Teaching your puppy to sit and stay are some of the basic steps for developing your puppy's obedience. Everyday interactions with your puppy will be much easier once he is trained to follow these commands. The key way to training your dog is to do it in a way that he understands. Dogs will eventually connect the verbal command with the desired action through repetitive practice.

The Time to Train

Once your puppy is seven weeks old, he is old enough to begin training. Since puppies have short attention spans, multiple training periods of less than 15 minutes a day are sufficient until the puppy learns the new command.

Before You Get Started

One way to catch and hold your dog’s attention is by using training treats. When picking out the treats, you should make sure that they are suitable for repetitive rewarding which will be required during training. One kind of treat that has been successful for me is Pet Botanics Training Reward Treats. These treats are available at Petsmart for ten dollars, and also come in different flavors.

Figure 1: Training Treats

Source: www.petsmart.com

The Sit Command

The first command we will teach is the sit command. It will be best to be in some confined area with minimal distractions for the dog.

Step 1
Get a handful of training treats and hold one slightly above your standing dogs nose
Step 2
Once your dog smells the treat, slowly start to raise the treat and move it straight back above is head. As you raise the treat, you want to continuously say the desired command “Sit.” As you move your hand back, your dog will follow the treat, which will lead him to the sitting position. If your dog starts backing up when you are raising the treat, simply put your other hand on his back while raising the treat and apply a small amount of pressure to show him to sit.

Figure 2: Raise treat above dog's head

Source: www.canineconcepts.co.uk

Step 3
Reward your dog once he has sat down with the treat and verbal praise. Repeat this process a couple of times whenever you are playing with your dog, and he will eventually connect the verbal command with the action.

The Stay Command

After your dog has successfully learned how to sit, you should move to the stay command.

Step 1
Using the treats again, tell your dog to sit.
Step 2
After he sits you will hold your hand in front of his face and tell him to “Stay.”
Step 3
Keeping your hand held up, slowly start walking backwards away from him. If he gets up and starts to follow you, say no and walk him back to the exact spot, facing him in the same direction and repeat the previous steps.
Step 4
Once you are able to get a couple of feet away without your dog getting up, reward him and keep working with him.

Continuing Training

Remember to keep rewarding your dog when he both sits down and stays. With more practice you will be able to get your dog to “stay” for longer lengths of time without you being near. After your dog has successfully learned these commands, they will be used as the building blocks of other tricks you will teach your dog in the future.