How To Teach Your Dog Tricks

To teach your dog tricks is one of the most enjoyable pasttimes you will have with your dog. He will love you for the attention and will pay you back by being even more faithful.

As soon as your dog has learned his first trick, he will be beaming with confidence and want to learn more. He will be wagging his tail just waiting to do new tricks to please you. Don't be surprised if he turns into a little show off in the process!

There are lots of dog tricks that you can teach your dog, but the main ones are:

To shake, to bow, playing asleep, playing dead, to spin, to beg and many more.

These are advanced tricks to teach your dog so it is a good idea that you have already taught them the basic obedience commands. These are: Sit, Down, Come, Stay, Heel, Fetch, Stand, Leave It.

Teaching your dog tricks can be a great alternative to playing fetch with a ball or a Frisbee. Now and again it is a good idea to do different things to mix things up a bit. Dogs have brains and they love to use them so learning new dog tricks is great brain training for dogs. And these dog tricks can be performed indoors which is great when the weather is bad. Your dog gets to exercise indoors using his brain as well as his body.

You can also use tricks to substitute bad behaviour and habits that your dog might have learned. For example, a dog that runs out the door at the first opportunity could be taught to shake hands with guests coming through the door. He will look forward to being able to show off his newly learned tricks to the visitor at the door. Another fun example is when your dog meets someone that is afraid of dogs, he can do a sweet little trick like taking a bow. Your dog will seem less threatening and more interesting after the trick.

When you begin teaching your dog new tricks don't make your training sessions too long, make them short and fun. Learning tricks is entertainment for your dog so you do not want to make it seem like work. Your dog cannot concentrate for long and he will get tired and not understand the training.

Once your dog has mastered one trick, you can move onto the next. Don't be in too much of a hurry, through, as dogs rely on repetition to learn.

Special tools are not needed for you to teach your dog tricks. Just load yourself up with a few of your dog's favourite treat and you are ready to begin. And you can come up with more tricks to teach him as you get better together. And remember this is fun journey for both of you and not a race to the destination. Your dog can keep learning tricks for years into the future.


Copyright (c) 2011 Kat Drew