Golden retriever puppies are energetic bundles who love to hop around. However, their constant unruly behavior can quickly become frustrating as they grow into adult dogs. For instance, many dog owners struggle when their golden retrievers jump on the guests all of a sudden or cross the streets before checking with them. That’s why it is essential to train your golden retrievers to sit on command before it impacts not only yours but their own well-being.
The ‘sit’ command is one of the best ways to start your puppy training. It’s also genuinely helpful for golden retrievers who’re already familiar with this command when you begin other basic training that requires them to sit, like obeying ‘down’ and ‘stay’ orders.
By far, the most effective technique that works for teaching your puppies to understand the ‘sit’ command is by luring them with treats. However, if that doesn’t work out as planned, you can add ‘clicker’ training for positive reinforcement.
Here’s how to teach your golden retriever to sit in five simple steps, combining the mentioned techniques:
How to Teach Your Golden Retriever to Sit in 5 Steps
Before you start, you need to get the following items:
- Dog clicker
- High-value training treats (to encourage your golden retriever to obey your commands)
Note: Make sure the treats you pick for this specific purpose are only used in your training sessions, so your pet understands the reason behind the reward.
1. Pick a Suitable Time and Location
Golden retrievers, especially puppies, throw their hearts into it when you try to teach them something new. However, you should understand that they have a short attention span, so you’ll need to work out your time and location to your advantage.
To maximize your success rate, pick a time when both you and your dog are in a happy mood. Make sure your golden retriever is not too hungry or exhausted, as it will only distract from concentrating on you.
Moreover, pick a location – like a closed room that cuts off as much outside noise as possible. It would also be best to let your family members know not to disturb you for those few minutes while you’re training your dog.
2. Lure Your Golden Retriever Into Sitting Position
Once you’ve selected the right location and time, you can begin the training. Studies suggest that luring with treats can motivate puppies to perform most tasks, provided the reward is sufficiently appealing. In this instance, we’ll be witnessing how to teach your golden retriever to sit using the training treats.
Follow these steps to lure your pet into the desired position:
- Bring the treat close to your dog’s nose to capture its
- Now, once you’ve piqued your dog’s curiosity, place the food over itshead. Your golden retriever has to raise its head for tracking the Make sure the treat is not within your dog’s biting distance.
- Make an upward and downward motion while moving the treat towards your dog’s back.
These steps will eventually lead your golden retriever into a sitting position so it can track the treat’s movement more conveniently.
3. Practice the ‘Sit’ Command
As soon as your dog’s behind touches the floor, say ‘sit!’ and give it the treat as a reward for good behavior. Your golden retriever might whine and paw you for more treats, and you will have to ignore them until it sits again.
You don’t want your pet to make a false assumption that these treats are for fun and games. Instead, you need to repeatedly lure your dog until it figures out that the reward is given for sitting.
It only takes a few days to train puppies. However, if your golden retriever is an adult dog, understanding this command correctly might take a week or two. Remember, being patient is important. You will have to keep practicing this method multiple times each day for a few minutes.
4. Clicker Reinforcement
The ‘luring’ method usually works with all golden retrievers. However, if you feel like you’re not having much success with it, you can try to combine this method with another technique called the ‘clicker training.’
The method is quite simple. Instead of instantly rewarding your golden retriever the moment it gets into a sitting position, you say ‘sit!’ and mark its behavior with a clicker. After that, you can reward it.
Eventually, your golden retriever will figure out that the clicker is used when it does something that pleases you. To reinforce this technique, you can use the clicker whenever your dog does something right. For example, using a clicker when your dog poops outside will mark the behavior.
5. Cut Back the Treats Gradually
Now that you know how to teach your golden retriever to sit, it wouldn’t be long until your pet is sitting on command. However, once that happens, you’ll have to phase out the treats gradually, so your dog knows it needs to obey your command, with or without treats.
Instead of giving a reward every time your golden retriever obeys your command, decrease the number of times you reward it with food. It would be an excellent chance to start replacing the rewards with other treats, like playing outside for ten minutes or giving a belly rub. Sometimes, don’t do anything at all except for saying ‘good boy.’
Your dog will soon start anticipating the times when you give it a treat. If we can all agree on one thing about golden retrievers, it is that they all love a good game of anticipation.
It wouldn’t take more than three weeks when your golden retriever will be adequately obeying your ‘sit’ command without any treats whatsoever.
Our Final Thoughts
We hope you understand how to teach your golden retriever to sit now that we have shared the most effective techniques with you. As long as you are patient, following the given steps will not just help you train your pet to sit, but it will also be a good base for starting other command training as well.
