Want to teach your dog some tricks? That would be great. Doing so will lead to a better communication and allow you to bond more with your pooch.
Teaching your dog could be easy or difficult depending on its breed and your patience and knowledge on training. To help yourself succeed, you should do a thorough research as a preparation for your training sessions. You cannot get the results you want in an instant, so it is best to invest a considerable amount of time doing the task.
Simple Tricks You Can Teach Your Dog
There is a gargantuan list of tricks that you can teach your pooch, but here are the simple and easy ones:
High Five
This is indeed one of the easiest and most common trick your dog can learn. You may begin by commanding it to sit and rewarding it with a tasty treat. Soon after, you may show the treat and hold it in front of your pet but a little out of reach. Then, say “High five” and gently tap any of its feet.
By doing these, you may expect your pet to paw at the treat you are holding. Upon achieving such result, make sure to give the treat to your pooch and praise it for a job well done.
Shake Hands
Like “high five”, “shake hands” is a common and easy trick that you can teach your pet. As you may already know, dogs naturally paw at their parents if they want something. For this, what you can do is show your fisted hand with treats inside. The goal is to compel your pet to paw at it because it can’t get the yummy treats using its mouth.
As your dog paws at your hand, use the command “Shake” and repeat it numerous times. Just like in the previous item, you should make sure to give treats and praises to your pooch once you achieve the desired results. The same thing goes for all of the other tricks you plan to teach it.
Kiss
While you may already be enjoying lots of kisses from your furry baby every now and then, you can still teach it to do the act on command. You may need to use sticky items like a post-it or a tape with the yummy treats and a clicker. Obviously, the goal is to lure your pet into the treat. Teaching this trick to your pooch will likewise enable it to learn to kiss other animal friends.
Army Crawl
You may begin by commanding your pooch to lie down as you hold a treat between your fingers. The goal is to let your pet smell and lick the treat without taking it from you. Make sure to hold the treat firmly.
After holding the treat in front of your pet’s nose, drag it slowly along the floor. Upon doing so, expect your dog to crawl a little. When your pet tries to stand up for the treat, take it away and start from the beginning. Then, try to get your furry buddy crawl a longer distance. Apart from being fun, this trick helps improve your pet’s physical fitness.
Spin
This is a basic trick that a dog can learn. It may seem a bit complex, but it can actually be easy to do, provided you use the proper technique. Just like the other tricks, you may start on this one with treats. Eventually, you can get your pet to spin through a verbal command only.
Benefits of Teaching Your Dog Some Tricks
As mentioned above, teaching some tricks to your dog leads to more bonding with you and an improved communication. But apart from these perks, doing so also stimulates your dog’s mind and improve its mental health. Did you know that improving one’s mental health also enhances one’s physical well-being? Take note that activities like this can likewise fight off dog depression.
Meanwhile, there are instances when dogs naturally learn some tricks. This happens if it has a great social life – when it has enough exposure to other people and animals. You may want to make you pet’s mind sharper by putting it in a day care center; for instance, the Camp Bow Wow. There, it will get used to hearing and following some commands.
Summary
Generally speaking, dogs love to please their parents. As a loving pet parent, you should keep this fact in mind as you try to teach your pooch some tricks. And as discussed earlier, make sure to be patient and knowledgeable enough if you really want to succeed.
