06/14/2026
"You gotta give everybody a new trend, and new wave, something new to do." --Quavo
Sit for a biscuit in the kitchen is not going to keep Rover interested forever. Yes, sit was a good place to start. And taking 'sit' to a lot of new places was challenging. Supposedly 90% of people's dogs know "sit." But we both know that's not exactly true. It's 90% likely true 'in the kitchen'. Ahhh, you skipped taking sit to a lot of new places (easy ones first, then slightly more difficult...oops you went straight to difficult).
What about trying this in the kitchen, or... Start expanding the stationary/stay cues to Sit, Down and Stand. It's a lot easier to control a stationary dog. And there are 3 positions, which make learning the words more likely (instead of the dog just predicting...if I'm sitting, the next thing will be down and if I'm down then the next thing will be sit.)
Yeah, this is a little harder, but you can use hand signals to help the learning. And you can use lures to initially get the positions. But, you need to transition to verbal cue, (then hand signal if needed) and followed by reward for the dog doing it.
And when you and your pooch are good in the kitchen, try other rooms, then the garage or porch, then sidewalk, then how about inside your car... Since new environments, new scents and stuff are what make things more difficult for your dog, ratchet challenges up incrementally.
Then think of something new to do... Have fun!
