Dog Training Tricks

Posts Tagged ‘dog training tips’

We have all watched movies with totally adorable dogs as the stars. Sure there may be a well known human face on the screen as well, but everyone knows who the real star is – the pooch. You’ve almost certainly seen the likes of Lassie and Beethoven performing some amazing stunts and it’s obvious that large amounts of time and probably money has gone into producing these kind of results. So the question is “can your ordinary loveable pet learn the best dog training tricks, without the big budget?” and the answer is a resounding yes. OK, maybe they won’t be quite up there with the top dogs but simple tricks such as to wave, play dead, shake hands, dance and crawl are well within the scope of most dogs.

Before we can teach any tricks your pet must have mastered the basic dog obedience commands such as sit, stay, lay and heel and for our purposes here I will assume that this is the case. If not there is plenty of information available for you to teach your dog these basics.

Let’s start with a very simple dog training trick and that is to shake hands. Now here is a quick tip, for some reason – and I will admit to not knowing exactly why – many dogs will automatically place their paw into your hand if you hold it out. So first of all just try simply getting your dog to sit and hold out your hand, if your dog then moves its paw towards your hand gently take it and pet her telling her what a good girl she is (that’s presuming she is a girl J). Then do the same again, only this time before you hold out your hand give the clear command ‘shake’ then hold out your hand, again make a fuss once she has put out her paw and repeat this about five times, no more, as you do not want your dog to get bored. The object of the exercise here is to get your dog to associate the word shake with the action of putting out its paw and being rewarded. Eventually just the command shake will have the desired effect before you even put your hand out.

If on the other hand your dog doesn’t feel inclined to place its paw in your hand when you hold it out, just give her a little bit of help by gently picking up her paw and placing it in your hand with the command ‘shake’. You will be surprised how quickly your pet will pick this up.

Once your dog has mastered shaking hands it’s but a simple step to teach her  another dog training trick and that is to wave. Once your dog is sitting, place your hand about five or six inches away and as she lifts her paw to greet you, move it slightly to the right and then slightly to the left saying something like ‘wave girl’. As she follows  your hand with her paw increase the distance slightly. If she gets bored and puts her paw down pat her and start again from the starting position and this time give her a treat after the third or fourth wave while all the time enforcing the command ‘wave girl’ or something similar. One thing to remember in any of these exercises is to keep the command short and once established do not change it in any way.

I mentioned earlier that your dog must have mastered the basic commands in order to go on to more complex dog training tricks and this can be demonstrated when teaching your dog to crawl. Give her the command to lay, then get down as much as you can to her level and keep your hand just above the floor and motion her towards you, if she starts to get up, go back to the command ‘lay’ and again motion for her to come towards you when she moves a few steps in the crawling position make a big fuss and give her a treat. This process often works better if you use her favourite toy when motioning her to you from the laying position.

The main thing to remember when teaching the best dog training tricks is to keep them simple to start with and make sure that your dog has a routine to follow and that is a motion (sit, crawl, lay) followed by a clear short command and a reward once these are followed. Start with simple commands and then build on them and soon your dog will go from laying to crawling, rolling over and playing dead, however always remember in all of this to have some fun

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