Way to go getting Matthias to sit!!! That's a great idea to have your hubby videotape
Then you get to see all the neat stages he goes through
What I did to get Raisin to sit was use the clicker, otherwise she was not getting it at all... I raised a treat above her head (i was sitting on the floor), and at first put slight pressure on her backside and as soon as her bottom hit the floor I clicked and treated... took a couple of tries but then she soon got the hang of it. I was amazed because before then I don't think she'd ever sat down
she's so squirmy...
same thing with the lie down command... she didn't know what the heck i was talking about, at first I tried to just do the click and treat if she just went down a little bit, but that didn't work, so I had to take the treat to the ground right in front of her so she bent down a little bit, then I took her front legs and stretched them out in front of her (gently of course
). As soon as she was in the down position I clicked and treated, she had that within a few times, then I said "down" while clicking
after that then I've tried to associate a hand signal with it... I don't know if that helps, but so far it is working for me
Somehow I don't think the stay command will be so successful
she still doesn't sit still for very long.