Taught Puppy to "sit"

PurpleBerry

I just taught my puppy the "sit" command and he's started to move into the sit position without being asked. I think he may be looking for praise (because I praised him when he sit when asked to) but I don't think I should praise him unless I've actually asked him to sit.

Am I right to ignore the fact that's he has sit, when I haven't asked him to?

MissyN

Did you give him any food when you were praising him? Maybe he's just looking for the bit of food again esp if it was meat or something very tasty. If hes just looking for praise then maybe I'd just say good boy and not make a big thing of it. If he's dying to please you (without the food motivation that is) then I'd say thats a good thing. How old is he ? Hes very smart.

PurpleBerry

Thanks Missy, he's two days shy of 13 weeks old. I didn't give him any food treats, just lots of praise. I want him to realise that I'm not praising him just for the act of sitting, I'm praising him for doing as he's told.

MissyN

Yeah I see what you mean. Hes dying to please you anyway which is great. Hes not just running around doing his own thing (well maybe hes doing that a little too) What breed is he ?

PurpleBerry

He's a Cavalier King Charles. We've been house-training for 9 days and he's picked that up quite well too. Still has a fair few accidents but tonight he actually pawed at the dorr to be let out, which was great.

So he seems to pick things up well, but does need a lot of reminding to keep doing them

bigpinkelephant

Oh he's adorable. I love your sig!

peasant

To be very pernickety here:

You didn't teach your dog to sit ...he can do that all by himself. You did teach him to connect the word "sit" with the action of sitting down ...sort of.

He was so delighted to get praised for sitting that his doing a sit all by himself now, just to get more praise.

So, you've accomplished the first step but you have to keep at it.

Don't praise him when he sits all by himself and keep practising.

Be patient though and don't overdo it, hes only young and he'll cotton on quick enough if you don't stress about it.

Just use his eagerness to your advantage. When yo can see that he's about to do a sit (without command), then just say "sit" while his bum is still in the air and praise as soon as he sits. If you have done that a few times then you can go a step further and ask him to sit when he doesn't show any intention of doing it himself.

The next stage then is to connect the "sit" to other things. You may want him to sit when his bowl is put down, when the lead is put on, when the door gets openend, etc. Practise that enough and it will happen automatically later on.

seanybiker

ah he is cool. Bit of the ould ghey paw on him though lol

PurpleBerry

Thanks for the compliment bigpinkelephant and for the advice peasent. I want to get things right from the beginning rther than the poor mite having to unlearn things later.

And thanks for the heads-up seanybiker, I'll have to watch that if I want to breed from him

Bicky

The best advice i can give is to get a clicker. They are a fantastic training tool.

peasant

Bicky wrote: »

The best advice i can give is to get a clicker. They are a fantastic training tool.

Why, what for?

Neesa seems to get on swimmingly without one so far.

By all means read up on clicker training methods (how to praise/reward, how to get the timing right, etc) but please spare yourself (and your dog) that annoying contraption.

PurpleBerry

I have heard of clickers but I didn't think I needed one, not at this stage anyway.

bigpinkelephant

peasant wrote: »

To be very pernickety here:

You didn't teach your dog to sit ...he can do that all by himself. You did teach him to connect the word "sit" with the action of sitting down ...sort of.

Good to see you're as argumentative as ever- what exactly was the point of this smart remark?

peasant

bigpinkelephant wrote: »

Good to see you're as argumentative as ever- what exactly was the point of this smart remark?

Argumentative? me? never ...:D

The point of the remark is to make it clear(er) what dog training actually means.

You simply cannot teach a dog something that it isn't already capable of doing by itself.

You can however (through praise and repetition) channel behaviours that a dog offers naturally into desired behaviour that you want and then associate it with a command so that the dog shows the behaviour when you say the word. That's basic dog training.

One step up from that is where you combine several natural behaviours into a sequence (a routine) that the dog normally wouldn't do by itself (not in that order, anyway)

Semantics, if you want ...but important semantics for understanding your dog better.

You can not teach your dog to sit (it learns to sit all by itself) but you can teach it to sit when you say so ...and if you're really good you can teach it to sit (without saying so) whenever you're doing something else (like putting its bowl down or putting its lead on)

bigpinkelephant

peasant wrote: »

Argumentative? me? never ...:D

The point of the remark is to make it clear(er) what dog training actually means.

You simply cannot teach a dog something that it isn't already capable of doing by itself.

You can however (through praise and repetition) channel behaviours that a dog offers naturally into desired behaviour that you want and then associate it with a command so that the dog shows the behaviour when you say the word. That's basic dog training.

One step up from that is where you combine several natural behaviours into a sequence (a routine) that the dog normally wouldn't do by itself (not in that order, anyway)

Semantics, if you want ...but important semantics for understanding your dog better.

You can not teach your dog to sit (it learns to sit all by itself) but you can teach it to sit when you say so ...and if you're really good you can teach it to sit (without saying so) whenever you're doing something else (like putting its bowl down or putting its lead on)

Well obviously the dog already knows how to sit. Next you'll be telling me that they can breathe as well. What a pointless post.

The OP said "the sit command" in the first place so you're just looking for a reason to look down your nose at people. As always.

peasant

bigpinkelephant wrote: »

Well obviously the dog already knows how to sit. Next you'll be telling me that they can breathe as well. What a pointless post.

The OP said "the sit command" in the first place so you're just looking for a reason to look down your nose at people. As always.

Saying the "sit" command on its own doesn't do anything. You have to say it at the right time in order for the dog to be able to make the connection between the sound and the action.

Only when that connection is made and embedded through enough repetition in varying environements and circumstances can you truly "command" a dog to "sit" and expect that it does it. Otherwise you're just producing meaningless noise.

That was the whole point of my posts.

As for looking down my nose ...well it happens to be in the middle of my face and rather big, so I have no choice in the matter.

I'd happily accept factual criticisms of my posts but I'd rather you'd keep the personal dislike you harbour for me to yourself and the thread on topic, thank you.

bigpinkelephant

peasant wrote: »

I'd happily accept factual criticisms of my posts but I'd rather you'd keep the personal dislike you harbour for me to yourself and the thread on topic, thank you.

I don't have a personal dislike for you considering I have never met you.
I do have a dislike for the fact that you drag every thread you post in off topic with your rants and raves. And in your last post you are just stating the obvious for the sake of using big words and trying to make other people look stupid.