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Dog Sitting Down on command?
Now try training your dog to sit Level 2

Is your dog sitting down after your hand signal or verbal command?

Are you ready to challenge your pet a little more?

Here you will find how to advance your furry friends's level of training!

This Level starts at Step 8. Go back to Level 1 if you haven't done Steps 1 through 7.

Your final goal is:

Stimulus Control: Your hound will sit after a hand signal or verbal command 80% of the time (8 out of 10 times you ask)

Stimulus Discrimination: If you are training a second command in parallel, your pet should respond to each command correctly, on his first try, 8 out of 10 times you ask.

Difficulty: Your dog will respond to the command in at least 10 locations with medium to high distractions. No distance or duration is required at this point

Reward: You will Mark every good behavior but only give a treat 50% of the time.

Step 8: Have your dog sitting down in many different locations!

The main goal of "sit" Level 2 is for your pooch to learn that sit means sit anywhere! Even though this might seem obvious to you....it is not to your canine friend!

Start with a second location that doesn't have many distractions. Perfect second locations are: a different room in your house, the backyard or a friend's house.

Follow the exact 7 steps you learned in "sit" Level 1 with each new location. You might notice that your pet starts learning faster and faster with each new location! The more locations you train him in, the better he will understand that "sit means sit anywhere!" (And you will be able to only repeat steps 4-7 of Level 1).

Always reward 100% of the time for every new location!

When you dog responds 8 out 10 times correctly (or 4 out of 5), then cut the treats down. Only reward 70% of the time your dog responds correctly. As you start another new location...yes! go back to rewarding every single time until your dog responds correctly 80% of the time...and so on.

Here is a list of suggested locations to train your pet:

1. Different rooms in your house: bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom, closet, living room, balcony, etc.
   
2. Backyard
3. Front yard
   
4. Friend's house
5. Neighbor's house
6. Family member's house
7. Vet's office
8. Pet store
9. While on a walk (make sure there are no high distractions around, like squirrels running or other dogs walking too close)
   
10. At the park (make sure the park is relatively empty, you want your dog to succeed! You will work on harder distractions later on!)
11. While on a walk on a different street
12. At a different dog park
    
13. Inside your car or truck
14. Anywhere you take your dog regularly!

Step 9: Have your dog sitting down with distractions around him!

Because you will be training your dog to sit in different locations, distractions will naturally appear during training sessions.

Do not get upset if your pet gets distracted!

Your job is to teach him that if he pays attention to you, even with distractions around, treats and love will be plenty!

You should be using a variety of treats to train your dog. Some he/she goes nuts about! and some he/she enjoys. Save the REALLY good treats for new locations and really hard distractions! This will give you an advantage!

Always work your way up slowly. Start with very mild distractions, followed by medium and ending with hard. You want your puppy to succeed at every single step before moving on!

Always reward 100% of the time for every new distraction!

As your furry friend gets better you can cut the treats down.

Here are some suggestions to train your dog to sit with distractions:

1. At home: have another family member playing with a ball close by. If this is too distracting, ask the person to move further away, once your pet succeeds, ask this person to move a little closer.
2. At home: have another person make a distracting noise (loud bang, music, scream, jumping up and down, etc).
3. Repeat 1 and 2 in other locations.
4. During a walk make sure you start training your dog to sit when there is NO-ONE around! As he succeeds do it when there is another dog a block away, then when it is across the street and so on.
   
5. Do the same as in #4 at the park.
6. If your puppy is failing very often, you need to reduce the level of the distraction!
7. Do not expect your hound to do the behavior perfectly well when adding a new difficulty, just focus on the new challenge. Once he succeeds, the behavior will become nice and fast again! Specially because you will cut down on treats and reward mostly the better responses.

Congratulations!

Your dog is ready to graduate Level 2 when:

• You take him to a completely new place, give the command sit and he responds correctly 8 out 10 times! (or 4 out of 5) without any training!
• He responds correctly with medium to high distractions.
  
• You only reward him 50-70% of the time.
• Note: don't be too strict with this guidelines. You can move on to level three even if he does not completely meet these criteria.
  

Continue to dog sit Level 3.

Your dog sitting down won't get into trouble!

Ask your pet to sit to prevent him from seeing a squirrel and running after it! You must use the command before he sees the squirrel though...think fast and act fast!

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