Imagine this...if you say "sit" and press on your dog's back end, forcing him to get in a sit position, releasing the
pressure only once his rearend is on the ground, your dog may learn to
sit on cue (this is an example of negative reinforcement - you release the
pressure to reinforce the correct behavior of sitting). However!!! -- if your dog sits
only to prevent you from pushing on him/her, do you think "sit" carries a
pleasant association? It actually teaches the dog to have a negative association to you, because s/he knows that if the sit doesn't happen, you are going to force it.
A better way to teach sit is through lure-reward training, made famous by Dr. Ian Dunbar.
How to teach a sit:
1.
Wait
for your dog to sit!
2. When s/he does, the second s/he does, reward with a word like "yes" and "good" and give a treat.
If s/he is still not sitting after a few minutes, you can lure the behavior:
1. Stand in front of the dog, show him/her the
treat
2. Move the treat from the nose to just behind
his eyebrows - which makes the head go up and the bottom go down!
3. When s/he sits, use your reinforcer word and treat!
4. After s/he has done this about fifteen
times say the word “Sit” in a happy but calm voice just when you start
moving the treat from his/er nose to his eyebrows.
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