Are you aiming to teach your Berner Laufhund to sit? The skill of sitting up is easily taught to petite dogs, but much larger doggies are a different story. It is difficult for them to keep their equilibrium.
Teach Your Berner Laufhund to Sit: Preparing
Sitting up is one of the fundamental tricks that you should teach to a Berner Laufhund and lays the ground work for countless other techniques. To train a Berner Laufhund to sit up, prep some treats as a perk, and set your Berner Laufhund on her rump in a corner, so that she is not able to fall either aft or sideways and has very little or no space to lose balance.
Teach Your Berner Laufhund to Sit: Familiarize Her With The Phrase
Keep her from pitching to the front by holding one hand underneath her chin and using the second hand hold the reward above her nose. Keep repeating clearly and deliberately, “sit up.” Do not make her sit up too long at any one time, but do repeat the lesson frequently and reward her frequently with loads of cheers and treats.
Teach Your Berner Laufhund to Sit: Help Her Stay Balanced
In her initial lesson your Berner Laufhund will call for considerable help and support from you to stop her from tumbling forward, but as she gains more control of her balancing muscles and grasps what you want, she’ll count less upon your hand to hold her steady. Then you can gradually give your Berner Laufhund less support up until you’ll merely have to leave one hand in position two or three inches from her chin or neck, to be prepared to stop her falling forward; later on you might remove this hand and simply suspend the reward just over the level of your Berner Laufhund’s head.
Teach Your Berner Laufhund To Sit: Remove the Assistance Progressively
With constant training she will stay seated well after you command her. The next step is she should be set up against a wall, so as to provide her a support for her back. Soon after she has gotten the hang of this and can hold her position effortlessly, rehearse with her using chair legs, cushions or other things that give her less and less help. At some point she will understand how to keep her equilibrium and sit up in the absence of anything to rest against.
Teach Your Berner Laufhund to Sit: Putting It All Together
Throughout all these lessons the words "sit up" will have been ingrained upon her mind by persistent repetition. Lastly here's the final training to teach your Berner Laufhund to sit up as quickly as she hears the command. There's a good chance, if she has been carefully instructed, you will just have to summon her out into the room, show to her a snack, hold it up a suitable distance from the ground, say "sit" and she'll obey. Then you'll give her the reward while still in place.
The only requirement for perfection is to practice with her multiple times daily until she can sit up when told and without being shown a snack; give her the rewards only after she has followed the command.
Teach Your Berner Laufhund Other Tricks
You have now the technique for teaching your Berner Laufhund many other tricks. She can now be taught how to beg by moving your hand up and down in front of her paws, which she will move in rhythm with yours. She also can learn to salute by bringing one paw to the side of her head, or to hold a toy in her mouth, or to wear a hat on her head or wear other clothing.
While instructing a Berner Laufhund to tolerate being dressed up, do not try to get her to wear too many clothes at the same time. Try at first with a hat. Soon after she becomes adjusted to that you can put on a coat and over time introduce her to the other clothes.
Take joy in "teaching your Berner Laufhund the sit up trick" and most importantly have fun along the way!
Don't forget to check out these other articles about Berner Laufhunds
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