Are you struggling to teach your East-European Shepherd to sit? The skill of sitting up is easily taught to very small dogs, yet bigger pet dogs are a different story. It is tough for them to sustain their equilibrium.
Teach Your East-European Shepherd to Sit: Prep
Sitting is one of the first techniques that should be taught to a East-European Shepherd and forms the groundwork for a large number of other tricks. To train a East-European Shepherd to sit up, put together some treats as a perk, and place your East-European Shepherd on her butt in the corner, to ensure she will not fall either aft or sideways and has very little or no room to stumble.
Teach Your East-European Shepherd to Sit: Acquaint Her With The Command
Protect her from falling to the front by sticking your hand underneath her chin and with your second hand dangle the treat above her face. Keep repeating intelligibly and distinctly, “sit.” Don’t force her to sit too long at one time, however repeat the instruction routinely and reward her regularly with a lot of recognition and snacks.
Teach Your East-European Shepherd to Sit: Help Her Maintain Balance
Throughout the initial lesson she will require a surprising amount of assistance from your hand to prevent her from pitching forward, but as she gets better control of her stabilizing muscles and starts to learn what you want, she’ll count less and less upon your hand to keep her steady. Then you can gradually give your East-European Shepherd less assistance till you will basically have to keep one hand in position two or three inches from her chin or neck, to be ready to prevent her falling forward; later on you can easily remove this hand completely and merely hold the treat right above the level of her head.
Teach Your East-European Shepherd To Sit: Remove the Assistance Slowly And Gradually
With consistent practice your East-European Shepherd will sit up for a long time after you get her to sit. The next step is she should be set up against a wall, so as to provide her support for her back. Immediately after she has grasped this and can hold her posture effortlessly, rehearse with her up against chair legs, pillows or other objects that offer her less and less help. Gradually she will be trained to preserve her stability and sit up without needing something to lean against.
Teach Your East-European Shepherd to Sit: Putting It All Together
During the course of all these lessons the words "sit up" will have been instilled upon her mind by means of constant repetition. Now here's the final training to teach your East-European Shepherd to sit up as soon as she hears the words. There's a great chance, if she has been carefully instructed, you will merely have to call her out into the room, display to her a reward, hold it up a reasonable distance from the ground, say "sit" and she'll obey. Then you give her the snack while still in place.
The only requirement for perfection is to rehearse with your East-European Shepherd several times a day until she will sit up on command and without being shown a treat; give her the snacks only once she has complied with the direction.
Teach Your East-European Shepherd Other Tricks
You have now the method for teaching your East-European Shepherd many other tricks. She now can learn to beg by moving your hand up and down just in front of her paws, which she will move in conjunction with yours. She can also learn to salute by moving one paw to the side of her head, or to keep something in her mouth, or to wear a cap on her head or wear other articles of clothing.
When training a East-European Shepherd to tolerate being clothed, don't try to make her wear too many garments at once. Try her at first with just a cap. Once she gets adjusted to that you could put on a jacket and steadily introduce her to the other clothes.
Take joy in "teaching your East-European Shepherd the sit up trick" and most importantly have fun while you're doing it!
Don't forget to check out these other articles about East-European Shepherds
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