[Micky's Human]

Micky is an older cocker i have had for a few months, finally decided its time for a few basic commands. Started with sit last night and she really surprised me at how fast on the take up she was. Now it seems she may be a little too smart for her own good, when i have the treat she will just come up and sit, without any command, how do I break her of this?

[MegaMuttMom]

Teach her another command so you can give her the treat for doing something you ask, shouldn't take long to teach a down If she keeps begging, you can work on the good old fashioned ignore......

[Durbkat]

Yep, Snoopy does that as well. When I get the treats out Snoopy will lay down so I tell him to do something else and now most of the time he will just stand there waiting for a command.

[Micky's Human]

thank you, i'll give it a shot

[Shaina]

Once they catch on to sit, and know what the verbal cue (or hand signal) means, then you should stop rewarding the behavior unless you ask for it. So if she walks up and sits, that's great, and praise her or whatever (it's better than ignoring you and jumping after all), but don't give her a treat unless you actually ask her to sit. When she has that down you can start randomly awarding the behavior: ask her to sit, praise; ask her to sit, praise and treat; etc. Just make the times you treat totally random. That way she'll learn to sit even when you don't obviously have treats, because she'll never know when the reward is coming.

Good luck. It's never too late to teach old dogs new tricks

There's also several great training books out there that might help you with any future training you plan to do.

[FilleBelle]

My dog will frequently sit in front of me when I have something he wants (be it food or a toy) because he knows a sit from him makes me happy. MegaMutt is right...teach a couple more commands so that the dog never knows what is coming. I wouldn't ignore a good sit, though. When Alvin sits politely without being asked, I always praise him. He only gets a treat if he has performed the behavior after I have asked for it, though.

[Curbside Prophet]

Why would you want to break her of sitting?

[Micky's Human]

not break her of sitting, but sitting for a treat without the command

[Curbside Prophet]

I guess I asked the wrong question. What would you rather she do?

If she's responding to the presence of the treat, keep a bowl in each room with a few pieces of kibble so that you can request the command first. If she truly knows the behavior, you should be able to walk across the room, grab a treat, and reward her for the sit. If however she breaks the sit when you walk across the room, hide the treat on your person, and delay the reward. Perhaps you need to smuggle the treats on your person behind a closed door. Though I'm sure your dog would learn that when you go behind said door, the fun begins.

Or you could deny the treat, step a few feet away, call her over and ask for a sit. But I also agree that you could work on another behavior as well.

Or you could try using another motivator, perhaps a toy and a game of fetch to reinforce your sit cue.

[TooneyDogs]

This is exactly what you want to happen! This is the start for all basic training. She has learned that she has to do something for a reward.
Now you add new things...a down, come, stand, stay, walk with me. In the meantime, when she sits next to you and you don't want to do any work, praise/pet for just being with you...no treat. Now, you're teaching her to work (sit) for just the praise. You do the same thing (just praise) as she learns the other exercises... weaning her off the treats but, never completely off of them, just more random.

[prolibertate]

Curbside said it very well. The only thing that I'd add is if she sits when you haven't asked her to, still praise her, but then ask her to do something else to get the treat. I think my Shih-Tzu was born sitting (actually, being so tiny he sits so he can look up, lol) but he's done the 'sit' since I brought him home, so to get it on cue I used the clicker method with him so he'll do it when I ask him to. Now when he sits without being asked, I praise him, then ask him to 'down' so he can get a treat...The little stinker will also do a down if I wait too long to ask him; he's learned he gets treats for that too, lol - but when he does a voluntary down, I ask him for a sit so he can get the treat...I'm sure he'll think of something else to try and throw me soon