Are you struggling to teach your Basenji to sit? The technique of sitting up is quite easily taught to smaller dogs, but bigger canines are another story. It is tough for them to keep their equilibrium.
Teach Your Basenji to Sit: Readiness
Sitting up is one of the 1st skills that should be taught to your Basenji and forms the groundwork for numerous other tricks. To train a Basenji to sit up, prepare some snacks as a perk, and set the Basenji on her backside in the corner, to make sure that she will not fall either aft or sideways and has very little or no room to stumble.
Teach Your Basenji to Sit: Acquaint Her With The Command
Keep her from falling to the front by securing one hand beneath her chin and with your other hand hold her reward above your Basenji’s nose. Keep repeating clearly and intelligibly, “sit up.” Do not force her to sit up too long at one time, but do repeat the training routinely and reward her regularly with a lot of praise and snacks.
Teach Your Basenji to Sit: Help Her Keep Her Balance
During her 1st lesson she will require a surprising amount of assistance from you to stop her from pitching forward, but as she gains more control of her muscles and knows what you want her to do, she’ll depend less upon your hand to keep her steady. Gradually, you can give her less support up until you will just have to keep one hand in position 2 or 3 inches from her neck or chin, to be available to stop her falling forward; eventually you may take away the hand entirely and simply suspend the treat just over the height of your Basenji’s head.
Teach Your Basenji To Sit: Remove the Help Eventually
After consistent practice she will stay seated well after you make her. The next step is she should be set up against your wall, so as to give her a support for her back only. Immediately after she has taken in this and can hold her position easily, practice with her using chair legs, pillows or other things that provide her less and less assistance. Eventually she will be trained to keep her stability and sit without needing something to lean against.
Teach Your Basenji to Sit: Putting It All Together
During the course of all this training the words "sit up" will have been ingrained upon her psyche through frequent repetition. Last is the final lesson to teach your Basenji to sit up right after she hears the words. Chances are, if she has been properly taught, you will just have to call her out in the room, reveal to her a treat, hold it up a suitable distance from the floor, say "sit up" and she will do so. Then just give her the treat while still in place.
The only requirement for flawlessness is to rehearse with her multiple times daily until she sits up on command and without being shown a reward; give her the snacks only once she has complied with the direction.
Teach Your Basenji Other Tricks
You have now the fundamentals for teaching your Basenji many other tricks. She can now be taught to beg by waving your hand up and down just in front of her paws, which she will move in conjunction with yours. She also can be taught to salute by bringing one paw to the side of her head, or to hold a wooden pipe in her mouth, or to wear a cap on her head or wear other clothes.
In training a Basenji to tolerate being dressed up, don't try to make her wear too many garments simultaneously. Try at first with just a hat. Once she becomes familiar with that you can put on a coat and slowly introduce her to the other clothing.
Take joy in "teaching your Basenji the sit up trick" and most importantly have fun at the same time!
Don't forget to check out these other articles about Basenjis
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