Relaxed Sit

The purpose of teaching a relaxed sit is training calm behavior.  A dog that has learned to sit calmly will be easier to train and accept distractions in his environment.  It’s imperative to teach an aggressive or anxious dog this behavior.  The ideal dog is relaxed and under no obvious distress.  A distressed dog indicates the same level of physiological distress that accompanies emotional distress.  A dog in constant emotional distress will be unable to cope with his environment and unable to learn new behavior.

Your goal

1. The dog will sit on verbal or hand signal when asked and will remain until released.
2. Sitting is an impulse control exercise and reflects a submissive and calming position, which reflects the dog’s emotional state.
3. This calm state can diffuse others dogs intentions.
4. This exercise should be considered mandatory behavior for all dogs whose owners expect to take them out into the public.

Prerequisites

1. 4-6” lead to prevent dog from wondering away.
2. Training treats- the smaller the better
3. Reward marker – good or yes
4. No reward marker – wrong, oops or sorry
5. Schedule of reinforcement – beginning with a fixed (continuous) schedule of reinforcement changing to a variable schedule once the dog is reliably offering the correct response in at least 3-4 different locations