Are you working to teach your King Shepherd to sit? The technique of sitting up is regularly taught to compact dogs, but bigger dogs are another story. It’s challenging for them to sustain their balance.
Teach Your King Shepherd to Sit: Prep
Sitting is one of the very first skills that you should teach to your King Shepherd and is the foundation for many other tricks. To train a King Shepherd to sit up, put together some snacks as a perk, and place your King Shepherd on her backside in a corner, to ensure she is not able to fall either aft or sideways and has very little or no room to stumble.
Teach Your King Shepherd to Sit: Familiarize Her With The Sound of The Words
Keep her from falling forward by sticking one hand on her chin and with the second hand hold her snack above the King Shepherd’s nose. Keep saying clearly and deliberately, “sit.” Don’t make her sit up for too long at one time, but repeat the instruction regularly and reward her often with plenty of praise and treats.
Teach Your King Shepherd to Sit: Help Her Maintain Balance
Throughout her first lesson your King Shepherd will require a surprising amount of support from your hand to keep her from pitching forward, but as she gains more control of the balancing muscles and starts to understand what you want her to do, she will depend less upon your hand to hold her in position. Gradually, you can give her less assistance till you will basically have to maintain one hand in position 2 or 3 inches from her neck or chin, to be prepared to prevent her from falling forward; in the future you can easily withdraw the hand entirely and simply dangle the snack just over the level of her face.
Teach Your King Shepherd To Sit: Remove the Aids Over Time
After regular practice your King Shepherd will sit up well after you get her to sit. Afterward she should be set against the wall, so as to offer her a support for her back only. Soon after she has mastered this and can hold her posture effortlessly, practice with her using chair legs, cushions or other things that give her less and less support. In time she will master how to maintain her balance and sit up in the absence of something to lean on.
Teach Your King Shepherd to Sit: Putting It All Together
During all this training the words "sit up" will have been impressed upon her psyche by means of constant repetition. Lastly is the final training to teach your King Shepherd to sit up immediately after she hears the phrase. It's highly likely, if she has been carefully trained, you will merely have to call her out into the room, show her a snack, hold it up a reasonable distance from the floor, say "sit up or sit" and she'll obey. Then you'll just give her the treat while still in position.
The only necessity for flawlessness is to train with your King Shepherd several times a day until she sits up on command and without being shown a reward; give her the treats only once she has adhered to the direction.
Teach Your King Shepherd Other Tricks
You have now the groundwork for teaching your King Shepherd many other tricks. She can now learn how to beg by waving your hand up and down in front of her paws, which she will move in coordination with yours. She also can learn to salute by bringing one paw to the side of her head, or to keep a wooden pipe in her mouth, or to wear a cap on her head or wear other clothes.
While instructing a King Shepherd to tolerate being clothed, don't try to get her to wear too many clothes at once. Try her at first with a cap. Only after she becomes adjusted to that you can put on a jacket and gradually over time introduce her to more clothes.
Appreciate "teaching your King Shepherd the sit up trick" and most importantly have fun in the process!
Don't forget to check out these other articles about King Shepherds
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