Are you trying to teach your Karst Shepherd to sit? The talent of sitting up is easily taught to petite dogs, however much bigger dogs are another story. It is tricky for them to sustain their equilibrium.
Teach Your Karst Shepherd to Sit: Preparing
Sitting up is one of the first skills that you should teach to your Karst Shepherd and forms the ground work for several other techniques. To train a Karst Shepherd to sit up, organize some treats as a reward, and place your Karst Shepherd on her rump in a corner, to ensure that she can’t fall either backward or sideways and has very little or no room to stumble.
Teach Your Karst Shepherd to Sit: Familiarize Her With The Words
Keep her from pitching towards you by holding one hand on her chin and with your other hand hold the snack above her nose. Keep repeating clearly and deliberately, “sit.” Do not make her sit for too long at any one time, however repeat the lesson frequently and reward her frequently with plenty of adoration and treats.
Teach Your Karst Shepherd to Sit: Help Her Maintain Balance
Throughout her initial lesson she will demand a lot of assistance from you to keep her from pitching forward, but as she gains control of her muscles and starts to understand what you want, she will rely less and less upon your hand to hold her in position. Gradually, you can give your Karst Shepherd less support till you will simply have to leave one hand in position two or three inches from her neck or chin, to be in place to prevent her from falling forward; later you can probably withdraw the hand altogether and merely hold the reward just above the level of her head.
Teach Your Karst Shepherd To Sit: Remove the Help Eventually
After frequent practice she will stay seated well after you get her to sit. Afterward she should be set up against the wall, so as to provide her support for her back only. Immediately after she has picked up this and can hold her posture easily, practice with her against chair legs, pillows or other things that provide her less and less help and support. At some point she will get the hang of how to maintain her stability and sit without needing anything to lean against.
Teach Your Karst Shepherd to Sit: Putting It All Together
During the course of all this training the phrase "sit up" will have been ingrained upon her subconscious with the assistance of regular repetition. Now comes the final lesson to teach your Karst Shepherd to sit up right after she hears the command. There's a good chance, if she has been properly trained, you will simply have to summon her out into the room, show her a snack, hold it up a reasonable distance from the ground, say "sit" and she'll do so. Then give her the treat while still in place.
The only criteria for perfection is to rehearse with your Karst Shepherd multiple times daily until she sits up when told and without being shown a treat; give her the rewards only once she has complied with the command.
Teach Your Karst Shepherd Other Tricks
You have now the basis for teaching your Karst Shepherd 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 sync with yours. She also can learn to salute by bringing one paw to the side of her head, or to keep a toy in her mouth, or to wear a cap on her head or wear other clothing.
While instructing a Karst Shepherd to accept being clothed, don't try to make her wear too many things at the same time. Try her at first with just a hat. After she gets accustomed to that you can put on a coat and gradually introduce her to the other clothing.
Take joy in "teaching your Karst Shepherd the sit up trick" and most importantly have fun at the same time!
Don't forget to check out these other articles about Karst Shepherds
Was this post helpful? If so, please take a minute to Tweet and Share below on Facebook. I would also love to know your thoughts so leave me a comment 🙂
Follow