Are you working to teach your Shih Tzu to sit? The technique of sitting up is easily taught to pocket-sized dogs, however larger pooches are another story. It is tough for them to sustain their equilibrium.
Teach Your Shih Tzu to Sit: Preparation
Sitting up is one of the initial skills that should be taught to your Shih Tzu and lays the foundation for various other skills. To train a Shih Tzu to sit up, prepare some treats as a perk, and put the Shih Tzu on her backside in a corner, to make sure that she is unable to fall either backward or sideways and has very little or no room to stumble.
Teach Your Shih Tzu to Sit: Familiarize Her With The Sound of The Words
Keep her from falling to the front by holding one hand underneath her chin and with your second hand dangle the reward above your Shih Tzu’s nose. Keep saying distinctly and deliberately, “sit up.” Do not force her to sit for too long at any one time, but repeat the instruction often and reward her often with lots of adoration and treats.
Teach Your Shih Tzu to Sit: Help Her Stay Balanced
In her very first lesson your Shih Tzu will require considerable help and support from you to keep her from pitching forward, but as she gains more control of the muscles and starts to understand what you want her to do, she’ll count less on your hand to keep her in position. Then you can gradually give your Shih Tzu less help till you will merely have to maintain one hand in position two or three inches from her chin or neck, to be set to stop her falling forward; in the future you can remove your hand altogether and just hold the treat just over the height of her face.
Teach Your Shih Tzu To Sit: Remove the Help Gradually
With steady training your Shih Tzu will stay seated for a good while after you tell her to. Next she should be set up against a wall, so as to provide her help for her back. Once she has gotten the knack of this and can maintain her place easily, rehearse with her against chair legs, pillows or other things that offer her less and less help. Sooner or later she will be trained to sustain her stability and sit up without relying on anything to rest on.
Teach Your Shih Tzu to Sit: Putting It All Together
During the course of all these lessons the words "sit up" will have been ingrained upon her mind by means of persistent repetition. Lastly is the final lesson to teach your Shih Tzu to sit up as soon as she hears the phrase. It's highly likely, if she has been properly instructed, you will simply have to call her out into the room, show her a snack, hold it up a reasonable distance from the floor, say "sit up" and she'll obey. Then you'll just give her the reward while still in place.
The only condition for excellence is to practice with her several times daily until she sits up when commanded to and without being shown a reward; give her the rewards only after she has followed the command.
Teach Your Shih Tzu Other Tricks
You have now the fundamentals for teaching your Shih Tzu many other skills. She can now learn how to beg by waving your hand up and down in front of her paws, which she'll move in sync with yours. She also can learn to salute by moving one paw up 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.
While instructing a Shih Tzu to tolerate being dressed up, don't try to get her to wear too many things at one time. Try at first with a hat. Only after she becomes used to that you can put on a coat and eventually introduce her to more clothing.
Get a kick out of "teaching your Shih Tzu the sit up trick" and most importantly have fun along the way!
Don't forget to check out these other articles about Shih Tzus
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