Are you making an attempt to teach your Groenendael to sit? The talent of sitting up is regularly taught to pocket-sized dogs, though bigger canines are another story. It’s problematic for them to sustain their balance.
Teach Your Groenendael to Sit: Anticipation
Sitting up is one of the initial techniques that you should teach to your Groenendael and lays the foundation for a lot of other skills. In order to train a Groenendael to sit up, prep some snacks as a perk, and set the Groenendael on her rump in a corner, so she won’t be able to fall either backward or sideways and has very little or no room to stumble.
Teach Your Groenendael to Sit: Acquaint Her With The Phrase
Prevent her from falling towards you by securing your hand under her chin and with the other hand hold her snack above her nose. Keep repeating distinctly and deliberately, “sit.” Don’t make her sit for too long at any one time, however repeat the training frequently and reward her often with plenty of adoration and snacks.
Teach Your Groenendael to Sit: Help Her Balance
During her very first lesson she will require considerable help and support from you to stop her from pitching forward, but as she gains better control of her muscles and sees what you want, she will depend less on your hand to hold her in position. Gradually, you can give your Groenendael less help and support till you will simply have to leave one hand in position 2 or 3 inches from her neck or chin, to be waiting to stop her falling forward; later on you may take away your hand and simply hold the reward just over the height of your Groenendael’s head.
Teach Your Groenendael To Sit: Remove the Aids Incrementally
After constant practice your Groenendael will stay seated for a long time after you get her to sit. Afterward she should be set against your wall, so as to offer her assistance for her back only. Only after she has mastered this and can hold her posture easily, rehearse with her against chair legs, cushions or other things that give her less and less help. In time she will grasp how to preserve her stability and sit up without relying on anything to rest against.
Teach Your Groenendael to Sit: Putting It All Together
In the course of all these lessons the phrase "sit up" will have been impressed upon her mind through constant repetition. Last here's the final training to teach your Groenendael to sit up whenever she hears the phrase. There's a good chance, if she has been carefully instructed, you will just have to summon her out in the room, show to her a reward, hold it up a suitable distance from the ground, say "sit up" and she will obey. Then give her the snack while still in position.
The only requirement for excellence is to practice with her several times daily until she will sit when told and without being shown a reward; give her the treats only after she has followed the direction.
Teach Your Groenendael Other Tricks
You have now the basis for teaching your Groenendael many other tricks. She can now be taught to beg by waving your hand up and down in front of her paws, which she will move in conjunction with yours. She can also learn to salute by moving one paw up 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 teaching a Groenendael to tolerate being clothed, do not try to make her wear too many garments simultaneously. Try at first with just a cap. Soon after she becomes familiar with that you could put on a jacket and incrementally introduce her to the other garments.
Get a kick out of "teaching your Groenendael the sit up trick" and most importantly have fun along the way!
Don't forget to check out these other articles about Groenendaels
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