To train your dog how to sit, you need to get your treats up. Once you have treats on you, optimally in a treat bag, get your dogs attention.
Your dog is paying attention to you when they look you in the eyes. You can give them a treat to show them you are ready to train them.
To make your dog sit, move your hand with a treat secured in it above the dogs head, optimally one hand distance away.
If your dog does nothing or tries to jump, you can softly smoosh its tailbone down. And once the dog does any movement in the correct direction, give it a treat.
You can slowly wait for the dog to get closer to full sit before giving it a treat. Once it can sit fully, don't give treats for doing it partially.
Teaching your dog to lie down is quite similar to learning it to sit. There are two methods actually.
You can go from sit, and move a treat down and a little bit forwards so that when the dog follows you, it will just lower its chest down.
Many dogs are too playful to learn to lie down like that at first without knowing how learning works. For you there is the other way of getting the dog to lie down.
To make your dog lie down from a stand, you move your hand with the treat into the dog, towards its chest.
The dog will move backwards in an attempt to get to the treat and it will lie down because the treat is lower than the dogs head.
To teach your dog coming back, you need to have treats on you at all times (when you're beginning the training). You will give the dog a treat anytime it comes to you.
To make your dog come, you make yourself as small as possible, so you squat, and you need to appear as happy as possible, so clapping, happy noises and calling the dogs name are recommended.
Anytime the dog comes, you want it to come as fast as possible, so positive reinforcement is preferred. You do want your dog to love coming to you.
A great thing to teach your dog next is a game of hide and seek. It can be really practical to have your dog be aware of their owners position at all times.
- Kisses don't require much training.
- If the dog likes you, they will be happy to give you kisses on their own.
- You do want to only reinforce that behavior when the dog has a command for giving you kisses.
- Do give treat anytime the dog does the command correctly to your liking.
- Giving kisses is a "hello" for wolves, so is quite natural for all breeds of dogs.
To teach your dog to fetch, you need to teach it how to play with a toy first, you want any toy that makes your dog chase it, play tug of war for it or the like.
Fetching is connected to the dog being a hunter so you need to awake its hunter instincts somewhat.
Having the dog chase a toy is a great start. You don't want to give treats when you give the command to fetch and the dog does not bring the toy back.
You need to keep the dog interested in bringing the toy, but you don't want to teach fetching as a command at first.
A great moment to start fetching is as a game with the dog playing tug-of-war with a toy, which ends with the toy being tossed so the dog brings it back to continue.