Are you attempting to teach your Great Dane to sit? The talent of sitting up is quickly taught to little dogs, but much larger dogs are a different story. It’s hard for them to sustain their balance.
Teach Your Great Dane to Sit: Planning
Sitting is one of the first skills that you should teach to your Great Dane and is the ground work for countless other tricks. To train a Great Dane to sit up, put together some snacks as a reward, and set the Great Dane on her butt in a corner, to ensure that she will not fall either aft or sideways and has very little or no room to stumble.
Teach Your Great Dane to Sit: Familiarize Her With The Sound of The Words
Prevent her from pitching towards you by securing your hand on her chin and with the second hand dangle the reward above your Great Dane’s nose. Keep repeating deliberately and clearly, “sit up.” Don’t force her to sit too long at any one time, but repeat the lesson routinely and reward her frequently with lots of praise and treats.
Teach Your Great Dane to Sit: Help Her Balance
During the 1st lesson she will demand significant help from you to stop her from falling forward, but as she gets more control of the stabilizing muscles and starts to learn what you want her to do, she will rely less upon your hand to hold her in position. Then you can gradually give your Great Dane less assistance till you’ll basically have to keep one hand in position two or three inches from her chin or neck, to be set to prevent her falling forward; eventually you might remove this hand entirely and merely hold the reward just above the level of your Great Dane’s face.
Teach Your Great Dane To Sit: Remove the Help Slowly And Gradually
With consistent practice she will stay seated long after you set her up. The next step is she should be set up against a wall, so as to provide her a support for her back only. When she has grasped this and can maintain her position effortlessly, practice with her up against chair legs, pillows or other things that provide her less and less help and support. In time she will learn how to keep her stability and sit up without having something to rest against.
Teach Your Great Dane to Sit: Putting It All Together
Throughout all these lessons the command "sit up" will have been ingrained upon her subconscious with the assistance of regular repetition. Last here's the final training to teach your Great Dane to sit up immediately after she hears the phrase. There's a great chance, if she has been properly instructed, you will simply have to get her out into the room, display a snack, hold it up a reasonable distance from the ground, say "sit" and she'll do so. Then you'll give her the treat while still in position.
The only necessity for excellence is to rehearse with her several times a day until she sits up when commanded to and without being shown a snack; give her the treats only after she has obeyed the direction.
Teach Your Great Dane Other Tricks
You have now the basis for teaching your Great Dane many other skills. She can now be taught how to beg by moving your hand up and down in front of her paws, which she will move in conjunction with yours. She also can be taught to salute by moving one paw to the side of her head, or to keep a wooden pipe in her mouth, or to wear a cap on her head or wear other clothing.
In teaching a Great Dane to tolerate being clothed, don't try to get her to wear too many things simultaneously. Try her at first with just a hat. Only after she becomes familiar with that you can put on a coat and slowly introduce her to more garments.
Enjoy "teaching your Great Dane the sit up trick" and most importantly have fun in the process!
Don't forget to check out these other articles about Great Danes
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