Are you working to teach your Maremma Sheepdog to sit? The technique of sitting up is easily taught to little dogs, though larger canines are a different story. It’s tough for them to sustain their equilibrium.
Teach Your Maremma Sheepdog to Sit: Planning
Sitting up is one of the most basic skills that should be taught to your Maremma Sheepdog and lays the groundwork for myriad other skills. To train a Maremma Sheepdog to sit up, prepare some snacks as a perk, and put the Maremma Sheepdog on her backside in the corner, so she is not able to fall either aft or sideways and has very little or no room to stumble.
Teach Your Maremma Sheepdog to Sit: Familiarize Her With The Command
Keep her from falling forward by securing your hand on her chin and using the second hand dangle her reward above the Maremma Sheepdog’s nose. Keep repeating deliberately and distinctly, “sit up.” Do not force her to sit too long at one time, however repeat the training often and reward her frequently with plenty of approval and treats.
Teach Your Maremma Sheepdog to Sit: Help Her Maintain Balance
Throughout her 1st lesson she will demand a surprising amount of help and support from you to stop her from pitching forward, but as she gets more control of her stabilizing muscles and figures out what you want her to do, she will rely less and less upon your hand to keep her in position. Gradually, you can give your Maremma Sheepdog less assistance til you’ll merely have to keep one hand in position two or three inches from her chin or neck, to be in place to prevent her falling forward; later you can take away your hand altogether and just hold the treat right over the level of your Maremma Sheepdog’s head.
Teach Your Maremma Sheepdog To Sit: Remove the Help Eventually
With steady training your Maremma Sheepdog will stay seated long after you command her. Next she should be set up against your wall, so as to provide her a support for her back only. After she has mastered this and can keep her posture effortlessly, rehearse with her up against chair legs, cushions or other things that give her less and less support. In time she will figure out how to sustain her stability and sit up without needing something to rest against.
Teach Your Maremma Sheepdog to Sit: Putting It All Together
In the course of all this training the command "sit up" will have been instilled upon her mind with the assistance of regular repetition. Now is the final lesson to teach your Maremma Sheepdog to sit up as quickly as she hears the command. There's a great chance, if she has been carefully instructed, you will simply have to call her out in the room, reveal to her a reward, hold it up a reasonable distance from the ground, say "sit up or sit" and she'll obey. Then you'll give her the treat while still in place.
The only necessity for perfection is to rehearse with her multiple times daily until she sits up when told and without being shown a reward; give her the rewards only once she has complied with the command.
Teach Your Maremma Sheepdog Other Tricks
You have now the fundamentals for teaching your Maremma Sheepdog many other tricks. She can now be taught how to beg by moving your hand up and down just in front of her paws, which she'll move in sync with yours. She can also learn to salute by moving one paw to the side of her head, or to keep something in her mouth, or to wear a hat on her head or wear other clothes.
While instructing a Maremma Sheepdog to accept being dressed up, do not try to get her to wear too many items simultaneously. Try her at first with just a cap. After she becomes familiar with that you could put on a coat and slowly introduce her to more clothing.
Enjoy "teaching your Maremma Sheepdog the sit up trick" and most importantly have fun while you're doing it!
Don't forget to check out these other articles about Maremma Sheepdogs
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