Are you struggling to teach your Cumberland Sheepdog to sit? The skill of sitting up is easily taught to pocket-sized dogs, though much larger pooches are a different story. It is problematic for them to maintain their equilibrium.
Teach Your Cumberland Sheepdog to Sit: Preparing
Sitting is one of the very first skills that should be taught to your Cumberland Sheepdog and provides the foundation for a lot of other techniques. In order to train a Cumberland Sheepdog to sit up, prepare some snacks as a perk, and put your Cumberland Sheepdog on her butt in a corner, to ensure she is unable to fall either backward or sideways and has very little or no room to lose balance.
Teach Your Cumberland Sheepdog to Sit: Familiarize Her With The Phrase
Stop her from falling towards you by keeping your hand on her chin and using your other hand dangle the treat above your Cumberland Sheepdog’s face. Keep repeating deliberately and clearly, “sit.” Do not force her to sit for too long at one time, but do repeat the instruction frequently and reward her regularly with lots of kudos and snacks.
Teach Your Cumberland Sheepdog to Sit: Help Her Keep Her Balance
In her initial lesson she will require quite a bit of support from you to prevent her from falling forward, but as she gets control of the muscles and makes sense of what you want, she will rely less and less on your hand to hold her steady. Then you can gradually give your Cumberland Sheepdog less assistance til you will basically have to leave one hand in position 2 or 3 inches from her chin or neck, to be ready to prevent her from falling forward; eventually you will be able to remove the hand and just simply hold the treat right above the height of her head.
Teach Your Cumberland Sheepdog To Sit: Remove the Aids Gradually Over Time
With regular practice your Cumberland Sheepdog will sit up for a good while after you make her. Next she should be set against your wall, so as to give her a support for her back. Once she has learned this and can maintain her place easily, practice with her against chair legs, pillows or other objects that offer her less and less help. Sooner or later she will learn how to preserve her balance and sit up without something to lean against.
Teach Your Cumberland Sheepdog to Sit: Putting It All Together
Throughout all this training the words "sit up" will have been ingrained upon her mind through regular repetition. Now comes the final lesson to teach your Cumberland Sheepdog to sit up as quickly as she hears the phrase. It's highly likely, if she has been properly taught, you will merely have to get her out into the room, display a treat, hold it up a suitable distance from the floor, say "sit" and she'll obey. Then you'll just give her the snack while still in position.
The only prerequisite for perfection is to practice with your Cumberland Sheepdog several times daily until she can sit up on command and without being shown a reward; give her the treats only once she has complied with the direction.
Teach Your Cumberland Sheepdog Other Tricks
You have now the basis for teaching your Cumberland Sheepdog many other skills. She can now be taught to beg by waving your hand up and down just in front of her paws, which she will move in conjunction with yours. She can also be taught to salute by moving one paw to the side of her head, or to keep an object in her mouth, or to wear a cap on her head or wear other clothes.
In training a Cumberland Sheepdog to accept being clothed, don't try to get her to wear too many things at once. Try her at first with just a cap. Soon after she becomes accustomed to that you could put on a jacket and steadily introduce her to the other clothes.
Take pleasure in "teaching your Cumberland Sheepdog the sit up trick" and most importantly have fun at the same time!
Don't forget to check out these other articles about Cumberland Sheepdogs
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