Are you working to teach your West Highland White Terrier to sit? The technique of sitting up is effortlessly taught to petite dogs, yet much bigger doggies are another story. It’s problematic for them to maintain their equilibrium.
Teach Your West Highland White Terrier to Sit: Readiness
Sitting up is one of the very first techniques that you should teach to a West Highland White Terrier and provides the foundation for myriad other skills. To train a West Highland White Terrier to sit up, prep some snacks as a reward, and set the West Highland White Terrier on her haunches in a corner, to ensure she is unable to fall either aft or sideways and has very little or no room to lose balance.
Teach Your West Highland White Terrier to Sit: Acquaint Her With The Command
Prevent her from falling forward by maintaining one hand on her chin and using the second hand hold the reward above the West Highland White Terrier’s face. Keep repeating distinctly and intelligibly, “sit up.” Do not make her sit too long at one time, but repeat the lesson routinely and reward her frequently with plenty of appreciation and treats.
Teach Your West Highland White Terrier to Sit: Help Her Maintain Balance
During the first lesson your West Highland White Terrier will require a lot of help and support from you to keep her from pitching forward, but as she gets control of her stabilizing muscles and grasps what you want, she will count less on your hand to keep her in position. Then you can gradually give your West Highland White Terrier less help up until you will simply have to leave one hand in position 2 or 3 inches from her chin or neck, to be ready to stop her falling forward; later on you might remove the hand and merely dangle the reward right above the level of her face.
Teach Your West Highland White Terrier To Sit: Remove the Assistance Gradually Over Time
After constant training she will sit up long after you get her to sit. The next step is she should be set up against your wall, so as to provide her a support for her back. Soon after she has understood this and can maintain her posture effortlessly, rehearse with her against chair legs, pillows or other objects that provide her less and less support. At some point she will be trained to maintain her equilibrium and sit up without anything to rest against.
Teach Your West Highland White Terrier to Sit: Putting It All Together
During the course of all these lessons the command "sit up" will have been impressed upon her mind through constant repetition. Last comes the final training to teach your West Highland White Terrier to sit up as soon as she hears the words. There's a great chance, if she has been properly instructed, you will simply have to summon her out in the room, reveal a snack, hold it up a reasonable distance from the floor, say "sit" and she'll obey. Then you give her the treat while still in position.
The only requirement for perfection is to practice with your West Highland White Terrier several times daily until she will sit up when told and without being shown a reward; give her the treats only after she has followed the order.
Teach Your West Highland White Terrier Other Tricks
You have now the groundwork for teaching your West Highland White Terrier many other tricks. She now can learn how to beg by waving your hand up and down in front of her paws, which she'll move in conjunction with yours. She also can learn to salute by moving one paw to the side of her head, or to keep a toy in her mouth, or to wear a cap on her head or wear other articles of clothing.
When instructing a West Highland White Terrier to submit to being dressed up, don't try to make her wear too many items at one time. Try her at first with a cap. Only after she gets familiar with that you can put on a coat and slowly and gradually introduce her to the other clothing.
Get a kick out of "teaching your West Highland White Terrier the sit up trick" and most importantly have fun along the way!
Don't forget to check out these other articles about West Highland White Terriers
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