Train Your Dog To Balance A Book On His Head

Balancing a Book on Your Dogs Head!

Now this is not for the beginner!

The process is as follows; get a appropriate size book, you might try experimenting with several sizes getting larger until you find the right size.

Get the dog to sit and stay, and then very gently place the book on the dogs withers or muzzle. Keep hold of the dog still whilst you are placing the book on the dog, and then slowly remove your hands keeping the book where it is.

Wait three or four seconds and then remove the book and let the dog relax, do this several times and then increase the time that the book is balanced. Once the dog has mastered this then get him to walk forward with the book, this may be an even tougher feat though.

Train Your Dog To Play Peek A Boo

PEEK A BOO

This is a fun trick to get your dog to hide its eyes on command.

The Steps: Get your dog to sit or lie down.
This is not so easy so a lot of practice may be necessary.
Hold a treat in your hand and blow gently on the dogs nose, this may get the dog to rub its nose or swipe at its face. Say the words “peek a boo” or “cover your eyes”. Immediately give a reward.

You can also lift his paw over his muzzle with your hand and reward.

Repeat the command and movement until the dog realizes what is needed to get the treat.

Train Your Dog To Turn The Light Off

TURN OF THE LIGHT SWITCH

This is a fun trick to teach your dog, even to show off when friends come round!

Firstly get a treat and hold it at the light switch that is the right height for your dog, one that he can reach on his back legs. Use a suitable command like “LIGHT OFF” and get him to touch the light switch as he jumps for the treat, reward him then with “GOOD LIGHT OFF”.

Gradually move away from the switch and alternately toss the treat at the switch and place it on the switch so that he has to knock it off, but a note of caution, the dog may hit the switch with its mouth rather than its paw and it may be better to hold the treat.

Dog Trick To Turn Around

Train Your Dog To Turn Around

Begin with your dog standing in front of you. Let him see that you have a treat in your hand. Stand still and say “Turn Around”. With the treat in your hand lead your dog’s nose round to the left (clockwise) keeping his attention the whole time, so that he walks round in a circle. Once he is back facing you praise him and give him the treat.

Once you have practiced this a few times and he starts to know what is expected of him, stand in front of him and say “Turn Around” but without leading his nose. If he turns round without being lead give him a treat and praise him lots. He does not carry on leading him round.

It is very important to be consistent with the command you give and praise, once he performs on command reduce to amount of treats he gets till he will perform without one.

Next Dog Trick - How To Bow.

Teach Your Dog to BOW!

This trick looks impressive but is quite an easy to learn.

If your dog is driven by food this is the method you should use.

Make sure you use a treat that has a tempting smell and your dog really likes, for example cheese, liver cake, sausages etc.

Get your dog to stand, while you kneel next to him. Then place a treat in between his front paws. Your dog’s attention should be on the treat so he should look done to between his paws to try and get the treat. If he tries to lay down instead of bowing then while he is standing place a hand on his tummy. This should stop him laying down.

Repeat this 3 times a day also using a command at the same time “Bow”, as he starts to bow on command reduce the amount of treats till he performs by command and hand action.

Train Your Dog To Do Fun Tricks

Tricks for Fun

There are some tricks that you can teach your dog that are purely to show off and for fun, here is list of some of the ones I have found on my research

Saying yes (nodding), and no (shaking their head), the trick here is to use cue words that act as the command rather than “say yes Fido” which is a little more obvious!

Say something, like "are you the best dog in the world, do you AGREE?” Agree being the cue word.

For the “no” command try something like “NOT”, as in “do you NOT like this Fido?”

Other tricks that we can look at in later blogs are getting your dog to push a ball around with his paws or his nose!

Train Your Dog Not To Pull On A Leash

Training Your Dog To Walk On A Leash.

One of the common faults of many dogs is pulling on a leash, which is more the owner's fault rather than the dog's.

Here are a few simple steps for making sure that it is you who decide where to walk with your dog, not the other way round!

1. The first purchase necessary is a check collar or gentle leader with a leash.

2. Get the dog to stand next to you on your left and get him to sit.

3. Walk slowly forward and as soon as the dog starts puling on the leash then stop and pull the leash back to you, avoid pulling the dog back.

4. When the dog stops praise him and continue walking.

5. Continue this process for a number of days, repeating the steps three or four times a day. In a few days the dog should be trained not to pull.

Trick Number 2 How to make Your Dog Dance

Teach Your Dog to Dance

Yes is possible! This is easiest to teach to dogs that have already a tendency to get up on their hind legs anyway, possibly a dog that jumps up at people, although the act of jumping up at people is not necessarily desirable all the time!

The good thing about teaching your dog this trick on command is that he does not put very much weight on the front legs and therefore doesn’t hurt anyone.

The start point is to catch your dog in the middle of jumping up at you, prefrably you, and gently take their paws and lift them so he stands. Praise him, give him a treat and release him.

Repeat this a number of times a day until the command is second nature.

Having learned the trick see if the dog can do it by himself!

Train Your Dog To Shake Hands

How to teach your dog to shake hands

Firstly with your dog sat in front of you take hold of its right paw with your right hand, and lift up the paw gently, your dog may think this is strange at first but persist and tell your dog the words “shake” as you are lifting the paw.

Lift the paw all the way until it is level with the dog's chest and then shake it in your hand.

Repeat this performance six times a day for a few days and then try just say ing the word "shake" as you reach out for the paw. Don’t take it but simply see if the dog offers the paw.

If it does then praise the dog heavily. By holding a treat tightly cupped in your hand, you can encourage this behavior.

Re-freshing Your Dog's Training

Retraining Your Older Dog

Most dogs no matter their intended purpose or eventual advanced training, live with people so they will need to be trained no matter thier age. Even the older dog will need to have his manners refreshed and whilst not as easy as a younger dog to train, patiennce and persistance will win.

Again like training a puppy it is the positive reward principle that is important to remember, reward positive behavior and correct or ignore negative behavior. It is really important for your dog to know it boundaries of what is acceptable behaviour and what is not, and this should be reinforced often.

There are five basic behviors that must be trained:
Sit
Stay
Come
Down and
Heel