Week 1 Sit On The Dog

 Exercise: Sit on The Dog (do not confuse with the down exercise later)  

Equipment & other needed: 

  1. Slip leash or Metal Training Collar & Leather Leash 
  2. Sturdy chair for the handler to sit on that they are not too worried about (i.e., an antique chair would not be a good idea, especially for a dog that might try to chew something other than their toy while you aren't watching) 
  3. Not paying any attention to the dog from the handler, which means no verbal commands, praise, or corrections. Also, no conversations of any sort with your dog. 
  4. A gentle push off is allowed if your dog tries to climb on you. 
  5. Stopping your dog from chewing through the leash is allowed.  Make it a nonchalant and casual action.  In other words, you don't want to start any kind of tug game.


NOTE 1: THIS CAN ALSO BE DONE WITH A SLIP LEAD, TRANSITIONAL LEAD (NO NOSE LOOP), OR NYLON SLIP COLLAR INSTEAD OF THE METAL CHAIN TRAINING COLLAR AND 6’ LEATHER LEASH. A FLAT COLLAR CAN BE USED IF IT IS SNUGGED UP SO IT CAN NOT GET OVER THE DOG’S HEAD.    
 
Objective and Goals: This exercise starts the leadership portion of dog training in a very non-confrontational way. You are defining the space and activity that the dog will inhabit while you are engaged in other activities. It starts the process of showing the dog how to quiet themselves down during certain times of day and employ self-control in distracting situations. You are also getting the dog used to releasing the tension on the collar and relaxing instead of fighting against the collar. This becomes so important as the training lessons continue.   

Distraction Level: To start, this should be in a quiet, non-distracting environment. You want the dog to go into a down within 5 minutes before increasing the distractions. Then I follow this protocol every time a different environment has success with the 5-minute rule first: 

  • Distracting environment inside the house (kids home, cats out, significant other doing chores, or audio files playing on YouTube). 

  • Outside or partially outside (on your porch, in your garage with the door open, in the yard) 

  • Public venue, but at a distance from the activity (a place where dogs are not unleashed) 

  • Safely increase this to the environments your dog can tolerate. Always keep safety in mind so as not to put an aggressive dog anywhere where there might be a danger. 

 

  
NOTE 2: IF YOU ARE USING THE METAL CHAIN TRAINING COLLAR, YOU MIGHT AS WELL PRACTICE PUTTING IT ON CORRECTLY 
 

  • Put the training collar on correctly when you let your dog out 

  • Hold the collar with the top and bottom ring in your left hand. 

  • Drop the chain through the bottom ring. 

  • Place the collar over your left hand. 

  • If you have done this correctly, when you tug on the ring that is not holding the chain (live ring), pulling the live ring will allow it to be released. Otherwise, it will just tighten on your wrist, and that is not what you want. 

  • Once the collar is in the correct conformation, position your dog at your left-hand side, facing in the same direction that you are. Put your left hand on top of his/her head, then slip the collar off of your wrist and over his/her head instead. 

  • Otherwise put the slip lead attached collar, the transitional attached collar, or the slip collar on your dog.  The slip collar should be configured similarly to the chain collar when shut.  That is, you should easily be able to put tension on and off.  The slip portion of the collar should go over the neck and through the ring. 

 

STEP 1: Handler places the leash (so that the clip attaching to the collar is on your left side) on the chair seat and under their butt, so that the snap attached to the dog and collar is on their left. The handle of the leash must come out on the right-hand side. The handler holds the other end with the handle in their right hand to ensure the puppy or dog does not loosen the leash at all. Remember that the correct handle grip is thumb through the handle, and fingers close around and enclose the handle of the leash.  The leash slack should be just enough for the dog to lie down next to you. If they can get all the way in front of or behind you, the leash is too long. 

 
STEP 2: The handler must have something else to do during this exercise so that they do not concentrate on their dog. You may only correct mouthing at the leash or jumping up on you, but nothing else. Let your dog whine, cry, tug at the leash ET to figure out what is required of him. Corrections for leash mouthing or jumping up are simply either pushing them gently but firmly off of you, or blocking the leash from their mouth. You DO NOT want to talk to them or make any kind of significant eye contact. Look quickly away and don't acknowledge them if you accidentally meet their eyes.   

 
 

STEP 3: The timer for the exercise starts when the dog first goes into a down. After that, the dog can go up and down, and again, the handler can't say anything to correct him. This exercise must be done for a minimum of thirty minutes (in one stretch).  

 

 
STEP 4: If at 29 minutes and 59 seconds the dog is not in a down, wait for him to go back down before releasing him. I would introduce the release marker word at this point, "yes” to indicate the exercise has ended. An example of this would be "Dog's name, "yes," and you get up as you say "yes”.   

 

NOTE 3: IF I HAVE AN EXTREMELY NERVOUS DOG, I CAP THIS EXERCISE AT AN HOUR EVEN IF THE DOG HAS NOT GONE DOWN. I SIMPLY PICK THIS EXERCISE UP AGAIN THE NEXT DAY. 
 
NOTE 4:  Distraction levels: During the first two to three days, you want to work with mild to moderate distraction levels. I usually start inside my house, and I change rooms and places inside the house. I use opportunities like dinner, blog writing, book reading, television programming, and ET to set the dog up for this exercise. 

 

Once your dog can go down within 5 minutes, you can begin to increase distractions first using your yard, then porch, or open garage to expose them to outside distractions.  Winter is not usually the time to do this.  In the winter, you might find some noises on YouTube of cars, dogs barking, critters, doorbells, and knocking on doors to practice with. 
 
When the dog has the idea of this, it's time to increase the distraction level. If it's a good time of year, I find a park with other dogs in it on a leash. A family member could help by opening and closing doors to the outside. If understanding company comes over, this is an excellent time to do this exercise. Be very creative and especially target those areas that your dog will find challenging to calm down in. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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