How to teach a dog to sit

What “sit” actually means

In Proof this is a skill in its own right, because the default "park yourself" position most other behaviours build on.

The stages

These steps are a draft pending review by a credentialed trainer. They describe standard positive-reinforcement marker training; the app carries the same notice on every session screen.

1. Stage 1 — Lured sit

   Goal: Dog sits following the hand motion, 8 of 10 reps

   1. Treat at the nose, move it slowly up and slightly back over the head.
   2. The rear drops — mark the instant it touches, treat.
   3. After a few good reps, do the same motion with an empty hand; treat from the other hand.

   If it goes wrong

   • Dog jumps at the lure? Your hand is too high — keep it a whisker above the nose.
   • Dog backs up instead of sitting? Work with a wall behind them.

2. Stage 2 — On cue, no lure

   Goal: Dog sits on the word alone

   1. Say "sit", pause a beat, then give the hand signal. Mark and treat the sit.
   2. When the dog starts beating the hand signal, drop it.

   If it goes wrong

   • Nothing happens on the word? Normal — the word is new. Help with the signal after one beat; never repeat the word.
   • Only sits when you have food? The lure faded too slowly. Empty hands, treats arrive from the pouch after the mark.

How long does it take?

Most foundation skills reach their bar in two to four weeks of short daily sessions. Adolescence can temporarily un-stick anything, which is normal.

Proof does not put a timeline on an individual skill, and neither should anything else — the honest answer depends on the dog in front of you, how often you practise, and where you practise. What it does instead is measure: every session records how many reps landed, so progress is a number rather than a feeling.

Proving it in 3 different places

A behaviour that only works in the kitchen is situational, not trained. Sit counts as proven in Proof once it clears the bar above at the top stage in 3 genuinely different contexts:

• Indoors — the quiet room where everything works
• Garden — outdoors, but home turf
• Street — pavements, traffic, passing people
• Park — other dogs, long grass, real distraction
• Somewhere new — a place the dog has never worked before

Proof also expires. Leave a proven skill for two months without asking for it and it returns to the daily plan as a refresher, because that is what actually happens to trained behaviour.