Are you attempting to teach your Rafeiro Do Alentejo to sit? The skill of sitting up is regularly taught to pocket-sized dogs, but bigger doggies are another story. It’s hard for them to sustain their balance.
Teach Your Rafeiro Do Alentejo to Sit: Planning
Sitting is one of the 1st techniques that should be taught to a Rafeiro Do Alentejo and lays the ground work for a number of other techniques. To train a Rafeiro Do Alentejo to sit up, prepare some snacks as a reward, and set your Rafeiro Do Alentejo on her backside in a corner, so she is unable to fall either aft or sideways and has very little or no space to stumble.
Teach Your Rafeiro Do Alentejo to Sit: Familiarize Her With The Words
Stop her from pitching towards you by sticking your hand beneath her chin and using the second hand hold her reward above the Rafeiro Do Alentejo’s nose. Keep saying intelligibly and distinctly, “sit up.” Don’t force her to sit too long at one time, but do repeat the instruction routinely and reward her regularly with lots of cheers and treats.
Teach Your Rafeiro Do Alentejo to Sit: Help Her Maintain Balance
During the beginner lesson your Rafeiro Do Alentejo will call for a lot of help and support from you to keep her from falling forward, but as she gains better control of the muscles and realises what you want, she’ll depend less and less upon your hand to keep her steady. Then you can gradually give your Rafeiro Do Alentejo less help until you’ll basically have to keep one hand in position two or three inches from her chin or neck, to be ready to stop her from falling forward; later on you may remove this hand entirely and just dangle the snack just over the height of your Rafeiro Do Alentejo’s head.
Teach Your Rafeiro Do Alentejo To Sit: Remove the Aids Over Time
After constant training she will stay seated well after you get her to sit. Afterward she should be set against the wall, so as to provide her help for her back only. When she has gotten the knack of this and can maintain her place easily, practice with her up against chair legs, pillows or other items that offer her less and less help. Eventually she will be trained to sustain her equilibrium and sit without anything to rest against.
Teach Your Rafeiro Do Alentejo to Sit: Putting It All Together
Throughout all this training the words "sit up" will have been instilled upon her psyche by regular repetition. Lastly here's the final training to teach your Rafeiro Do Alentejo to sit up right after she hears the command. There's a good chance, if she has been diligently taught, you will simply have to get her out in the room, reveal to her a treat, hold it up a reasonable distance from the ground, say "sit up or sit" and she will do so. Then you give her the reward while still in place.
The only criteria for excellence is to train with her several times daily until she sits when commanded to and without being shown a treat; give her the snacks only once she has complied with the command.
Teach Your Rafeiro Do Alentejo Other Tricks
You have now the basis for teaching your Rafeiro Do Alentejo many other skills. She now can be taught how to beg by moving your hand up and down in front of her paws, which she will move in sync with yours. She can also 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 cap on her head or wear other articles of clothing.
While training a Rafeiro Do Alentejo to submit to being clothed, do not try to get her to wear too many garments simultaneously. Try at first with a cap. Once she gets familiar with that you could put on a coat and progressively introduce her to the other clothes.
Delight in "teaching your Rafeiro Do Alentejo the sit up trick" and most importantly have fun at the same time!
Don't forget to check out these other articles about Rafeiro Do Alentejos
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