get his attention and make him know that you’re referring to him following your command. This is to prevent your puppy from repeating the command whenever you mention the word -Sit- in a conversation even when you’re not referring to your dog.

Now gently push him down in a sitting position (you can use the treat to help you motivate him to do what you want him to) and let him have it as soon as he sits down and praise enthusiastically. Praise and treats should be given no more than 5 seconds after your puppy successfully sits. The quicker the better as your dog will be able to better associate the command with the treats. If you praise him more than 5 seconds after he sits down then he may not be able to associate the praise with the command and the action so make sure to do it quickly!

What this does is it associates the command -Sit- with the sitting position. Because you are praising him and providing treats he will quickly learn that when you say -Sit- he will get praised and rewarded for good job done. This concept applies to many other commands and even behavioral corrections. Positive reinforcement training method is one of the best methods to train your dog.

One of the important things to remember is to repeat this process every day for 5 to 10 minutes or until your puppy doesn’t want to learn any longer. Always remember that a quieter place will make it easier for your puppy to concentrate and you will overall experience better success. Congratulations, you successfully trained pitbull to sit.