Are you attempting to teach your German Spitz to sit? The skill of sitting up is regularly taught to very small dogs, however much bigger doggies are another story. It’s tricky for them to sustain their balance.
Teach Your German Spitz to Sit: Prep
Sitting up is one of the first tricks that should be taught to your German Spitz and lays the groundwork for a lot of other skills. To train a German Spitz to sit up, organize some snacks as a perk, and place your German Spitz on her rump in the corner, so she will not fall either backward or sideways and has very little or no space to lose balance.
Teach Your German Spitz to Sit: Acquaint Her With The Sound of The Words
Protect her from tilting to the front by sticking 1 hand under her chin and with your other hand hold the snack above her nose. Keep saying clearly and deliberately, “sit up.” Don’t force her to sit for too long at any one time, but do repeat the training routinely and reward her frequently with plenty of recognition and snacks.
Teach Your German Spitz to Sit: Help Her Stay Balanced
Throughout the initial lesson she will demand quite a bit of help from your hand to stop her from pitching forward, but as she gets better control of the stabilizing muscles and starts to understand what you want, she will depend less on your hand to keep her in position. Then you can gradually give her less help and support until you’ll just have to keep one hand in position 2 or 3 inches from her chin or neck, to be set to stop her from falling forward; in the future you may take away the hand and just hold the treat just over the height of her face.
Teach Your German Spitz To Sit: Remove the Aids Slowly
After consistent practice your German Spitz will sit up for a long time after you get her to sit. The next step is she should be set up against the wall, so as to provide her a support for her back only. Immediately after she has gotten the hang of this and can hold her posture easily, rehearse with her using chair legs, cushions or other objects that give her less and less help. In time she will get the hang of how to preserve her equilibrium and sit up without needing something to lean on.
Teach Your German Spitz to Sit: Putting It All Together
During the course of all this training the words "sit up" will have been ingrained upon her subconscious through persistent repetition. Now here's the final lesson to teach your German Spitz to sit up immediately after she hears the command. There's a great chance, if she has been diligently taught, you will just have to call her out into the room, show a reward, hold it up a reasonable distance from the floor, say "sit" and she will obey. Then just give her the reward while still in place.
The only condition for perfection is to rehearse with her multiple times daily until she will sit up on command and without being shown a reward; give her the snacks only once she has followed the order.
Teach Your German Spitz Other Tricks
You have now the foundation for teaching your German Spitz many other tricks. She can now be taught how to beg by waving your hand up and down just in front of her paws, which she will move in rhythm with yours. She can also learn to salute by bringing 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 clothing.
In teaching a German Spitz to accept being dressed up, do not try to get her to wear too many items at once. Try her at first with just a hat. Once she gets used to that you can put on a jacket and slowly and gradually introduce her to the other clothing.
Appreciate "teaching your German Spitz the sit up trick" and most importantly have fun while you're doing it!
Don't forget to check out these other articles about German Spitzs
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