“A Mans Best Friend”
Aug 13 2009
For the most part dogs are excited to do what their owners want and try their best to please when it comes to reaping a reward for doing so. These are dog tendencies that need to be exploited when it comes time to teach them tricks. It’s important to use their natural tendencies. By building on these natural ‘dog’ charateristics and behaviors in conjunction with rewards to generate pet tricks, the procedure becomes easier than trying to teach a trick from the ground up.
See what your dog does for recreation, and then determine whether or not you can use any of it to your advantage. If there is something they do that looks like it could be a decent trick then some of the work is already done for you. When you see your dog doing something that might be considered cute, use a hand signal for that particular action, and then give them a treat. The dog will then know that when they do that act after a hand signal there will be a treat, and therefore they will be quite eager to do it whenever you want.
For most dogs there are dietary requirements that you’ll need to pay mind to, and bearing that in mind you shouldn’t actually give your dog an excessive amount of treats. Treats are a great way to get started, but later on the hand signals and some praise will suffice. When you get everything down pat, you can decrease the amount of treats or stop giving them period.
Most dogs don’t take very long to get the hang of it because they recognize quickly that when they do the trick they get the treat. This makes the training pretty simple, and you can use simple commands as a gateway to other tricks. One example might be using the command ‘down’ instead of ‘play dead’. This will be a good starting point, and eventually you can move on to ‘play dead’. ’stay’, ‘come’, and ’sit’ will also come naturally to the dog once a little bit of practice is done.
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.
Your dog’s ability to smell is a huge factor in the training. One thing that you can do is play a little game with your dog that involves hiding a favorite toy or treat and then having them find it. You can start out by putting the toy in a close location so that it’s easy for them to find the object, and when they become more adept at that you can hide it farther away so that they have to work for it. After a while you will be able to use this as a viable trick to entertain your dog as well as any guests that you might have.
Do you want your dog to shake hands? The best way to train for this trick is to use your dog’s affection for you as his owner and possibly his natural behavior of offering you his paw. You can encourage this by getting down on your knees in front of your dog, presenting your “paw” and verbalizing the command “high five”,”five”,”give me five”, “shake”, or whatever command you decide to apply. When he responds correctly, reward him with lavish approval or a treat. He will rapidly figure it out.
Sometimes you may find that the dog doesn’t lift its pay when you want it to, in which case you’ll have to resort to other measures. You’ll have to physically lift their paw, but make sure you praise them and give them a treat. After a while they’ll do it immediately without you lifting the paw as long as they know there is a treat for them.
There are a few other things that you can expand on once you’ve taught the dog a few tricks. One thing that you can do is expand the high five into a way to make them sit up. You can do this by compelling them to raise both paws, at which point they’ll just sit up. Once you’ve gotten them to do this, make sure you give them a treat.
Needless to say there are many different types of training. A lot of it is for behavior modification, safety, correct social behavior, and so forth. Working on tricks is for you and your dog’s amusement, exercise, and to help strengthen the bond between you.
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