Use Your Dog’s Everyday Behavior to Teach Tricks
Dogs are amazing creatures in that they conform to their owner’s desires in almost all cases. You would be amazed at the things a dog will do to please their owner, especially when there is some sort of treat involved when all is said and done. There are things that they do as a matter of course, and those are the things that you’re going to want to use while you train them to do tricks. If you combine these methods with treats, then you’ll find that it’s a lot easier to do the training.
Observe what your dog does for his own amusement. Does he spring into the air pursuing butterflies? Does he like to lay on his back with his feet in the air? If some kind of impromptu behavior can be turned into an enjoyable trick, that will quicken the training process. Be ready to use a fitting hand cue and verbal command when this behavior is displayed and then follow through with an instantaneous reward.
It’s important to not feed your dog an excessive number of treats. If you feed them too many you risk them either becoming sick, obese, or immune to the treat if you know what I’m saying. Treats will be good in the beginning, but you need to slowly wean your dog off of these treats so that he or she will do the tricks after seeing your hand signal or receiving the verbal command.
Quite a few dogs get the knack very rapidly after a few repeats and a voice praise or snack reward. This usually makes training the “stay”, “come”, “sit” and other elementary commands quite straightforward. When you want to teach something a bit more complicated it can be as simple as capitalizing on these elementary commands and behaviors. For example, the “down” command can be the jump off point for training “play dead”.
Another way to get your dog to pay close attention while you are trying to perfect tricks is to use their favorite toy. You can dangle this close to your dog’s nose and say ‘jump’. It may take a few minutes, but the dog will soon realize that the word ‘jump’ means…well…jump. After a while you won’t even need the toy.
Take advantage of your dog’s perceptive sense of smell… his capacity to detect smells close by and at long distance is fascinating. This incredible capacity can be utilized in training many types of “hide-and-seek” tricks and games. Again, using a favorite squeaky toy or chew ball, conceal it under a box or other object. Begin up close and slowly lengthen the distance or increase the difficulty in stages, for example positioning the box in a different room or up on a counter.
What about giving you five? That’s a great trick for a dog, and it’s actually pretty easy. Most dogs have a tendency to give you their paw immediately, and you can show them your hand or “paw”, and then say ‘high five’ as they give you theirs. After a while this will become second nature to them, but at first you will need to reinforce this behavior using a treat.
Often the dog will give you his paw at once. With some dogs you will have to help them get the idea by elevating their paw whilst using the vocal command. Bear in mind the need to praise even if you have to elevate his paw into position, then lower the paw back down and repeat.
Once you’ve taught your dog a few tricks, there are some other things that you can do. Once you teach them to give you five, you can extend it into telling them to ’sit up’. You can lift the paw slowly, and the other one will rise up by reflex, and then the dog will actually be sitting up. Make sure you reward the dog with a treat after you do this.
Training a dog can be fun, and it has a few other benefits as well. By training your dog and spending time with him or her you will create a strong bond. You and your dog will become very close and you both will be a lot happier!
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dog training | Riley Salkowski | 09 November 2009 |
