Will ya just SIT DOWN!

The cute little GSD puppy is now a dog size dog so I have 3 largish dogs and the Shih Tzu. Problem is, going in or out, it's hard to get them all to sit down at the same time and stay sat, and that is not good when we go in or outdoors because it turns into a stampede. So I am working with them individually to try to enforce the 'sit' command so maybe someday all of them can stay sat.

It's not impossible to do it. I have 5 dogs here for now and if need be they will all sit for however long I need them to at the same time. I never trained them individually to do this. Instead I used the best trained, most experienced of the group and used him to teach the younger ones manners. If they see him doing what I ask and getting rewarded, they soon follow suit and perform so they can also have treats. Granted, it was not always perfect everytime. It took alot of patience and many generations to do this. When I got my aussie we still had our doberman in the family. I trained the dobie so I took the aussie over to let him learn from the master. He picked up very quickly as aussie's do and now he passes it along to the younger additions to the family since our dobie has passed. Just hopefully no more anytime soon, 5 is way too many!! Thankfully my mom will be getting the min pin soon and hopefully we can find a great home for the boston terrier mix. It'll be nice to get back to the original 3 well behaved dogs and not full of puppy mistakes.

I have come to the conclusion that I need to put each of my dogs through a formal obedience training program. The conclusion was reached when the huge Great Pyrenees would sit on command if I had a treat to give but would not do so if I didn't. I think for safety reasons if nothing else, the dogs should be able to sit and stay on command.
I am going to try to do this at home, as I can't take all 4 to an obedience class.
On the advice of a trainer, I bought the book 'The Koehler Method of Dog Training' and have read through it. It does not involve treats and it involves a lot of time for each dog but it looks like at the end of the program I will have dogs that will mind what I say, and that makes it worthwhile, they will be better companions and safer from cars and so on.
As soon as the recent rains have evaporated and the back yard is no longer a mud pit, I'm going to get started.
Have any of the rest of y'all formally obedience trained your dogs using a book or program? How did it go?

I started taking my dogs to obedience classes as a kid, and by the time I was 18, I was teaching obedience classes. I think they are a wonderful tool, and a great chance to socialize your dogs and get them used to different people, dogs, noises, and situations. I'm sure books can be wonderful too, but the biggest thing I learned teaching classes is what works for one dog, may just flat out NOT work for another. There are many different "methods" of training, and when one doesn't work, it's nice to have someone who is experienced in more than one way of doing it to help you figure out what works best for your dog.

You could perhaps try taking the dog needing training "the most" to a class, and then combining what you learn there with what you read in the book, and use those skills combined to train the others at home? The biggest thing we always stressed in our obedience classes was that we were NOT training your dog.......we were training YOU. It was your job to train the dog.