How to Prepare, Teach, and Perform Dog Tricks:
It’s a Lot of Fun!
When you teach dog tricks to your canine friends, you’re doing more than getting ready for some fun performances later. The challenge of teaching these dog tricks will help you and your dog bond more closely, and will build your dog’s confidence in himself.
Click here to go straight to the instructions for teaching specific dog tricks.
Dog Tricks – You Can Do It!
Why Teach Dog Tricks?
The main reason for teaching dog tricks is the fun. It’s a challenge, it’s a game, and in the end it’s a new skill for your dog.
- Teaching dog tricks gives you practice at communicating back and forth with your dog.
- Your dog will learn to “try, try again” when you teach dog tricks.
- Do you or your dog like to show off?
- The physical and mental work of practicing dog tricks, burns off your dog’s energy.
- Some dog tricks can even defuse tense situations! (Check out the “take a bow” trick.)
How to Teach Dog Tricks
Dog training methods are finally a science, and that science of dog behavior and learning will benefit you as you read these pages about teaching dog tricks.
The key parts of teaching anything to a dog, are:
- Breaking the lesson down into small bits your dog can learn gradually.
- Keeping the training sessions short, high-energy, focused and fun.
- Start with easy goals and add challenges only after your dog masters a step.
- Be consistent and give your feedback instantly when the right behavior is reached.
Karen Pryor, the developer of clicker dog training, has a website that explains both clicker training and proper conditioning for dog training.
The Tools of Teaching Dog Tricks
Obviously, people have been teaching dog tricks since long before clickers and other gadgets were invented. With that said, I do prefer to use all these tools for better results:
The Training Clicker
The clicker’s job is to be instantaneous. The very second your dog meets a goal, you click the clicker. Once you’ve charged the clicker, your dog will understand that sound as meaning “good job!” It’s much faster and less distracting than fishing out a treat, and helps you signal to your dog that he’s getting the hang of a new dog trick.
Treats
This is the incentive or reward, an it can also be used as a lure, as you’ll see in my instructions for several dog tricks below. For good clicker training, you always give a treat after you give a click. The best incentive for training, is the dog’s favorite treat. This means a slice of hot dog or something extra special. As your dog masters each trick, you’ll gradually stop rewarding them except with love and praise.
Target Stick
The target stick helps you lure your dog into position. This is very useful in the first steps of any dog trick, when your dog is not sure what’s going on. Familiarizing your dog with the target stick will make it so he knows to keep his nose near that stick, which is a great first step when teaching dog tricks.
Rules for the Trainer: Teaching Dog Tricks
- Obedience training should be basically completed before you teach your dog tricks.
- Every dog learns at his own pace, and has different motivations. Use your intuition with your dog to get the best results.
- Always start with the easy steps and repeat every step until your dog masters it.
- Make sure your feedback is instant and consistent.
- Training sessions shouldn’t come straight after feeding, and your dog shouldn’t be brimming with energy when the session begins (but neither should he be too tired!)
- Don’t start using command words for each dog trick until after the actual behavior has been conditioned (you’ll see what I mean in the specific dog trick instructions, linked below)
- Except for very old dogs and dogs with health problems, any dog can learn tricks.
- Your dog will need extra training in different settings and with distractions, after you’ve mastered the trick at home with no distractions.
Preparing to Teach Dog Tricks
If you’re going to use target sticks or clickers for teaching dog tricks, or any other part of your dog’s training, here are steps to take before using those tools.
- Introduce your Dog to the Target Stick
- Charging the Clicker
Teaching Dog Tricks
I’ve written instructions for teaching these five dog tricks:
- Shake-a-Paw
- Spin
- Play Dead
- >Beg
- Take a Bow
Have fun with your dog!
Return to tips for training your dog.