Tricks to Teach your Dog

If your dog already knows some basic obedience commands, such as Sit, there are many tricks to teach your dog. Most people enjoy letting their dog show off a little for family and friends, and dogs like the praise and attention they get from doing a few tricks in front of people. So, everybody wins.

One of the easiest and most enjoyable ways to teach your dog tricks is by using clicker training, or positive reinforcement in general. You can obtain a small clicker for $1-2 from a pet store. When you begin to train your dog you will click the clicker when he does something that resembles what you want him to do. If you want your dog to bark on command you will click when he barks and reward him. Your dog won’t know what he did to get a reward but if you do this several times, adding the “Speak” command, your dog will quickly be barking on command. In fact, he may be barking too much trying to get a reward, so you will only reward him when you give the Speak command. He will get the message that he has to wait to be asked to bark before barking. Just like that you’ve taught your dog the trick of barking on command. (Incidentally, you’ve also taught your dog to be quiet when you don’t want him to bark, at least some of the time.)

One of the old time running tricks to teach your dog is to rollover. Your dog needs to know the Down command. When he is in the Down position (lying on the floor, looking at you), wave a toy or treat near his nose and encourage him to follow the treat with his head as you wave it over him and toward the floor. As his head follows the treat or toy his body should roll over in the same direction. When he has successfully rolled over give him the treat or toy as a reward and add lots and lots of praise. Repeat this a few times with the command Rollover. Most dogs catch on very quickly.

You can also teach your dog to shake hands. It’s not hard to do. One of the easiest ways to do this is by placing a small treat between the thumb and index finger of your right hand (the shaking hand). Get your dog’s attention with this hand. He will initially nose your hand for the treat. Don’t give it to him. Eventually he will paw at your hand to try to get the treat. That’s what you want. When he paws at your hand say, “Shake” and give him a treat with your other hand. Don’t give him the treat in your right hand. Repeat this a few times and your dog will be offering his paw to you to shake. Gradually you can do the trick without any food in your right hand. Your dog will probably start offering his paw for a shake every chance he gets, hoping for a treat. You don’t have to give him a reward every time after he has learned the trick, just sometimes to keep his interest up.

With all of the tricks to teach your dog out there’s no end to what you and he can learn. Dogs are extremely smart. There’s a dog in Germany who knows the names of 200 dog toys. When his owners give him a new toy and ask him to fetch it he can figure out which toy it is by the process of elimination. Dogs are really smart! So have fun researching more tricks to teach your dog.