Training Problem Finder: Two Questions, One Plan
Tell us your dog's stage and what you're working on. You'll get the cognitive reason the problem happens, a practice routine you can run today, and the guides and games that actually apply.
1Which stage is your dog in?
2What are you working on?
Your plan
Adult sit: the cue probably exists, it just doesn't generalise
Most adult dogs already know sit in the kitchen and nowhere else. Cues don't transfer across environments automatically — that's a feature of how dogs encode context, not disobedience.
Lead dimension: Communication
Routine: Five-location generalisation
One 2-minute set per location, once a day
- List five places: kitchen, hallway, front garden, quiet street, busy street.
- In each new location, drop your criteria — lure again if needed rather than repeating the word.
- Pay every correct response in a new place for the first ten reps.
- Never repeat the cue twice; if there's no response, make the situation easier.
- Only move to the next location once you get eight out of ten in the current one.
Know when to progress: Eight out of ten on the first cue in a busy environment.
Read next
Games that support this routine
Train the dog in front of you
These routines assume a typical profile. Dognition's assessment shows where your dog actually sits across the five cognitive dimensions, so you can pick the method that lands first time.
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