Are you working to teach your Harrier to sit? The technique of sitting up is effortlessly taught to pocket-sized dogs, but larger canines are another story. It’s problematic for them to sustain their balance.
Teach Your Harrier to Sit: Preparation
Sitting up is one of the initial techniques that you should teach to a Harrier and provides the foundation for numerous other techniques. To train a Harrier to sit up, prepare some snacks as a perk, and set your Harrier on her butt in the corner, to ensure she won’t fall either aft or sideways and has very little or no room to lose balance.
Teach Your Harrier to Sit: Familiarize Her With The Phrase
Protect her from tilting towards you by sticking one hand under her chin and with the other hand hold the treat above your Harrier’s face. Keep repeating deliberately and distinctly, “sit.” Don’t make her sit too long at one time, but repeat the training regularly and reward her frequently with lots of appreciation and treats.
Teach Your Harrier to Sit: Help Her Keep Her Balance
Throughout the very first lesson your Harrier will call for a surprising amount of assistance from your hand to keep her from tumbling forward, but as she gains control of the stabilizing muscles and learns what you want her to do, she will rely less and less upon your hand to hold her steady. Then you can gradually give her less help til you will only have to maintain one hand in position 2 or 3 inches from her chin or neck, to be waiting to stop her falling forward; later on you may withdraw the hand completely and simply suspend the snack just above the level of her head.
Teach Your Harrier To Sit: Remove the Help Over Time
After steady training she will sit up well after you command her. Then she should be set up against a wall, so as to give her support for her back. Immediately after she has understood this and can keep her place easily, rehearse with her up against chair legs, pillows or other things that give her less and less support. In time she will get the hang of how to sustain her balance and sit in the absence of something to lean against.
Teach Your Harrier to Sit: Putting It All Together
Throughout all these lessons the phrase "sit up" will have been ingrained upon her mind through constant repetition. Now here's the final lesson to teach your Harrier to sit up whenever she hears the command. It's highly likely, if she has been properly instructed, you will simply have to call her out into the room, show to her a treat, hold it up a suitable distance from the ground, say "sit up or sit" and she'll obey. Then you give her the reward while still in place.
The only requirement for excellence is to practice with your Harrier multiple times a day until she sits when told and without being shown a snack; give her the treats only after she has complied with the direction.
Teach Your Harrier Other Tricks
You have now the basis for teaching your Harrier many other skills. She can now be taught to beg by moving your hand up and down in front of her paws, which she will move in coordination with yours. She also can learn to salute by bringing one paw up to the side of her head, or to hold a toy in her mouth, or to wear a hat on her head or wear other articles of clothing.
While instructing a Harrier to accept being dressed up, do not try to make her wear too many items at the same time. Try at first with just a cap. After she gets used to that you could put on a jacket and eventually introduce her to more garments.
Take pleasure in "teaching your Harrier the sit up trick" and most importantly have fun while you're doing it!
Don't forget to check out these other articles about Harriers
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