Are you trying to teach your Stephens Cur to sit? The talent of sitting up is quickly taught to pocket-sized dogs, yet bigger doggies are another story. It’s problematic for them to keep their equilibrium.
Teach Your Stephens Cur to Sit: Anticipation
Sitting is one of the initial skills that should be taught to your Stephens Cur and forms the groundwork for innumerable other techniques. In order to train a Stephens Cur to sit up, prepare some treats as a reward, and put your Stephens Cur on her haunches in the corner, to ensure she will not fall either backward or sideways and has very little or no room to stumble.
Teach Your Stephens Cur to Sit: Acquaint Her With The Phrase
Protect her from tilting towards you by securing one hand beneath her chin and using your second hand dangle the treat above the Stephens Cur’s nose. Keep repeating distinctly and intelligibly, “sit.” Do not make her sit up too long at one time, but repeat the training often and reward her regularly with a lot of approval and treats.
Teach Your Stephens Cur to Sit: Help Her Stay Balanced
During the initial lesson your Stephens Cur will need a lot of assistance from you to stop her from tumbling forward, but as she gains better control of the stabilizing muscles and makes sense of what you want, she will rely less and less on your hand to hold her steady. Gradually, you can give your Stephens Cur less help and support til you’ll just have to maintain one hand in position two or three inches from her chin or neck, to be available to stop her from falling forward; later on you may take away the hand and merely suspend the treat right over the height of her head.
Teach Your Stephens Cur To Sit: Remove the Help Incrementally
After constant training she will sit up long after you get her to sit. Next she should be set against the wall, so as to offer her assistance for her back only. After she has picked up this and can hold her posture easily, practice with her against chair legs, cushions or other things that provide her less and less assistance. In time she will get the hang of how to keep her stability and sit without relying on something to rest on.
Teach Your Stephens Cur to Sit: Putting It All Together
Throughout all these lessons the command "sit up" will have been ingrained upon her psyche through persistent repetition. Lastly here's the final lesson to teach your Stephens Cur to sit up right after she hears the phrase. Chances are, if she has been carefully instructed, you will simply have to get her out in the room, show her a snack, hold it up a reasonable distance from the floor, say "sit" and she'll do so. Then just give her the treat while still in position.
The only condition for excellence is to train with her multiple times daily until she can sit on command and without being shown a snack; give her the treats only after she has obeyed the order.
Teach Your Stephens Cur Other Tricks
You have now the fundamentals for teaching your Stephens Cur many other skills. She now can learn how to beg by moving your hand up and down in front of her paws, which she will move in rhythm with yours. She can also be taught 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 clothes.
While teaching a Stephens Cur to tolerate being clothed, do not try to get her to wear too many clothes at one time. Try at first with a cap. Once she becomes used to that you could put on a jacket and over time introduce her to the other garments.
Delight in "teaching your Stephens Cur the sit up trick" and most importantly have fun along the way!
Don't forget to check out these other articles about Stephens Curs
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