4 dog tricks for beginners
teaching your dog these easy dog tricks is fun and rewarding!
Teaching your dog a few tricks can also greatly improve your relationship with them and make them more obedient.
before you begin teaching your dog tricks season your dog to a word or clicker, by doing this your dog will learn that whenever you click or use your marker word they get a treat
this allows you to be more accurate with your reward because as soon as you click or say your marker word your dog knows they will receive a reward, when you just give the reward it might take a few seconds for you to reach into your pocket get the reward and give it to your dog, by that time your dog will no longer be doing the thing that you want to reward them for.
I prefer to use a marker word over a clicker just because it’s easier, I don’t need to have a clicker in one hand treats in the other plus try and tell my dog what to do
but there is nothing wrong with using a clicker. for my marker word, I always use “yes”. stick to one word because you don’t want to switch between different words
because this will be confusing for your dog and we want to make it as simple as possible for them.
To season your word
or if you are using a clicker it would be a click,
first, say “yes” or click then immediately give your dog a treat or kibble, this will take a lot of rewards so it is a good idea to use kibble
if your dog is not really interested in his/her kibble you can try waiting until he/she is hungry and then hand-feeding them one or all of their meals and using your marker right before you give them a small amount of food
do this a few days in a row for 10-15 minutes to get your dog super used to your marker this will make it easier for them to learn tricks.
1. how to teach your dog to follow your hand
this one is super easy to teach your dog and is a great one to start with because it is the foundation of a lot of other tricks
Therefore, you should spend as much time as you need to get your dog good at this one to make other tricks way easier for your dog to learn.
what you will need to teach your dog this trick:
some treats or kibble, I like using kibble, especially for this trick because I can feed my dog a lot more and in the beginning, you don’t want to spare on treats.
Step 1. Put some food or a treat in the palm of your hand and cover it with your fingers.
Step 2. Say “touch” as the cue for your dog to smell your hand allow your dog to smell your hand that has food as soon as your dog touches your hand mark and reward it with the food that is in your hand.
Step 3. Give your dog the cue “touch” and when they touch your hand move it a little bit and when they follow it mark and reward,
keep repeating this until your dog has the idea of following your hand you can slowly move your hand further away from your dog as long as they still follow.
Step 4. Start putting the kibble in your pocket, or treat pouch so that your dog learns to follow your hand and not just the food,
keep marking and rewarding the behavior that you are asking for and your dog will soon know what you want.
2. how to teach your dog sit
what your dog needs to know:
what “yes” or a clicker means like I talked about at the start of this post and if your dog follows your hand it will be much easier to teach them how to sit.
step 1. With treats in your hand and your palm facing up, slowly raise your hand above your dog’s head and start to move it towards their hind end,
you want their head to follow your hand, but you don’t want them to take a step backward, mark and reward as soon as their head follows your hand, and they start to look up.
as they get better at following your hand you can start to move further back this will naturally make their hind end go down towards the ground if done correctly.
step 2. Try and get their hind end to touch the ground, and add a cue such as ‘sit’, as soon as their hind end touches the ground mark and reward.
sometimes putting your hand on their back can help to guide your dog into the sit position.
step 3. You can slowly increase the time your dog needs to be in the sit position before they get a reward.
3. how to teach your dog to lay down
step 1. Teach your dog how to sit using the tutorial above.
step 2. While your dog is in a sit position hold a treat in your hand and place your hand in front of your dog on the ground when they lower their head and sniff your hand mark and reward.
step 3. Move your hand forward away from your dog while keeping your hand low to the ground, you want your dog to keep their hind end on the ground. This should put your dog into a down position,
then mark and reward.
These are great foundation dog tricks and you can progress these into more advanced dog tricks!
any dog can be taught a few tricks but not all dogs will be super obedient this largely depends on the breed of dog.
I hope you have fun teaching your dogs these tricks let me know in the comments how it goes or if you have any questions.
