You might be surprised by this statement, but I feel that the ‘sit’ command, one of the most common used and nearly always the first thing we teach our puppies, is actually not always that useful.
Perhaps it is a hangover from the Barbara Woodhouse days at Crufts where she could be heard shouting ‘sit’ in a strict voice. We all took away the impression that for a dog to be well behaved, we must make it sit.
The problem, in my opinion, is that the ‘sit’ command gets overused. And it’s not always used for the right reasons. Often, we might actually want our dog to stay still or ignore something so we ask for a sit. The trouble is, it’s not always the best thing for the dog to be sitting in these scenarios.
Let’s try an example. Say you’ve spotted another dog approaching and your dog can be reactive sometimes. You ask him to sit while the dog and its owner pass by. Your dog may be feeling threatened, scared or anxious and yet he’s sitting right in front of the thing that is triggering these feelings like a coiled spring. Is it any wonder he might develop some behaviour issues surrounding this?
Put yourself in this position: a huge spider has just appeared on the back of the bench you are about to sit on. You go to walk past but are told “no, sit down”. Goosebumps? Shudders? Me too. I’d want to run in the opposite direction.
Often, we might tell our dog to sit because we want them to wait until we catch up with them, either to keep them clear of a distraction or to put their lead on them. Surely, though, the command we should be focusing on first – and, interestingly the one most owners struggle with – is the recall?
Think about the number of times a day you ask your dog to sit and compare it to the number of times you use your recall cue. I bet there’s a significant difference. If you switched them, how long do you think it would take for your dog to get better at being recalled?
If we can get our dog to come back to us whenever we want them to, there’s less need for a ‘sit’ command. If we know our dog will stay patiently by our side until we release them, there’s very little need for a ‘sit’ . Sitting isn’t something a dog would naturally do as often as we ask them, it’s something we’ve encouraged to help them fit in with our ideals of 'obedience'.
Here’s a challenge for you: over the course of the next week, try brushing up on some of the other cues such as ‘stay’, ‘wait’, ‘here’. Don’t use ‘sit’ as much and see whether it makes a difference to your dog’s behaviour in the trickier situations or when they usually struggle with their behaviour.
And if you’ve just got a puppy, why not try teaching the recall command first and come to ‘sit’ later – or not at all?
Let me know how you get on!