Are you attempting to teach your Chesapeake Bay Retriever to sit? The skill of sitting up is quickly taught to very small dogs, yet much larger canines are a different story. It is hard for them to maintain their equilibrium.
Teach Your Chesapeake Bay Retriever to Sit: Readiness
Sitting up is one of the 1st skills that should be taught to your Chesapeake Bay Retriever and provides the groundwork for lots of other techniques. To train a Chesapeake Bay Retriever to sit up, prep some treats as a perk, and place your Chesapeake Bay Retriever on her butt in a corner, so she is not able to fall either aft or sideways and has very little or no space to lose balance.
Teach Your Chesapeake Bay Retriever to Sit: Acquaint Her With The Command
Keep her from tilting towards you by sticking your hand under her chin and with the other hand dangle her treat above your Chesapeake Bay Retriever’s nose. Keep repeating clearly and deliberately, “sit.” Do not force her to sit for too long at one time, however repeat the training routinely and reward her often with plenty of recognition and treats.
Teach Your Chesapeake Bay Retriever to Sit: Help Her Maintain Balance
Throughout her initial lesson your Chesapeake Bay Retriever will need a surprising amount of help from you to stop her from falling forward, but as she gains better control of her stabilizing muscles and is aware of what you want her to do, she’ll depend less upon your hand to keep her in position. Then you can gradually give your Chesapeake Bay Retriever less assistance until you will just have to maintain one hand in position 2 or 3 inches from her neck or chin, to be in place to stop her from falling forward; later you can easily remove your hand entirely and simply dangle the treat just above the level of her face.
Teach Your Chesapeake Bay Retriever To Sit: Remove the Aids Incrementally
With frequent training your Chesapeake Bay Retriever will stay seated for a good while after you command her. Next she should be set up against your wall, so as to provide her a support for her back only. When she has figured out this and can maintain her position easily, rehearse with her using chair legs, cushions or other objects that give her less and less support. At some point she will be able to keep her equilibrium and sit without anything to rest on.
Teach Your Chesapeake Bay Retriever to Sit: Putting It All Together
In the course of all this training the command "sit up" will have been ingrained upon her mind by means of persistent repetition. Now comes the final lesson to teach your Chesapeake Bay Retriever to sit up whenever she hears the phrase. There's a great chance, if she has been properly trained, you will just have to summon her out into the room, show to her a reward, hold it up a reasonable distance from the ground, say "sit up or sit" and she'll do so. Then you'll give her the snack while still in position.
The only criteria for excellence is to practice with your Chesapeake Bay Retriever multiple times daily until she sits up when told and without being shown a snack; give her the treats only after she has obeyed the command.
Teach Your Chesapeake Bay Retriever Other Tricks
You have now the method for teaching your Chesapeake Bay Retriever many other skills. She now can be taught to beg by moving your hand up and down in front of her paws, which she'll move in sync with yours. She also can be taught to salute by moving one paw to the side of her head, or to keep a toy in her mouth, or to wear a hat on her head or wear other articles of clothing.
While training a Chesapeake Bay Retriever to tolerate being clothed, do not try to get her to wear too many things at once. Try her at first with just a hat. Soon after she gets familiar with that you can put on a jacket and over time introduce her to more clothes.
Delight in "teaching your Chesapeake Bay Retriever the sit up trick" and most importantly have fun at the same time!
Don't forget to check out these other articles about Chesapeake Bay Retrievers
Was this post helpful? If so, please take a minute to Tweet and Share below on Facebook. I would also love to know your thoughts so leave me a comment 🙂
Follow