Do dogs like learning tricks? Essential Tips

Spin

Spin sounds like an easy trick to teach a dog, but it needs to be taught with the right technique as the verbal command is not enough for the dog in many cases.

Like the Army Crawl trick, this one is one of those more unique, fun commands on the dog tricks list that usually takes a lot of patience on both owner and dogs.

The Benefits of Dog Trick Training

Some people naturally love dog tricks and navigate to them as soon as their puppy enters the family. Other people tend to stick to the meat and potatoes of dog training – wanting to simply teach their dogs good listening skills and basic obedience, but did you know that one can help the other? There are many benefits to teaching your dog a big bag of tricks. So why should you? Here are 4 good reasons to spend some time teaching your dog to shake-a-paw or give you a high-5!

Dogs love to learn and Tricks are great for that!

Did you know that dogs brains are fully developed by the time they turn 7 weeks of age? That means that mental stimulation is very important to both developing puppies and adult dogs. Tricks help to get your dog thinking and learning, whether they are following a lure or offering more complex behaviours through shaping, your dog will love the mental stimulation of trick training.

Teach the dog how to work for you by teaching Tricks!

Often tricks can help bridge the gap of understanding between human and dog. We are both complex creatures and low-stress learning can really help us figure out how to read each other. Its also a wonderful way to build a bond with your dog. Dogs can quickly learn to trust you when they are heavily reinforced for activities.

Put your dog at ease in potentially overwhelming situations with Tricks

Its nice to have behaviours to rely on that will help your dog cope when things get stressful. Having a bag of tricks to help your dog focus on positivity can help them in overwhelming situations. Picture a scenario where your dog may become worried – first time meeting new people, kids or a new environment. I you can refocus their mind with a trick or two, transfer of value can occur and the new situation can be washed with the positive association your dog has with their tricks.

Teach your dog to think and offer behaviours through Tricks

As we mentioned, dogs love to learn and they love to be stimulated both mentally and physically. Exploring trick training with your dog allows them to troubleshoot and offer behaviours. Its a great stepping stone to learning how to problem solve and think through road blocks in their training. Learning really is a skill for both humans and dogs!

So take some time to teach your dog a trick or two. Youll be glad you did!

If you need some ideas for tricks to teach or tutorials on how to teach them, visit our YouTube channel.

Hi! Im Shannon Viljasoo and I joined the McCann team in 1999 while training Quincey, my wonderful and spirited Rottweiler, to have good listening skills. Im the Director of Online Training and Content for McCann Professional Dog Trainers and I enjoy writing about dogs and dog training for the McCann blog. I currently share my life with 2 Tollers (Reggie & Ned) and I love helping people develop the best possible relationship with their 4-legged family members.

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2 Fetch a Drink From the Refrigerator

Getting back to more practical and useful dog training tricks, fetching a drink will impress your friends and will be a pleasure for your pooch to learn. However, as the Training Positive video shows, this dog trick is difficult as you need to train your dog first to exercise control over food. He might end up eating what’s inside the refrigerator instead of fetching you a drink.

Top 10 Cool Tricks To Teach Your Dog

Whether you teach your dog to sit, roll over or catch a ball, any trick will bring a smile to your face and happiness to your dog because they love performing for their owners. But some dog tricks are more difficult to train for than others.

A dogs inherent love of pleasing owners and their enthusiasm to learn new tricks makes it easier and enjoyable for us to teach dogs different kinds of commands and stunts.

You can train a dog with a simple combination of dog training treats, verbal praise, and the use of a dog clicker.

Youll want to begin slowly with simple tricks to teach your dog like ‘sit, ‘lie down and ‘stay.

You want to make sure you are teaching fun tricks for dogs. Make sure to reward them when they deserve it.

Once your dog gets used to performing some of these simple tricks on command, you can move on to some of the hardest tricks to train dogs using this foundation.

These 25 difficult dog training tricks will test your patience and a dog’s temper but attempting to train a dog with these tricks will help develop and improve their brain function.