It's never satisfactory or necessary to hit a dog while training, the one thing I've learned is that my dog will react to love a good deal faster than to pain.

The only thing they learn once you hit them is to fear you, eventually any dog that's beaten will become aggressive, whether outright aggression like barking or passive aggressiveness which may wind up with you or someone else being bitten.

I used to believe that it was alright to smack a dog on the behind with a loosely rolled newspaper, (it really does make more noise than it hurts them) until I did it one day and came home the next day to a shredded newspaper. It is amazing how far a dog can spread one newspaper in a day!

To dogs, they live in a world of giants, and the only way to make eye contact is to jump up, this is not desirable with any dog and can be down right dangerous with a large dog.

Training a pup can easily be included in his play time, and he can get trained without really knowing that's what is happening to him. I've always felt that teaching a puppy to sit is easiest when I get down to his level, in other words on the floor with him. His preferred toy can be a fantastic training aid for him to learn this simple but important lesson.

Once he comes up to you to get his toy, just lift it above his head, he will sit in order to keep his toy in sight. As he begins to sit down give him the sit command.

Do this often when he's playing and sooner or later he will learn to sit on command, with or without the toy.

The next part of this lesson is training him to stay. While he's in the sit position, move around him, making sure he stays in the same position, tell him to stay, as he gets more comfortable with you moving around him, you can increase the distance from him as you continue to teach him to stay.

You've achieved two things with this process of training, you have taught him to sit, and made his training time fun for both of you.