Learning to Sit with True Chews Premium Jerky Cuts from Chewy.com

Marshal's been with us about two weeks now, and for much of that time I've been trying to teach him to sit. 

I tried a group sit with Fozzie and Dahlia, and he would just watch them sit and remain standing. 

I tried some intensive efforts just trying to lure his head up with a really good treat in my hand, and he stood on his hind legs to reach it.  

I rewarded that as Stand is one of my favorite tricks, but then I thought it was stupid to teach him to Stand before he learned to sit as many adopters might not be thrilled at that skill set absent the more sedate ones. 








I was a bit stymied by the difficulty for Marshal of learning Sit, as it is such a great building block for impulse control exercises--and an important position for the most appealing profile pictures. I think sometimes shy dogs are slower to learn tricks and skills because--just as in humans--their insecurity gets in the way of advanced cognitive function.  


Then Chewy.com offered a series of free snacks including True Chews Premium Jerky Cuts with Real Chicken.








These are high-value jerky snacks with few ingredients and no sugar. They are chewy jerky snacks, easy to give as a larger chew or to break up into small pieces for training treats. Maybe a really good treat would provide the motivation Marshal needed?

I rounded everyone up in the kitchen with a handful of True Chews bits. The dogs seemed very aware that I had high-value treats in hand, as they followed me with their eyes and noses. And as my hand went up in the signal for sit, Dahlia's little butt immediately went down--and Marshal's did too!

Maybe he'd been watching Dahlia all along, and saving up his performance for maximum impact. Or maybe he was insecure about giving it a try, and the high-value treat made him all of a sudden feel successful. Either way, Marshal executed several high-quality sits in exchange for some high-value True Chews.

Thanks again Chewy.com! Now let's see if those beautiful sits can attract the perfect adopter.