Teaching An Adopted Dog to "Sit"

Dogs that have been living on the street or in a pound facility are not usually relaxed or trusting enough to sit and lie down in front of strangers, whether those strangers are human or other canines. Depending on the dog's mental state, clicker training (where you see the behavior and click to reinforce it) can be an effective way to train the sit command. If you have a newly adopted dog that is fearful and jumps at every sound or movement, however, you'll need a different method.

Terriers frequently require different training techniques than other dogs, but what I'm about to suggest will work for any dog. This is how we are training GG, our foster Airedale, to sit.

The easiest and quickest way to teach "sit" is to let your adoptee see other dogs doing it for a reason. This is often called putting the behavior in context. The best reason for a dog to sit is so that he can receive a treat. If you have another dog that already knows the sit command, you won’t have a problem teaching it to the new dog in your family. If you don’t have another dog, find someone at a local park who does (*not a dog park!) or get a friend who does have such a savvy dog to help you. And take a training partner with you who can hold your dog’s leash while you are working with the other dog.

You’ll be using treats and hotdog wieners are great for this project. Space the dogs about eight feet from each other so there won’t be any difficulty with treat possessiveness. Have your partner hold your dog’s leash. Then give each dog a small piece of the treat without asking either one to work for the reward. The next time, go to the other dog and tell her “SIT!” When she does, give her a treat and praise her with “Good SIT!” Be sure to put the emphasis on the command.

Repeat this three or four times. Then return to your own dog and let him see and smell a treat in your hand. Do not say anything. Just hold the treat out where your dog can see it and wait patiently for the canine light bulb equivalent to turn on in his head. If that doesn’t happen within a couple of minutes, go back to the trained dog and repeat the Sit exercise with her. Then return to your own dog and try it again. This technique works fairly quickly because hotdog wieners are a smelly, moist, tasty incentive. When your dog does give you his first Sit for a treat, praise him in a quiet voice. The second time he does it, praise in a louder voice. The third time he does it, praise him as though he just walked on the moon.

Now that your dog has the basic understanding of the command being communicated to him, practice “SIT” in every room of the house. It’s important for Fideaux to understand that "sit" means sit no matter where you say it.

* Save the dog park experience for the time when your dog is completely successful with his basic obedience skills. He'll be more confident and less likely to be reactive if a negative situation arises.

Update on GG's Training

Hi to all our Friends!

Things have been very busy at Hooligan House. GG and Jack and Duke are getting along very well together and GG has been proclaimed "officially potty trained"!  HURRAH! The tether technique does work, if you work it. And we did, 24/7 until a couple of days ago when she started showing us that she wanted and needed to go outside to do her business.

While we were working on that Very Important Problem, we also began training GG to "come" to us on command. That's a little trickier to teach an adult rescue dog than it is a puppy.

Puppies come to humans out of curiosity and playfulness, so they are easy to teach. The best way to get an adult dog to come to you is to gain that dog’s trust. And you can’t do that by barking commands and raising the household stress level. Instead, each and every time the dog is near you, reach over and scratch behind her ears or gently scruffle her chest while you repeat her name a few times. Offer her treats and say her name while she is eating them. After a few days of this, when she hears you say her name she is going to perk up and look at you. A couple of days later, she’s going to come to you when you say her name. The first time that happens, pet her gently and say the word, “Come” in a happy voice. Continue working with your dog this way and she’ll learn the come command without even realizing she is being trained.

GG now turns and looks at us expectantly when we call her name and then comes trotting over to us to have her ears scruffled and receive a treat. She even does it off-leash, while playing in our fenced yard. We vary the reward so that sometimes she gets a tasty treat and sometimes she gets a backscratch. She enjoys both equally, so we are checking the "come" command off our list. Good GRRLL, GG!

In other news, Duke has weathered the first thunderstorm since his new crate arrived. He did very well, and we didn't find any evidence of physical trauma in the dog den. Of course, he and GG were howling and crying to get to each other when I got home from the office that day, but that's not a sign that anything was wrong. It's just how Hooligans roll.

Training A Rescued Adult Dog

Mom of Hooligans here! We've already had a breakthrough in GG's housetraining, so I thought that in today's blog, I'd share with you how we're handling this.

We use two leashes, one six feet long and the other at least ten feet long. While GG is in the house, I keep the six foot leash snapped to her collar and tethered to my belt. That way, I know where she is at all times and can read the signals she throws out when she is ready to go potty. If I am going to be doing something that will make it inconvenient to have her tethered to me, she goes into her crate until I am finished and then she comes out to be tethered to me again. Not only is this helpful in learning her body language, but it will help her develop some socialization she may be lacking from her time on the streets and in a shelter.

When I take GG outdoors to go potty, I put the long leash on her and take her to the same area each time. Many newly adopted dogs don’t want to “go” in front of their new humans. The longer leash gives GG a sense of not being right under my eye while she takes care of private business. I praise lavishly every time GG potties outdoors. We are associating the word "potty" for urination and the word "poo" for the other business. And, for the record, if your dog makes a mistake in the house, it’s your fault, not hers. This training process should only take a few days. GG made her housetraining breakthrough night before last (the very first afternoon we used the tethering technique) and we know she is going to be completely successful!