Three simple but sweet tricks

On the back of my last post, I thought I’d write up a selection of our trick repertoire for you to have a go at (and indeed for future reference for myself, haha!). :)

I may not be a world class trainer, but I have been able to steadily teach my dog a range of really cute tricks on command. Not only that, but I’ve also managed to convince our nearly 12 year old stubborn old granny dog to do some of them too, so I reckon these will work for any dog that’s motivated by food, praise and/or toys!

Make sure to give your dog plenty of time to learn each trick, it wont happen the first time you practice, but usually after a few days it’ll start to get the hang of it! Keep trick training sessions short, at around five to ten minutes, and finish off with a trick or two that they already know (it can be as simple as sit or down, just something to give them a feeling of success even if the trick you’re learning wasn’t going too well!) and lots of praise. I make sure to do two or three short sessions each day, both at home and during walkies.

What you’ll need:

• Nice smelly treats (not the dry kind!)

or 

• A favourite toy (we use a ball with a rope, it’s quick to give as a treat and more importantly easy to reclaim afterwards!)

High Five

• This one’s easy to teach because it works off your dog’s first instinct when faced with a hidden treat (try to get your dog motivated with the treats for this one, because holding a toy hidden in your hand can be pretty difficult!). Place a treat in the palm of your hand and show it to your dog, then close your hand and place close to your dog’s front paws. Let it sniff and try out what it takes to get that treat from you, until it places a paw on your hand. Reward with the treat and praise immediately! Repeat a few times, adding the command “high five!”, till you’re confident your dog connects touching your hand with the reward. Then with your thumb hold the treat to your palm, keeping your hand open this time in front of your dog. Say “high five!”, and reward and treat as soon as the dog does it, and you’re done! 
• This trick can be modified to a waving action by gradually moving your hand further away from the dog, so that it misses the contact but still does the action to touch your hand like a high five. Just make sure to give it a different command, and practice thoroughly. :)

Twirl left and right 

• This is super easy to train, but quite impressive to show to friends and family (“how can a dog know the difference between left and right?!”). Simply guide your dog with a treat to turn in the direction you want, making a small circle gesture to keep it a neat twirl instead of a run round a racetrack! Reward as soon as it’s done the twirl. Make sure to do this the same way round at first, and once your dog understands the motion combine with the command for whichever way it’s twirling. Once it’s got to grips with twirling in one direction (give it a few days at least to learn the trick properly), you can start practicing with the opposite direction. Really easy, right! ;)

Sit pretty 

• We’re still working on this one with Freija, but our older dog has got it down to a T! Getting the position right takes patience (depending on your dog’s muscles this may be tricky, so give it time to strengthen the lower back and legs properly, and make sure it’s distributing it’s weight evenly!), but with a bit of patience this trick is totally doable. :) I taught it by combining the commands “sit” and “paws” (placing both front paws on my arm). First get your dog to sit (if your dog doesn’t know how to yet, I’d suggest learning “sit”, “down” and “stand up” commands before attempting sit pretty!), then holding your arm lengthways in front of the dog, with a treat in the other hand BEHIND that arm, get those paws up on your arm and reward immediately (This is quite quick to train, but it’s easiest to teach it separately before moving on to “sit pretty”!). Once you’ve perfected the “paws” action, start moving the hand with the treat up above the dog’s head – not too high or you’ll end up with a dog standing on their back paws! Just above the nose, slowly get your dog to sit up straight. At this stage their paws will still be holding on to your arm for support, but once you’ve built up those lower back muscles they’ll begin to remove the paws and sit up on their own. Treat and praise as soon as they’re sitting up, and once they’re letting go of your arm combine with the command “sit pretty” (I use “nätti” which is just “pretty” in Finnish, it’s quicker to say). Repeat often and you’ll soon have your dog doing the cutest trick in the book all on their own! :)