Teaching a Greyhound to Sit (Even the Stubborn Ones)

Sighthounds have a reputation for being independent when it comes to obedience. If you own a greyhound, whippet, lurcher or saluki, you have probably met the un-sittable hound. It is not a lack of intelligence. These dogs simply learn differently, and they need an approach built around how they think.

This guide walks through teaching a sighthound a solid sit and down, moving from a quiet indoor room to a busy group setting, the same way I work with the dogs in my care in NW London.

Why sighthounds need a different approach

Sighthounds think differently from retrievers and collies. They respond to lower repetition and higher reward, and everything they do is shaped by the prey-drive response that defines the breed group. Push them with constant verbal commands and you lose them. Work with their nature and they come good.

Training a sighthound is not about being the boss. It is about being more patient than they are.

Start with natural associations

In the early stages, hand gestures and natural associations beat verbal commands. Let the dog connect the shape of your hand and your body language with the action you want, before you layer a word on top. The word comes later, once the behaviour is reliable.

Move somewhere quiet first

A high-distraction garden is no place to introduce a new command. Moving indoors to a calm, low-distraction room lets the dog find its focus. Get the sit and the down working cleanly there, then build difficulty from a position of success.

Consistency: never let them win

Sighthounds are clever enough to look for the easy way out. They will circle, they will stall, they will try to wriggle past the ask. The job is to stay calm and stay consistent, so the dog always follows through. If you let them dodge it once, you teach them that dodging works.

Add the distractions back in

Once the command holds indoors, bring the distractions back, one at a time. Take the work into the garden, then train alongside other dogs. Practising next to lurchers and staffies builds the real-world reliability that matters when you are out on Hampstead Heath with the lead in your hand.

The four-second rule

My quiet secret for making training stick is the four-second rule. Hold the dog in the position for a beat before you release and reward, so the behaviour settles instead of bouncing straight back up. That short pause is what turns a fluke into a habit.

The Big Six

Sit and down are two pieces of a larger picture. The commands I build with every dog are the Big Six: Recall, Stay, Wait, Sit, Down and Heel. Get these solid and you have a hound you can trust, on the Heath and at home.

Specialist sighthound care in London

I am Don Jordan, The Sighthound Guy. I look after greyhounds, whippets and lurchers across London, with collection around Hampstead, North Finchley and Highgate, a 350ft secure private garden, a climate-controlled home and daily WhatsApp photo and video updates so you always know how your dog is getting on.

The Sighthound Guy is fully insured and bonded, Canine First Aid certified, and holds a 5-star home boarding licence (no. 2023-2989). We hold a 5-star Google rating, are a Google Selected Business and have been featured in Time Out. Sighthounds only.

To talk through your hound, see what I offer, read how I work, or get in touch to arrange a meet and greet.