Have you ever seen a well trained dog and thought, I wish my dog could do tricks like that?
It is probably the dream of most dog owners to be able to teach their pet to do some of the tricks they see other dogs doing, but there is one thing they must remember above all others before starting down the path of teaching tricks. The dog must have at least some basic obedience. There is not much chance of teaching it to do tricks if it is a badly behaved dog in the first place.
The basic commands such as sit, down, heel etc, should be known by your dog before trick training starts, as this will make life so much easier later on. Once these have been mastered you can begin to build on them and your dog will soon be amazing your friends with the following three simple tricks.
Begging
To start teaching this trick it is best to have your dog sit in a corner of the room with his back to the wall and you standing in front of him. The walls will support your dog and give him the confidence that he wont fall over if he raises his front legs off the floor.
Take some small pieces of food and hold it above your dog whilst enticing him to reach up for it. Each time he takes the food, praise him and repeat the procedure slowly encouraging him to reach higher each time.
Whilst encouraging the dog to reach up for the food, you must make sure that he is keeping his haunches on the ground. This is achieved by moving the food back over his head slightly making the dog shift his weight back over his haunches and teaching him to keep his balance.
Once the begging trick has bee mastered in the corner of the room you can gradually begin to move away from the wall and practise the trick where the dog has no back support. You must expect at this stage that the dog will seem to go backwards in his learning, but this is to be expected until he can perfect it just using his own body weight.
Shaking hands
There are two parts of this trick for your dog to learn. A verbal part and a non-verbal part which both work together to give the dog a cue that you want him to perform the trick.
Firstly the dog should start off in a sitting position. Give him a single word verbal command such as shake, whilst at the same time reaching out with your right hand until it is just a few inches from your dogs right leg. Your outstretched hand is the non-verbal cue.
Initially your dog will probably just sit motionless unsure of what to do, so with your left hand, gently push or prod his right leg forwards until it rests in your right hand. When he has done this, praise him so that he knows he has done what you wanted him to do.
Practice this trick several times; praising after each successful result and gradually reducing the amount of left hand prompting until only the verbal and non-verbal cues are all that are needed.
Shaking the head: No
Before you can begin to teach this trick to your dog, you will need to find something which will make him shake his head naturally. Some things which may help are blowing gently on the ear, tickling the ear with a feather or even lightly attaching a paperclip to the ear remembering that you should not cause the dog any pain.
Once you have found the method which makes him shake his head you will then have to decide on which verbal and non-verbal cue you want to use. A single word such as head along with shrugging of your shoulders is just one idea.
Again your dog should start in a sitting position when first teaching him this trick. As in the shaking hands trick, use both cues together, along with the prod (tickling his ear, etc) in an effort to stimulate your dog to shake his head. Once he does, reward him, even if it is just a small movement.
This trick is best learned in short sessions with momentary breaks in between, so dont try to repeat the exercise more that five times in one session or the dog will become confused and not learn.
Gradually reduce the amount of prodding so that all that are needed are the verbal and non-verbal cues. Once your dog has mastered the trick, he can be progressed to learn it in standing position and laying positions as well.
The main thing with training dogs to perform tricks is for the owner to learn that patience is a virtue and that the dog will learn in his own time. Do not scold the dog if he does not seem to be learning, it is always better to be patient and encourage him more.
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Dec 11, 2009 | | Dogs
To teach your dog tricks even easy ones you need to have some small reward treats, be in a quiet suitable place and keep the training sessions to 10 – 15 minutes or your dog will start to get board, remember when he gets something right lots of praise and a reward treat, just be careful not to get him over excited or he will loose concentration.
Getting your dog to give you his paw, first get your dog to sit, then as you say the word ‘paw’ take your dogs paw in your hand, give the dog a treat, repeat this, after a few times do not take his paw so quickly, say the word, count to one then take it, you should notice he is bringing his paw up as you say the word if he does not go back to saying it at the same time, do it a few more times then slow your response again. After 2 or 3 sessions most dogs pick this one up quite happily.
The high five, like a lot of tricks the high five is a progression of an earlier trick, in this cast the paw trick. Hold a treat in your fingers and raise your hand slightly higher than you would for the paw trick. You dog will think you want to do the paw trick and will reach for the treat with his paw as we taught him earlier, as he reaches up you say high five and give him the treat. Once your dog has mastered the paw trick this one should be very easy to learn and with just a few sessions he will be doing it on hand signal rather than voice control.
Getting your dog to jump through a hoop, before you start this one I would just like to ask you to be a little sensible and not hold the hoop too high as you do not want your dog to heart himself while doing the trick. Sit your dog on one side of a hoola hoop, get the dogs attention on your hand on the other side of the hoop take a treat in your hand and give the dog the command to release him from the sit, at first he may attempt to go around or under the hoop, if this happens start again, your dog wants the treat and will soon learn that going around or under does not get it so he will soon start going through it, when he does say hoopla and give him the treat. He will soon be jumping through the hoop on the command of hoopla. When I started doing this trick I had a medium sized dog (a Labrador) so I started with the hoop 6 inches from the ground and slowly raised it to waist height, if you have a smaller dog you might want to start with the hoop touching the ground so the dog just goes through the hoop and then slowly raise it as he gets used to the trick.
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Nov 11, 2009 | | Dogs
‘Sit Up’ Buddy: Training Your Dog To Sit Like You
The trick of sitting up is easily taught to small dogs, but should try not be included in a big dogs education, as it is difficult for them to preserve their balance.
The training of sitting up is one of the first tricks to teach and forms the groundwork for many other dog tricks. To train a dog to sit up, prepare some treats as a reward, and set your dog on his haunches in a corner, so that he cannot fall either backward or sideways and has very little or no space to lose balance.
Keep him from pitching forward by holding one hand under his chin and with the other hand hold the treat above his nose and keep repeating distinctly and deliberately say, sit up. Do not make him sit up too long at any one time, but repeat the lesson frequently and reward him often with plentiful of praise and treats.
During his first lesson he will require considerable assistance from your hand to prevent him from pitching forward, but as he gets control of the balancing muscles and understands what you want, he will depend less and less upon your hand to keep him in position and you can gradually render him less assistance until you will only have to keep one hand in position two or three inches from his neck or chin, so as to be ready to prevent him pitching forward; later on you can withdraw this hand entirely and simply hold the treat just above the level of his head.
By constant practice he will sit up well after you set him up; then he should be set up against the wall, so as to afford him a support for his back only, and after he has been well schooled at this and can keep his position easily, practice him against chair legs, cushions or other objects that afford him less and less assistance, until finally he learns to preserve his balance and sits up without anything to lean against.
During all these lessons the words sit up have been impressed upon his mind by frequent repetition, and now comes the final lesson to teach him to sit up as soon as he hears the words, and the chances are, if he has been diligently drilled, it will be necessary only to call him out in the room, show him a treat, hold it up a suitable distance from the floor, say sit up and he will do so, when he should be given the treat while still in position.
The only necessity to perfection is to practice him several times a day until he will sit up at the word and without being shown a reward; that can be given him after he has obeyed.
You have now a foundation for many other tricks. He can be taught to beg by moving your hand up and down just in front of his paws, which he will move in unison with yours. He can also be taught to salute by bringing one paw up to the side of his head, or to hold a wooden pipe in his mouth, or to wear a cap on his head or other articles of wearing apparel.
In teaching a dog to submit to being dressed up, do not attempt to get him to wear too many things at once; try him at first with a cap and after he becomes accustomed to that you can put on a coat and gradually accustom him to the other clothing articles.
Enjoy teaching your dog the sit up trick and most importantly have fun along the way!
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Nov 11, 2009 | | Dogs
‘On Trust’ & ‘Paid For’: One of the Oldest Dog Tricks that Never Fail to Entertain
On Trust & Paid For for are one of the oldest dog tricks that afford as much entertainment as anything a dog can do since the early 1900s. It is not the easiest trick to be taught but can be elaborated on and presented in several different forms to impress most people.
To teach this trick call your dog to you, allowing him to stand up or sit down, as he desires, and hold his head steady with on hand, while you balance a piece of treat on his nose.
Say to him, On trust, on trust, steadying and restraining his head from moving with one hand and holding up a threatening finger with the other and repeating the words, On trust, on trust.
After which, release his head, saying paid for, and give him a little chuck under the chin, that will cause him to toss the treat up and catch it. Of course, in his earlier attempts he will not be able to catch the treat, but he should be allowed to eat the treat after it land on the floor.
Continuous repetition of this training will produce efficiency. Over time you should stop restraining his head with your hand and allow him to balance the treat on his nose until you give him the words Paid for.
He can also be taught also to hold the treat between his teeth and not to swallow it until told to do so. This trick can be made more impressive by holding a conversation with your dog. For instance, you might say: Buddy, old man, here is a very yummy piece of treat, but it is on trust.
Slightly emphasize the word trust and then go on and say: I am glad you dislike to eat things on trust, but this I have just learned has been paid for, emphasizing the words paid for.
Your dog can also be taught to toss the treat on hearing a certain number. To teach this, balance it on his nose and hold his head while you count plainly and deliberately, one, two, three, and then chuck him under the chin. Until he has had a great deal of practice he will toss it up as promptly at one, two, four, as he will at one, two, three, but he must be drilled until he will not toss it until he hears three, and it will make it easier for him if you slightly emphasize the THREE word.
In time you can use many combinations of figures and he will wait until he hears the emphasized three. In working him do not make him wait too long before you say three, and allow him to eat the treat.
Trust and Paid For dog tricks are considerably difficult to master and requires plenty of patience from you. Remember, do not punish your dog if he cant master the trick, and rather blame yourself for being a lousy teacher. 
In any case, enjoy training and have lots of fun along the way.
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Nov 10, 2009 | | Dogs