If you play rally, obedience, or TEAM, your dog will need to understand how to do a moving sit, when the dog stops motion and sits facing you.  There are two components to this exercise: a sit out of motion and the ability to sit in place at a distance without creeping in.

 

Targets Can Help

 

First, your dog will need to understand how to stop motion and sit without coming into you on cue.  There are several ways that you can teach this.  One way is to use a sit platform or a front foot target.  The first thing I teach my dog is to sit at a distance without any forward movement.  In this video I am using a front foot target, and I am working on multiple positions, but you can teach just the sit position in this way.  

 

 

Once your dog is good at this, you can start to send your dog to a platform.  Start with the platform right in front of you and cue the dog to get up and sit.  Reward.  Slowly add distance from the sit platform until your dog is happily going to the sit platform and sitting.  You can fade the platform by using something flat, like a rug, then making that target smaller and smaller.

 

If your dog has pretty good position changes at a distance, you can start by putting the dog in a stand facing away from you, then backing away and cuing sit.  The dog should turn and sit but should not take steps forward.

 

 

Combine Send and Moving Sit

 

Eventually you will send your dog to the target or cone and cue sit.  I usually start by saying touch, letting the dog go to the cone and touch, then cue sit.  Eventually I’ll start saying sit as the dog is nearing the cone, but before he touches.  In the beginning of teaching this, I don’t mind if the dog touches before he sits, but eventually he’ll learn to sit on my cue without touching the target first.

 

 

The last skill to practice for rally is returning to your dog without him or her getting up.  Be sure that you can return to heel in either direction.  You may cue wait or stay as you are walking back, or before you walk back.