Talk to me about sit/stay training

[Doodledangle]

DoodleDog (nearly 1) is a rescue with us nearly 2 months and settled well. He had zero training and we're working on recall on the long lead and he's mastered waiting to cross the road on command but that's it so need to up my game!

Next priority is getting him to either sit & stay or lie down in his bed when visitors arrive as he barks like crazy then runs & jumps up nipping clothes and ankles until he calms which isn't fun for anyone. He doesn't bite any other time so it's clearly over excitement & learned behaviour we need to undo. We've been ignoring/standing still but no real change.

Any advice on teaching a dog to sit and stay and/or go and lie down and wait on command. I've been trying the move a treat above/over his head but he's not massively good motivated and just backs up or gives up so my sit training technique clearly needs work!

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*no I don't work for them, but I have seen the results time and again.

Instead of moving the treat over his head, have you tried holding it right by his nose and moving it upwards rather than backwards? His nose should go up (after the treat) and his bum should go down onto the floor.

Another way of doing it is to wait until he sits naturally and mark/reward it. So every single time he puts his bum on the floor, say "sit!" and reward him. Eventually he should associate the word with the action and he'll do it when he's asked.

You need to train in the least distracting environment possible (normally alone in your living room) before moving into the garden and then outdoors. Once he reliably "sits", you can increase the distractions.

If he can't reliably sit or wait on command alone in the house, I think you're massively jumping the gun by expecting him to do it when the door goes. For now, I would just practise environmental management and put him behind a baby gate or on a lead for safety - you can work on the sit/stay once his training is more advanced.

Id pick your battles. If you can get a good on your bed do you care if he stands, sits or lies down? Id work on go to bed by getting him next to you, saying on your bed and running to the bed with him and rewarding touching/ getting on it in any way, then slowly refine your criteria ( i.e. touching, two paws on, four paws on).
id work on the wait ( which id differentiate from a stay) by getting him in front of you, "wait" take a stepback, come back and reward, 2 steps back, 2 steps side, diagonal, working up to out of sight. Then join it up with on the bed, wait. Then add in noise, movement, out of sight. Itll take a good long time for him not to be too distracted to ignore guests. My dog is just 2 and his on the bed wait is SOLID if its just us but no way he'd still let someone come in and stay on bed but he'd get back in if told and rewarded once theyre in

Snap! DD2 is also rescue, been with me almost 2 months. I had the same result teaching to sit (doing what you’re doing): she just backed up and looked confused/upset. But I discovered that it wasn’t my game I needed to up, but the treats. She “didn’t understand” for training treats, but she got it first time with a slice of frankfurter! Within 2 days, I could choose between saying “sit” or simply pointing to her back end, and got a reliable sit. It will take quite a bit more work, though, to get a lasting sit when she’s excited about something. Good luck!

Thanks all. @21ZIGGY I think you're right, at this stage I don't really care about the other stuff but getting him to go to his bed on command would make a huge difference and as you say, may not keep him there when the bell goes but could break the barking/nipping nonsense.

more enticing treats are a good idea so will have another go on the sit and rewatch some training videos. It's not the end of the world not being able to sit/lie but I do think it will help with general impulse control and being able to 'rein him in' in situations he gets over excited. I need to make a timetable for all this training - is that normal?!

For getting them to go to bed, you’re teaching a place command, for dogs, it’s easier to differentiate where you want them to go when there’s elevation, I started with a raised bed so that she could distinguish exactly where I wanted her to go.

I’m not a dog trainer by any means but I have trained my puppy to do ‘in your bed’ by dropping the treat into her bed, she then goes there to look for it. Then we graduated to once she had 4 paws on the bed, she then got the reward, then to sit and get the reward. So now (after several weeks) - In your bed means go to your bed and sit down. Our last puppy class was teaching a release word when doing sit, so she sits, gets a biscuit, then gets a second biscuit when I say ‘okay’. This means she doesn’t just touch her butt to the floor for a millisecond, but rather waits for her 2nd biccy. She’ll wait about 10 seconds now- but we never actually say ‘wait’

I will add as a disclaimer: I’m not a dog trainer. And my dog is incredibly trainable because she is the perfect combination of greedy and daft.

we also start every training session with some impulse training that seems to switch her on to being calm and learning. I was shared this video on our puppy chat threat on here, it’s been so useful. If your dog is a puppy come join our chat! The video is called ‘it’s yer choice’ and you can find it on YouTube. I’ll try to share it

Ah ok so his other sleeping point is on a blanket on the sofa so might that be a better place to start? It's literally next to his bed so makes no really difference

Just a thought? Have you tried ‘four on the floor’? When mincepup was small we were taught to throw little treats on the floor when someone comes through the door so she spent the time hoovering them up rather than jumping up to visitors. You can also give the person coming through the door treats to throw down so he’s preoccupied looking for them. You can practice with you and your partner going in and out of doors? We also put our pup on a lead and put her in her bed with a treat when we had visitors. She still loves to greet everyone but stays four on the floor and wriggles and wags like a demon!!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DBmLFn6YyoM this video. I do it before every training session. It really helps to switch on her impulse control (and her ears)

@colderandeatsmincepiesalot for people knocking at the door we do use the lead which stops the jumping up/nipping at least but we're a busy household with lots of coming and going so can't always preempt visitors. We definitely need to rethink treats as whilst DDog likes a treat, he's not massively fussed and it certainly wouldn't distract from the excitement of a visitor. Nearing meal times he's easier to train as he's more interested in treats but he's a very fussy eater with a sensitive tum so we have to be a bit careful with what we give him.

Much googling and 'place' command is EXACTLY what we need thank you all. Watching lots of videos, will share with DH and get cracking. I'll report back in a week or so

If this has been going on a while, ignoring is likely to make it escalate. You definitely need to teach an alternative behaviour in place of the undesirable one.

As others have said, a place command is a good idea, and you could couple this with the dog going to his 'place' when the doorbell rings.

Also, don't limit yourself to food / treats for training. Think about what the dog loves, and use that. Does he have a favourite toy, or game?

Also, you've only had him for 2 months, so he will still be settling in with you. If you are near a town, see if you can find a bench that is relatively near activity and go and sit on it with the dog with you. This will teach the dog to be calm around activity. Start on a bench a little further out if there is one, and then move to a bench nearer the activity etc. Everything needs to be done in small steps with dog training. My rescue calmed down a lot doing this, although I am lucky in that my local supermarket has quite a few benches conveniently spaced to allow me to get progressively nearer to activity. I spent an hour or so each time watching the world go by with a coffee. Quite relaxing too.

Finding a place to Sit quietly is a great idea I love that @HappiestSleeping and thank yes, slow, baby steps in order!

I did a week of an hour every couple of days on the furthest bench. At first doggo was up at everything and wouldn't relax. After 5 sessions, he was sat quietly at my feet. I then moved to the next nearest bench and did the same thing. Now I can take him to Caffè Nero and sit outside with a coffee right in the town centre.

You'll have to be ready for people just deciding for themselves that it's OK to touch the dog without asking, but you'll soon get used to dealing with them. I stood up rapidly and stepped in between them and the dog, which again reinforced to him that I would deal with whatever turned up and he could just chill.