Mt Pleasant Vet Explains Three Easy Dog Tricks

Your Mt Pleasant SC veterinarian sees many talented dogs. Here are some general ideas to teach your dog easy tricks.

To teach your easy dog tricks you will need to have some small reward treats. Be in a quiet suitable place and keep the training sessions to ten to fifteen minutes or your dog will start to get bored.  When he gets something right, give lots of praise and a reward treat. Be careful not to get him over excited or he will loose concentration.

Getting your dog to give you his paw:
First get your dog to sit, then as you say the word ‘paw’ take your dog’s paw in your hand. Give a treat and repeat. After a few times do not take his paw so quickly, say the word, Count to one then take it. You should notice he is bringing his paw up as you say the word. If he does not, go back to saying it at the same time. Do this a few more times then slow your response. After two or three sessions most dogs pick this one up quite happily.

The high five:
Like a lot of tricks, the high five is a progression of the previous trick. Hold a treat in your fingers and raise your hand slightly higher than you would for the paw trick. Your dog will think you want to do the paw trick and will reach for the treat with his paw as you taught him earlier. As he reaches up you say “high five” and give him the treat. Once your dog has mastered the paw trick this one should be very easy to learn and with just a few sessions he will be doing it on hand signal rather than voice control.

Getting your dog to jump through a hoop:
Hold the hoop low enough so your dog does not hurt himself. Sit your dog on one side of a hoola hoop. Get his attention on your hand on the other side of the hoop. Take a treat in your hand and give the dog the command to release him from the sit. At first he may attempt to go around or under the hoop. If this happens, start again. Your dog wants the treat and will soon learn that going around or under does not get it so he will soon start going through it. When he does say hoopla and give him the treat. He will soon be jumping through the hoop on the command of hoopla.