My good lady has sat ever since we acquired her. instantaneously and for any reason. Never gave it a try.
I can’t seem to separate my seat from anything else now that we’re working together. She sits and remembers. She plays while seated. takes a seat to watch the ball. looks after pets. Everything is seated. Take a seat, sit down.
To help her grasp “sit” as a separate entity, I would like to separate it, but I’m not sure how to go about it.
Since she’s seated already, start her with stand and move on to sit.
Following this up to say teach her to sit from the lying down position as well. Helps with her understanding and will make the vet so it much easier if she knows these things
This is the path. She should get up on her own if you pretend to tap her between the shoulder blades while she’s seated.
As soon as she exhibits the behavior, begin noting it. “Yes! (Offer treat) Nice seat.” Or instruct them to do the opposite, such as stand or kneel. Lure her into a sit and train her in that manner when she is standing or lying down on command.
One very helpful training tool is marking. Dogs have learned so much from me by having me mark routine acts for them. Because our current dog used to sneeze a lot during playtime when she was a puppy, I was able to teach her to do so on command.
She didn’t sneeze on command, but when I used to praise my childhood dog for every sneeze she had, she would get incredibly thrilled. Eventually, she would become even more excited when I sneezed.
I would instruct in “down” or “stand.” Keep in mind that transitioning from a sit to a down is an entirely different behavior than the opposite.
Are you trained with clickers? Note the precise moment she sits them down. match it to the term and the reward. Good luck 