Here's a great article that I thought I would pass on...hope you find it interesting! –Kim

How to Train Your Dog to Come & Sit

If you have an adult dog, you've probably already tried to teach him to come when you call. If he's reliable most of the time, great – use the information here to reinforce what he has already learned and to improve his performance. But if he's not exactly spot-on when you holler out the door, you need to rethink your strategy and start over. This training will go more smoothly if you treat the recall as a new behavior you are teaching rather than as a faulty one you're repairing.

1. Be consistent. Always use the same word to call your dog. If you play the obedience lottery with different words like "come," "come here," "here," "get over here,"or "get your butt over here," you will probably lose more often than you win.
2. Be concise. Do not call more than once unless you want to teach your dog to ignore you. If he doesn't come when you call, go back as many steps in training as you need to. Be patient! A reliable recall is not learned or taught overnight.
3. Be generous. Reward your dog every time he comes when called. At first, the rewards should be big ones – a special treat, a jackpot sometimes. Eventually, you can scale back to an ear scratch and praise, with intermittent treats.
4. Be smart. Never, ever let your dog off his leash in an unfenced area if he doesn't come every single time you call him, despite the squirrels square dancing nearby. Even if you think he's reliable, be extremely cautious. I know of more than one very obedient dog who was killed the one and only time he didn't come when called.
5. Be prepared. Until your dog is very, very reliable, don't call him if you are not in a position to enforce the command. If you aren't sure he will come when you call him, put him on a leash or long line before he goes out in the rain so that you can get him back in.
6. Be happy. Never call your dog to you in anger or to do something to him that he won't like. If you need to put drops in his ears or put him in his crate for a while, go get him instead of calling him. Coming to you should always be safe and wonderful for your dog.

1. Carry treats or part of your dog's daily kibble allotment. When your dog comes to you without any prompting, mark that behavior and reward him, sometimes with a treat, sometimes with a belly rub or ear massage.
2. After you have done this a number of times, your dog will probably begin to check in with you regularly. When he's on his way to you and appears to be committed, you can begin to use your cue word: "Rowdy, come!"
3. If your dog tends to stop and sniff or travel a zigzag path to get to you, don't call him – just continue to reward him when he gets to you on his own. If you add the cue when your dog is not performing reliably, you simply teach him to ignore the word. But the rewards – treats, play, scratches – still reinforce the idea that coming to you is a good thing.

1. Begin with your puppy or dog on leash or in a small fenced area or room where he can't get too far from you. In a happy voice, say "Rowdy, come!" Then act silly, walk or run the other way, or crouch down – whatever you need to do to make your dog curious and encourage him to come to you.
2. When you start, mark his first steps toward you with your marker. As he learns to respond reliably to the recall cue, wait until he's closer to you to mark his behavior so that eventually you use the marker only when he's within reach of you.
3. Reward him after you mark his movement toward you – give him a treat, play with him, whatever makes him happy. Then let him go back to what he was doing – you don't want him to associate responding to the recall with the end of his fun.
4. Repeat the process two or three times, then quit for this session. Practice recalls several times a day, and use "real life" opportunities such as doggy dinner time to reinforce the command.
5. You can make a game of teaching the recall by having household members stand in a circle, calling your dog back and forth and rewarding him. Just make sure that only one person calls at a time.

The sit – meaning "put your tail end on the ground" – is a useful command in many situations. For one thing, it gives you a means of telling your dog to control himself when he's excited or when you're out and about meeting neighbors, watching cars and bicycles go by, or visiting the vet.

First, if you position your dog, he doesn't develop the reaction to the command and the muscle memory that enables him eventually to respond automatically. He may learn to rely on the physical signal of your hand on his posterior rather than the verbal command, or if you teach one, a hand signal.

1. Begin with your dog on leash or confined in a small space. Hold a treat in front of his nose, but don't let him take it.
2. Slowly raise the treat enough to clear the top of his head, and move it back over his head toward his tail. The laws of physics will take over, and as his head comes up to keep track of the treat, his fanny will approach the ground.
3. As your dog folds his hind legs to sit, tell him "Sit." When his rear end is on the floor, mark and give him the treat. Then release him.
4. Repeat this exercise three or four times per session.

A sloppy sit, in which your dog rolls one hip sideways instead of sitting squarely on his "butt bones," is probably no big deal for most pets. But if you plan to train your dog for competition, it's a good idea to insist on nice square sits from the start.

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