Small Dogs Backing Up Instead of Sitting

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Sometimes, you may stumble on small dogs who are reluctant to sit or perhaps back-up rather than sit when you're trying to train "sit." Here are some tips and ideas: 

 

-You can try to sit down on the couch and practice from there. Some small dogs are wary of feet (they may have been tripped over at some time or are just wary), other small dogs may not feel too comfortable when we loom over them from a standing position, so if we sit on the couch with the dog on the floor nearby, we are more comfortable and the dog may feel more comfortable too. 

-If your dog is comfortable around you in his space, you can try training him against a wall, large furniture or corner so that he has no space to back up and will end up eventually sitting (see picture below)

-You can use shaping, meaning you reward very small approximations of the final behavior. So using your food lure, you would start feeding it for just looking up at first, then moving his head upwards, then lowering his back legs a bit until you finally get the sit, at which point give a jackpot of treats (several treats in a row to leave an impact). 

-If you think your new dog may be a little bit inhibited by something ( like hands near his face), you can try a training method known as capturing. You may need to be patient for this. This entails, sitting on the couch (with treats in your hand ready to give at a moments notice) and watching your dog during the day. If you ever notice him sit spontaneously, say "yes!" and toss a treat his way. With time, you should see an increase in the sitting behavior over time as he makes the connection of sit=treat. Keeping him on leash while you are sitting on the couch may help as he may get bored and a bit tired and hopefully sit.

 

If you are still struggling with getting your small dog to sit, feel free to post on the forums and we can do further troubleshooting. A strong reluctance to sit may also need evaluating by a vet in case there's some sort of pain going on that may be preventing a dog from  feeling comfortable enough to sit.