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| Teaching "Sit Up" or "Beg" |
| featuring that talented foster - Elvis! |
| I did the training & photographing for Jumping thru the hoop, lifting the paw & sitting up all in one session. I reccomend that you don't rush your dog along as fast as I trained Elvis, but Elvis proves that a food motivated, happy confident dog can listen and learn multiple things in one session. Elvis already knew how to sit & lay down. I highly reccomend basic obedience training prior to teaching tricks. It is much easier if the dog understands "sit", "drop or lay down" and "stay". Elvis is licking his lips and ready to move on to the next trick...so lets get to it! |
| I have put Elvis in a "sit" position and now I take my treat and hold it just over his head causing him to stretch his neck up in order to eat the treat out of my hand. Then I used 3 or 4 more treats, holding them just a bit higher each time causing him to stretch up more and more until he lifts his front paws off the ground into the classic "sit up" position. Elvis proved to have very good balance, but with some dogs it may be necessary at first to use your other hand as a "shelf" that they can balance on. Elvis is actually using my treat hand to support himself a bit. |
| Here Elvis got a bit excited & stood up on his hind paws. I just waited until he put his bottom back down on the bed before rewarding him. Once he is very solid on the sit up, then I will encourage him to stand to teach him to "dance" or "walk", but for right now, I will discourage this behaviour by simply not rewarding it. Don't tell your dog that he is wrong for standing up, or for barking excitedly, or spinning in circles or whatever behaviour he offers...just don't reward it. Even though he isn't doing what you want...you may want to train him to do that behaviour sometime in the future & if you tell him "no" then you could make future training more difficult. Besides, this is supposed to be FUN for both of you, so don't take it too seriously & be sure and reward every slight attempt your dog makes to please you. Dogs that simply cannot balance may be poor candidates for this trick. Try to work within your dog's physical abilities. If you simply MUST have your Doxie sit up, try teaching him to sit up in a corner, or on a couch so that he can lean against something. It will still be a very cute trick! |
| We did several repeats with my hand just high enough to require he sit up, but low enough that he got the treat right away & didn't have to stand up for it. (even in the picture above you will note that my hand with the treat is low, he actually over shot it!) After many repeats, Elvis figured out that he should "hold" the sit up position for a few seconds. As he progresses he will be able to hold it for longer and longer periods. For right now, 3 seconds is a long time! |
| Elvis has been adopted, so his search for the perfect home is over. Many, many famous doggy "stars" have come from animal shelters, so we encourage you to look for the perfect trick training candidate at your local shelter and rescue groups! |
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