Are you trying to teach your Croatian Sheepdog to sit? The technique of sitting up is easily taught to little dogs, but bigger canines are another story. It’s tough for them to keep their equilibrium.
Teach Your Croatian Sheepdog to Sit: Anticipation
Sitting up is one of the first skills that you should teach to your Croatian Sheepdog and forms the groundwork for myriad other tricks. To train a Croatian Sheepdog to sit up, prepare some treats as a reward, and put the Croatian Sheepdog on her rump in a corner, so that she is not able to fall either aft or sideways and has very little or no space to stumble.
Teach Your Croatian Sheepdog to Sit: Acquaint Her With The Sound of The Words
Prevent her from pitching towards you by maintaining your hand on her chin and using your other hand hold her snack above your Croatian Sheepdog’s nose. Keep saying distinctly and deliberately, “sit.” Don’t make her sit up too long at any one time, however repeat the lesson routinely and reward her frequently with a lot of kudos and snacks.
Teach Your Croatian Sheepdog to Sit: Help Her Balance
Throughout the initial lesson she will need a lot of help and support from you to stop her from pitching forward, but as she gets control of the balancing muscles and finds out what you want, she’ll depend less on your hand to hold her steady. Gradually, you can give your Croatian Sheepdog less help and support til you’ll just have to keep one hand in position two or three inches from her neck or chin, to be in position to stop her falling forward; eventually you can remove this hand entirely and just simply hold the snack just above the height of your Croatian Sheepdog’s head.
Teach Your Croatian Sheepdog To Sit: Remove the Help Slowly And Gradually
With steady practice your Croatian Sheepdog will sit up for a good while after you tell her to. Afterward she should be set up against your wall, so as to offer her a support for her back. Immediately after she has learned this and can hold her position easily, practice with her against chair legs, pillows or other items that offer her less and less support. At some point she will grasp how to maintain her balance and sit without having anything to lean against.
Teach Your Croatian Sheepdog to Sit: Putting It All Together
During the course of all these lessons the command "sit up" will have been ingrained upon her psyche through regular repetition. Lastly comes the final training to teach your Croatian Sheepdog to sit up as quickly as she hears the phrase. It's highly likely, if she has been properly instructed, you will just have to summon her out in the room, show her a reward, hold it up a reasonable distance from the floor, say "sit up" and she will do so. Then you'll give her the reward while still in place.
The only condition for excellence is to train with your Croatian Sheepdog multiple times daily until she will sit up when commanded to and without being shown a reward; give her the snacks only once she has obeyed the order.
Teach Your Croatian Sheepdog Other Tricks
You have now the method for teaching your Croatian Sheepdog many other skills. She now can learn to beg by waving your hand up and down just in front of her paws, which she will move in rhythm with yours. She can also learn to salute by bringing one paw to the side of her head, or to hold something in her mouth, or to wear a hat on her head or wear other clothing.
When instructing a Croatian Sheepdog to accept being clothed, do not try to get her to wear too many garments at once. Try at first with just a hat. Soon after she gets accustomed to that you could put on a coat and incrementally introduce her to the other clothing.
Take joy in "teaching your Croatian Sheepdog the sit up trick" and most importantly have fun while you're doing it!
Don't forget to check out these other articles about Croatian Sheepdogs
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