How to train your Golden Retriever to Sit?

Commanding your dog to sit is probably the easiest, yet useful command you can ever teach your lovely Golden Retriever. The reason is it’s a gentle way to ease yourself and your Retriever puppy into a practice of training. With this, your golden retriever puppy will stay energetic and excited for the other training. Training your dog paves the way for an excellent relationship where your puppy is excited to work with you after the last experience. Training your dog is the journey of experiences, joys and a whole lot of praise for success.

Training your Golden Retriever to sit whenever you ask is actually not as difficult as you think it is. All you have to do is to follow the total three techniques that I’m going to discuss here in this article just for you. The simple procedure to train your pet to sit usually works with "Luring and Capturing", and if both these techniques don’t work, the gentle physical coercion works.

The sit command is one of the effective ways to control your dog in most hefty situations. If your golden retriever is reliably trained, you can ask your dog to sit quietly with one command.

Start the training alone in a familiar room of the house, with absolutely no any other distraction such as pets, people or any kind of noise. To keep your puppy interested always keep the training sessions very short. For a young puppy, just maximum 5 minutes of training few times a day is enough. For your mature puppy, the training timings can be increased to 15-minute training sessions two times each day.

Don’t shout at your dog to sit because it will not work, instead keep a warm and firm tone of your voice and the puppy will listen very well. Don’t speak too calm, because you have to order your Golden Retriever to sit not request him or question him.

Always try to keep training session fun for both of you. Don’t make things hard for you and your Golden Retriever. Finish the training before your Retriever puppy gets stops responding, i.e. Bored.

Not every technique works on every dog every time, and that’s why I’m going to teach you multiple techniques so you can teach your Golden Retriever effectively.

Lure your Golden Retrieve to sit with a treat of a delicious food

This technique works in the majority of dogs especially for Golden Retrievers, and The whole guide is as follows,

Step No 1. Make sure you have quite a supply of delicious food treats that your dog loves in tiny amounts, bites actually. Keep hold of treat in your hand, bring it in front of your Golden Retriever puppy’s nose so they can know it is there. Then they will listen to you.

Step No 2. Move your hand up, over the puppy’s forehead, while holding his treat only couple inches, so he has to raise his head up to you. Keeping the distance is the key here.

Step No 3. Keep the treat moving in upward, and downward position and the golden retriever will have to move his head up or down to watch the treat and soon he will naturally sit down.

Step No 4. As soon as the retriever puppy put his lap down, instantly say “SIT!” then give them treat right away, and some love/praise would be great.

Step No 5. The perfect timing is the key here. You have to say ‘SIT!’ the moment your dog bum touches the floor, and give him treat while he is still sitting.

Step No 6. If you give them the treat when they sit back up, that will mess up the whole training.

Step No 7. Start using hand signals to sit your dog down, keep the treat hidden somewhere, once your dog sits down then give him the treat.

Capturing is the behaviour training of your dog, so he or she frequently performs every time you order your dog to sit. All you have to is to watch your dog playing and doing his things, once he sits down, say "SIT" and give them their treat.  The majority of dogs will try different behaviours in the hope they will get another treat. There, you have to ignore them, patiently wait till they sit, mark their specific behaviour with the “sit” command, the give them their treat. Golden Retrievers are all brilliant dogs they will learn the linkage of mind with behaviour and will act their masters accordingly will ask them to.

If these both techniques fail, then you should probably use some physical coercion

If luring and capturing methods don't work, you should use coercing way. However, always use the moderate amount of force, if you use more force, there is a chance you can make your dog angry. Moreover, using force can damage backbone of your puppy. Once they sit down with some energy, reward them with a delicious treat they love and give them a friendly little pat on their back.

The Verdict

The sit command is actually quite an effective way to teach your Golden Retriever some manners and obedience. Golden Retrievers are very intelligent, and they prefer a fun environment, so never be aggressive with them in training. Never let the dog get the idea that you are a fierce trainer but give him a friendly atmosphere. Follow the guides that I mentioned in the above content and be aware that the training takes, time, effort, concentration and patience. It will take some weeks to train your golden retriever correctly depending on the environment. Golden retrievers are quick learners so be friendly and deal with patients all the time. Always appreciate and love your dog, don't scold him or her if they take time to learn. Just like humans, some kids take more time to learn to be loving and love them for what they are. Follow the guidelines and focus on timings, the timings must be perfect in every session. I hope the content will be useful to you in training your Golden retriever puppy or a young fella. Happy training.