Heel Position and Hand Placement for Teaching Dog Sit With Leash Video

Teaching a straight Sit by using the proper hand positioning along with the leash and collar.

Your dog must be in the proper Heel position to easily teach Sit with the leash.

We start the video by going over what the proper Heel position should look like. Placing your dog into a sit with the leash will be easier when your dog is heeling properly position. you will also have better overall control When your dog is walking on a loose leash and staying by your side.

The Safe Way to Place Your Dog Into a Sit Without Causing Injuries

We then go over how to do a safe sit using the leash and collar. The safest way to place your dog into a sit involves the proper use of the left hand in placing the dog into a Sit. This dog and its owners have already had several training lessons, so I don’t need to go over body positioning and/or foot work. One reason a person may want to place their dog into a sit is that food wasn’t used properly in the early stages of training. Another reason for using this method for teaching Sit is the dog is sitting crooked or sitting in a way the handler loses control. sometimes a crooked sit is because a dog wants to do something other than a straight sit. Such as watch prey (birds, cats etc….) The later is the case with this dog, it wants to chase flying geese.

A crooked sit isn’t terribly bad in itself, but it does put the dog out of position for other training exercises. When the dog is out of position it also makes controlling the dog more difficult. This is easier to see once you understand how the eight position of movement affect your dog’s behavior. Again I want to emphasize the main reason most dogs sit crooked or out of position sit is they were trained improperly using food. I am not against using food reward in training. However, even training with treats needs to be done properly for the best results.

In the video I also touch on the tradition method of placing a dog into the Sit. The traditional dog training method does work and it should not be ruled out completely. However, I find a gentler approach more useful for the average dog. The method of placement I prefer tends to take a lot of stress and strain off the dog’s skeletal structure, and it works with the majority of dogs.

There are some placement methods that should be avoided by novice handlers. One of these methods is pushing the dog into a sit toward the middle of the spine. I will point this out in the video. Pushing the dog into a sit too far forward should be avoided because it could injure your dog.

Toward the end the dog’s owners give a brief description of the dog’s behavior during this training lesson. This part of the video will be of interest to anyone who would like to participate in one of my dog training programs.

If your parents have an out of control dog show them this video. Or you might have a friends who’s dog could use better manners, share this with them, they will thank you for it.

Wishing you the best in dogs and in life,

Andrew Ledford
So Cal Dog training
714-827-4058