What can I teach my dog after basic commands? A Comprehensive Guide

#1 “Shake” and/or “High Five” Commands

Everyone’s impressed when a dog high-fives on command. It’s best to teach this after your dog already knows how to sit on command.

How Do I Teach the Shake Hands/High Five Command

As long as your dog is good with handling, you can gently take his paw and lift it up off the floor. Say “shake hands” or “high-five” and treat. Do this three times in a row.

If he starts lifting it on his own, use your command cue and praise and treat.

Another way to try it is to gently tap behind his elbow while giving the command cue. Praise and reward when he lifts his paw.

Eventually, with consistent training, your pup should begin lifting his paw up on this own on your command cue.

Your friends are visiting you. As they are departing, you can have your pup wave goodbye. They’ll be so impressed that they won’t want to leave.

Once your dog knows how to shake hands/high-five, you can teach him to wave.

How Do I Teach the Wave Command?

Tell your dog to high-five on cue. Catch the paw as you normally would the first few times. Then, give the cue without catching the paw.

After he gets the idea, start adding a new verbal cue, such as “wave.” You can even add a hand signal by waving at the dog when you say it.

Eventually, you’ll be able to wave and your pup will wave back! I taught this to a rescued dog I have, and everyone was impressed when I’d wave at him and he’d wave back.

This trick can be a show-stopper. With any trick, it’s often what you say that makes the trick seem polished. You can say something like “crawl like a bug.”

After your dog knows a solid down command, you can teach him to crawl.

How Do I Teach the Crawl Command?

Have your pup in a down and place an alluring treat right in front of his nose.

Move the treat along the floor about one inch away from his nose. Tell him to crawl.

Praise and reward with the treat when he moves slightly forward.

Over time, you can add distance and have him crawl by using the treat to lure him forward.

After he crawls a few inches, start just giving the verbal cue without the treat lure. Don’t stop luring with the treat until he really understands what crawl means.

Eventually, he’ll learn to crawl without the treat lure if you’re consistent in your training.

This is a command where you teach your dog to touch his nose or foot to an item. It’s called targeting. It’s useful to teach dogs to touch your hand.

It can teach a dog to pay attention to you. It can teach a puppy to be gentle with hands.

How Do I Teach the Touch Command?

Have your dog in a sit position and put your hand about an inch in front of his nose. Your palm should be facing his nose with your fingers pointing to the floor.

When your pup reaches with his nose towards your hand, say “touch” and praise (“good touch”) and give a small treat when his nose gently touches your hand.

#10. “Take It” And #1 “Hold It” Commands

This is a great command for teaching a dog to fetch. It’s also useful for practical things like fetching the television remote or a can of soda.

You can also have the pup perform other tricks by taking and holding things. I taught this to many dogs, including my golden retrievers. Though they naturally retrieved, I wanted them to take items on command.

How Do I Teach the Take It and Hold It Commands?

Hold a favorite toy right in his reach. He should automatically want to grab it. If he doesn’t, try to make it more alluring, by squeaking it or waving it back and forth.

The second he grabs the toy, praise him with “good take it.” You can give him a small treat too, but then he’ll drop the toy.

Of course, it’s important to teach a dog to drop or give up an object on command.

Have him hold the toy longer times before he releases it. After he understands taking and holding various toys, have him take and hold other safe objects.

List of Advanced Dog Training Commands

I consider these advanced because you will need them if you and your pet participate in many activities like dog sports, dog service, competition obedience, etc. Even if you do not do any of those activities, some are very useful for every family dog.

For more advanced dog commands also read “Clicker Training”.

Bark or speak: There are many reasons to teach your dog to bark. It can be a cure dog trick, it can scare off people and you can train it along with “quiet”.

Quiet: If you have barking dog, teaching the dog training command quiet can be a blessing.

Leave-it: Teach your dog to NOT pick up things from the floor. It can be used at home or during walks.

Ask for permission: This is technically not a command, but something you need to teach your dog to do automatically before he runs away to chase something.

Touch or Target: This is actually a very easy dog obedience command to teach your dog, they love it and it can also be very useful to teach other more advanced dog training commands.

How to Teach The First 7 Things To Your Dog: Sit, Leave it, Come, Leash walking, Name…)

This list of dog training commands and step-by-step tutorials will help you teach your dog to be obedient and friendly. You will be able to teach your pet basic to advanced behaviors on cue and even teach your dog to respond with distractions.

Dog commands can be hand signals, voice commands or a mix of both. Most dogs will learn hand signals more easily than verbal cues but you can eventually teach them to recognize many different dog obedience commands.

You can even use words in a different language, for example it is very popular to use German dog commands, specially with German Shepherds. The advantage of using words in a different language is that your dog will learn to recognize and differentiate the sounds you make when talking to someone else vs talking to your dog.

Regardless of which language or dog training cue you want to use with your pet, you will find a list of basic dog commands and advance obedience commands to teach along with easy to follow tutorials.