Two Fun and Easy Tricks to Teach Your Dog!

Kevin Duggan, CPDT-KA 01/01/2015 Basic Training, Lifestyle w/ Dog 1 Comment

Teaching tricks is a great way to bond with your dog. There are other benefits as well, like the mental stimulation that goes along with the trick, and with that mental stimulation comes a more intelligent dog. We will be highlighting two fun and easy ticks.
1. Weaving Your Legs:
In the beginning you’re going to want to get your dog use to following the lure through your legs. Get out your high value food reward and guide him on through. Do lots of repetition of this until he is doing it very smoothly. Once he is doing it very smoothly it’s time to try to get him to do it with just using a hand motion. Make this hand motion look the same as when you had the food. Do lots of practice with that. Once he is doing that really well you can start to add in the word. I’ve chosen the word, “through.” Check out the video below to get a visual of how I teach this.
2. Spinning Left and Right.
With this you’ll continue with the same trend. You’ll want to get a treat out and start to guide your dog in circles. Once the circle is complete, give the treat. Practice having your dog go to the left, and the right. Once he is doing very well with following the treat, use just a hand signal in a similar fashion as you did with the treat. After a lot of repetition with that, you can start adding in the words to cue him to go left or right. Here is a video demonstrating how I teach this.
After practicing these enough you’ll have some cool party tricks to show off! Remember to stay patient and work at your dog’s pace. If he is struggling with something, take a “step back” and make it easier.