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Matey and I are going to show you how to teach your dog to sit pretty, or
in other words, to get up into a big position. When teaching this treat,
you're going to want to have a clicker to mark when your dog has done
something correct, as well as several small treats that your dog likes.
You're going to first, get your dog into a sit position. Then you're going
to take your treat, and just rock it right up over their head, keeping it
very close. If the dog jumps up on their back legs, no click, no reward;
but if she balances on those back legs, I'm going to click and reward.
So see how she just raised up a little bit, but her bottom continues to be
on the floor. That's what we want. That's really engaging her core muscles,
so it takes quite a bit of strength as well as balance to do this trick. In
the beginning, only have your dog do a few repetitions, and for short
periods of time. Otherwise, you're going to make them tired, and they won't
want to do the trick very much.
Once your dog can easily balance up into that sit pre-position, we'll
switch to an empty hand signal, so no treat in my hand. My empty hand
signal is just a flat hand moving up over her head, like that. Once your
dog is responding consistently to the empty hand signal, you can add on a
verbal cue, like say, sit pretty. So, I'm going to say that word once, and
then give my empty hand signal. Sit pretty. Sit pretty. With enough
repetition, the dog will begin to respond to the verbal cue alone, and you
won't even need to use that hand signal.
That's how you start to teach your dog to sit pretty.