| Teach Your Dog Tricks |
| Written by Administrator | ||||||||
| Saturday, 29 August 2009 04:42 | ||||||||
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All you have to do is find the best way to communicate with your dog. You can teach your dog tricks, from practically anything if you can break it down into small, understandable steps for him.
Sit
One of the easiest things to teach your dog tricks is the Sit command. There are lots of ways to teach your dog to Sit. You can choose the one that appeals to you or the one that works best with your dog.
One way to teach your dog tricks like how to Sit is by holding a treat in your hand. Your dog should be standing in front of you. Let him know you have the treat but don’t let him have it.
Hold the treat just above his head and slowly move it backwards. Your dog should move his body back and downwards into a sitting position in order to keep watching the treat. When he Sits praise him and give him the treat.
Do this a couple more times and add the Sit command. Keep practicing and your dog will put the command “Sit” with the action.
You can also teach your dog tricks by using a clicker to “mark” the Sit behavior. A clicker is a $2 training clicker than you can buy in a pet store or any place that sells dog supplies. The object is to “mark” good behavior, praise your dog and give him treats when he does something you like -- even if he doesn’t know what it was.
You then get more specific about what your dog is doing that you like until your dog is doing exactly the behavior you want. This is called “shaping” behavior. In the case of teaching Sit you would click when you see your dog sit.
Praise him and give him some treats. When your dog sits again, click and treat. Your dog will probably start doing lots of things hoping to get you to click and treat again. He will quickly figure out what he did right.
You can add the Sit command when he sits. Click and treat. Dogs learn very quickly using the clicker and you can teach them just about anything using this method. It makes them very eager to cooperate.
Stay
You can teach your dog tricks with the Stay command in several positions: with your dog standing, sitting or lying down. Since you have already taught your dog to Sit, you can go on and teach him to stay in this position.
Teaching stay is not difficult but your dog should know a “release” command such as “okay” or “good” when you start. This will give him permission to relax.
Tell your dog to Sit in front of you. With your palm open put your hand in front of your dog’s face and tell him to Stay. Take a step back. Just ask your dog to Stay for a couple of seconds. Then release him with “okay” or “good.” This is how you teach the command.
You should be happy to have your dog stay for a couple of seconds. You can gradually work up to longer Stays. You should only work on Stay in five-minute sessions since this requires a lot of discipline from your dog.
Fetch
You really can’t teach your dog tricks without including Fetch. It’s not hard to teach your dog Fetch and there are several different ways to do it. One easy way to teach your dog to Fetch is by using a squishy ball or a rawhide stick.
Have some treats in your pocket along with another ball or stick. With this method you are basically walking your dog through the process until he catches on.
Throw the ball or stick and walk your dog to it. Put it in his mouth if necessary. Walk back to the place where you threw it from and tell your dog to drop it. Then praise your dog for giving you the ball or stick and give your dog treats and throw the other ball or stick for him.
You may need to do this several times before your dog catches on.
Some dogs will fetch or retrieve naturally -- many Retrievers are great at this. But there are quite a few dogs who do need to be taught the ins and outs of fetching.
Roll Over
Your dog’s repertoire of dog training tricks can also include rolling over. This is another trick that’s easy to teach. You can teach your dog to lie down from the Sit position. Simply use a treat to lure them into the Down position from the Sitting position.
Once your dog knows the Down position you can teach your dog tricks to Roll Over by using a treat to roll over onto his side. You can help him complete the roll with your hands the first few times until he gets the hang of it. This trick will be easier for younger dogs to learn. Older dogs may have trouble with it for physical reasons.
There is no limit to teach your dog tricks. The important thing to remember is that training your dog is all about communication. Figure out how to tell your dog what you want him to learn and he can learn anything you want to teach him.
Learning to teach your dog tricks is a lot of fun for both you and your dog. Have a great time with them!
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