Are you attempting to teach your Irish Wolfhound to sit? The skill of sitting up is quite easily taught to pocket-sized dogs, but larger doggies are a different story. It is problematic for them to sustain their balance.
Teach Your Irish Wolfhound to Sit: Prep
Sitting up is one of the most basic skills that should be taught to your Irish Wolfhound and lays the groundwork for innumerable other techniques. To train a Irish Wolfhound to sit up, put together some treats as a reward, and set your Irish Wolfhound on her haunches in the corner, to make sure that she is not able to fall either backward or sideways and has very little or no space to stumble.
Teach Your Irish Wolfhound to Sit: Acquaint Her With The Phrase
Protect her from pitching towards you by holding 1 hand under her chin and using your second hand dangle the reward above your Irish Wolfhound’s nose. Keep repeating clearly and intelligibly, “sit up.” Do not make her sit for too long at one time, but repeat the instruction routinely and reward her regularly with lots of cheers and treats.
Teach Your Irish Wolfhound to Sit: Help Her Keep Her Balance
Throughout her very first lesson she will require a surprising amount of support from your hand to stop her from pitching forward, but as she gains control of the balancing muscles and sees what you want, she will depend less upon your hand to keep her steady. Then you can gradually give her less help til you’ll merely have to leave one hand in position two or three inches from her chin or neck, to be ready to stop her falling forward; later you may remove this hand and merely suspend the snack right above the level of her face.
Teach Your Irish Wolfhound To Sit: Remove the Aids Slowly And Gradually
With consistent practice she will stay seated for a long time after you tell her to. The next step is she should be set up against your wall, so as to offer her a support for her back only. Immediately after she has figured out this and can maintain her position effortlessly, practice with her up against chair legs, cushions or other items that give her less and less help and support. At some point she will get the hang of how to preserve her equilibrium and sit up in the absence of anything to lean against.
Teach Your Irish Wolfhound to Sit: Putting It All Together
During all these lessons the phrase "sit up" will have been ingrained upon her mind by means of persistent repetition. Lastly comes the final lesson to teach your Irish Wolfhound to sit up whenever she hears the phrase. Most likely, if she has been properly taught, you will only have to call her out in the room, display a snack, hold it up a reasonable distance from the ground, say "sit up" and she'll do so. Then give her the reward while still in place.
The only prerequisite for excellence is to train with her multiple times daily until she can sit on command and without being shown a snack; give her the rewards only after she has obeyed the order.
Teach Your Irish Wolfhound Other Tricks
You have now the foundation for teaching your Irish Wolfhound many other tricks. She can now learn how to beg by moving your hand up and down in front of her paws, which she will move in sync with yours. She can also learn to salute by bringing one paw up to the side of her head, or to hold something in her mouth, or to wear a cap on her head or wear other clothing.
In instructing a Irish Wolfhound to accept being clothed, do not try to make her wear too many garments at one time. Try her at first with a cap. Once she gets adjusted to that you could put on a coat and little by little introduce her to the other clothes.
Enjoy "teaching your Irish Wolfhound the sit up trick" and most importantly have fun along the way!
Don't forget to check out these other articles about Irish Wolfhounds
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