Are you aspiring to teach your American Staffordshire Terrier to sit? The technique of sitting up is easily taught to pocket-sized dogs, but bigger dogs are a different story. It’s problematic for them to keep their balance.
Teach Your American Staffordshire Terrier to Sit: Prep work
Sitting is one of the very first techniques that you should teach to your American Staffordshire Terrier and provides the foundation for countless other tricks. To train a American Staffordshire Terrier to sit up, organize some snacks as a reward, and set your American Staffordshire Terrier on her backside in the corner, to ensure that she won’t fall either backward or sideways and has very little or no room to lose balance.
Teach Your American Staffordshire Terrier to Sit: Acquaint Her With The Sound of The Words
Prevent her from falling towards you by holding 1 hand under her chin and with the second hand dangle her snack above the American Staffordshire Terrier’s nose. Keep saying distinctly and intelligibly, “sit.” Don’t force her to sit up too long at one time, but repeat the instruction regularly and reward her often with a lot of praise and treats.
Teach Your American Staffordshire Terrier to Sit: Help Her Balance
During her 1st lesson your American Staffordshire Terrier will need considerable support from you to keep her from falling forward, but as she gets better control of her stabilizing muscles and understands what you want, she will count less upon your hand to hold her in position. Gradually, you can give your American Staffordshire Terrier less help til you will merely have to maintain one hand in position two or three inches from her neck or chin, to be waiting to prevent her from falling forward; later you will be able to remove the hand entirely and merely dangle the treat just over the height of her head.
Teach Your American Staffordshire Terrier To Sit: Remove the Help Slowly
After regular training she will stay seated for a long time after you make her. The next step is she should be set up against the wall, so as to provide her assistance for her back. Once she has picked up this and can hold her place easily, practice with her using chair legs, pillows or other things that provide her less and less support. Gradually she will understand how to keep her equilibrium and sit up without needing something to lean on.
Teach Your American Staffordshire Terrier to Sit: Putting It All Together
In the course of all these lessons the command "sit up" will have been instilled upon her psyche through regular repetition. Now is the final training to teach your American Staffordshire Terrier to sit up as quickly as she hears the command. There's a great chance, if she has been properly trained, you will merely have to summon her out in the room, show a treat, hold it up a suitable distance from the ground, say "sit" and she will do so. Then you give her the snack while still in position.
The only criteria for perfection is to rehearse with her multiple times daily until she will sit up when commanded to and without being shown a reward; give her the rewards only after she has obeyed the order.
Teach Your American Staffordshire Terrier Other Tricks
You have now the method for teaching your American Staffordshire Terrier many other skills. She now can learn to beg by waving your hand up and down just in front of her paws, which she'll move in conjunction with yours. She also can be taught to salute by moving one paw to the side of her head, or to hold a wooden pipe in her mouth, or to wear a hat on her head or wear other clothes.
While instructing a American Staffordshire Terrier to submit to being clothed, don't try to make her wear too many items at once. Try her at first with just a hat. After she gets used to that you can put on a jacket and gradually introduce her to more clothing.
Take joy in "teaching your American Staffordshire Terrier the sit up trick" and most importantly have fun while you're doing it!
Don't forget to check out these other articles about American Staffordshire Terriers
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