How to Train a Shih Tzu Puppy to Sit

Your little Shih Tzu puppy is a gorgeous fluffy ball of love. She’s cute, kind, and doesn’t require a 10-mile walk every day – she’s perfect. But while Bella may be small, she still needs to learn how to sit on request. This is a basic command every dog, large or tiny, needs to know how to fulfill. It will help you control her behavior in all situations throughout her life.

If she is getting too excited about a walk and jumping up, you need to be able to ask her to sit. If you’ve got new guests in the house and they aren’t used to having dogs around them – she needs to be able to sit on request. Every pup needs to learn, and with a little bit of practice, they all get the hang of it. So, get ready for puppy school – this is her first lesson!

The command ‘sit’ is the most basic of all training. It’s great for controlling all types of behavior. The word itself is short and sharp, making it the perfect intonation for dogs to understand. It is easily recognizable to their ears.

Puppies' brains are like little sponges, they soak up information about sights, smells and sounds around them constantly. Therefore, this is the perfect time to get training them as they will learn in no time at all. The process could take anywhere from a couple of days to around a week and a half. You can use these methods to train adult dogs as well, but just be aware that it may take a little more time and patience.

Shih Tzus are generally easy enough to train, especially while they are puppies. But one thing to note is that they love food - and aren’t always so enthusiastic about exercise. Their potential for weight gain, therefore, is rather high, so the sooner you can stop the training with treats, the better.

Dog training is all about rewarding good behavior in order to reinforce it and encourage it. For this reason, all the methods will be focused around praising good behavior rather than punishing the bad. A negative training process can have incredibly bad consequences, causing anxiety and aggressive behavior in our canine friends. The trick is to stay light-hearted and positive at all times, with lots of verbal and physical praise for correct behavior.

As always, treats are one of the first things you’ll need to make sure you have to hand. They will provide a great reward incentive for Bella to complete the task. But as we mentioned, this should not be the only form of reward for Shih Tzus, who can easily become overweight. There are methods you can try without using treats, or just aim to wean them off them quickly using a clicker.

Let’s give it a try!