Cool Dog Tricks?

There's a book called 101 dog tricks, you can look into that, but for a more detailed response, here's some simple tricks that are the "next step" to the basics you have.

I'm going to assume he knows "down" since he knows roll-over, but it wasn't on the list.

If you can get a "down" you can get a crawl. Encourage your dog to inch towards a cookie, or you, or whatever you use to motivate. The most important thing is praise before he stands up, and feeding the reward when he's down. You're going to have to start SUPER small, and I mean, inches, since as you back away, he'll want to stand up and come to you. Attach the verbal command AFTER you see a display of the action. Standing there and saying "Crawl Rover! Crawl!" will not make any sense.

Also, you can "shoot" your dog. Since he has a down, see if you can't teach him an "all the way down" (head to tail on the floor) and call it "bang bang". Encourage the head on the floor by palming his motive item directly to one side of his head when he's in a down. After he touches his head to the floor, reward. AFTER you've seen some action, attach verbal command "bang bang". After some WORK, you'll be able to say "Rover! Bang Bang!" and he'll flop on the floor in an all the way down.

If you can get a 'high five' you can get a 'high ten' encourage both paws, but be careful, this can encourage jumping, and you probably don't want that.

Also, some other fun and easy stuff "over" and "under" Set up a little "jump" in the yard, ie, a piece of wood and two lawn chairs. Encourage him "under" with what motivates him, and encourage him "over" with what motivates him. These are REALLY easy commands, and the dog has FUN.

I'm sure there's more, feel free to e-mail for more information.

**EDIT: Real quick. I just wanted to say taht some people have suggested "pushing your dog over" for the play dead trick. I know it's not abusive or anything like that, but in my humble opinion, it is not necessary to handle a dog in any way when training tricks. The key is to encourage them to make the right movements without shoving them. I think it slows down the learning, and they'll associated "bang bang" with "momma shoves me over". That's not what we want. I learned this from teaching roll over to my dog. I was flipping him over, and he didn't get it. He thought it meant "lay down, and momma flips me over". It was very hard to change this idea of his.

This is a really fun trick! The command is "Be a cat!" You stand in front of your dog with your legs apart, back to him, and show him a treat to get him to walk under you, then you move it to the side and get him to continue to follow it. You will eventually make a figure 8 between your legs like a cat rubs up against you. If he is TOO big, don't try this, you don't want to get hurt.

Another fun trick is "Want to tug?" Get a tug rope that will only be used for when you play this game. You need to make sure he follows a command (such as sit, lay, or roll over) first, because this is like a game/reward. All you do is after they follow the command, show him the rope, and wiggly it so he gets excited, then just tug with it. I know it sound kinda dinky but once he understands what it is, you can say "Want to tug?" and he will be able to make the connection, bring you the rope, and get ready!

IT IS REALLY FUN, it stimulates their brain and strengthens your bond with each other. THE ONLY RULE IS: if their teeth make any contact with your hand or arm, the game is over for that day. Even if it isn't in a mean way, you have to set boundaries! I hope you enjoy these! We do

You can teach your dog GIV BLAUV ( means speak in german)-

JUst hold out a treat in fromt of him and say speak-

Once he starts to whine or even bark praise him and give him the treat!! Our neighborhood police taught him that trick!!-

Today our geramn shep speaks whenever i tell him to!!-

One more trick i like is SEARCH-

Just for starts hide a treat and show your dog where it is quickly and then take him out of the room for a minute until he gets distracted-

Then tell him SEARCH-

Once he finds the treat praise him alot-

After awhile start hiding his favorte toy or something besideds food! And start the same process over!_

Soon hell get the idea that the word SEARCH means go find something hidden and he gets reward at the end!! HAVE FUN

One trick I saw that I thought was pretty impressive was teaching a dog to put his toys away on command. I'm working on it right now with my puppy, giving the command, helping move the toy back into his basket from the floor, then giving the command again and a reward/praise when he drops it in himself. He already knows the names for a few of his toys and can fetch them on command.

I taught my Pug all the people in our house, including our cats and other dogs.

So now when I'm like "Go find Louy(cat)" She'll run all over the house until she find them and she'll stay there until I tell her to "leave"

It's actually something she picked up one after a month or so of being with us because she figured out what we called everyone. Then she just started doing it kinda naturally.

uummmmm situp might be a good one if he is not to big but my little dog now sits up on her hindlegs with her front legs tucked in and we taught it to her by holding a treat above her head and she just sat up naturally like that

also we taught my german shepard and chi to play dead

so when she is laying down i point to her with my hand in the shape of a gun and say bang bang and then she lays on her side we taught her by gently pushing her on her side whenn i pointed and said bang bang i just repeated this process untill there is no more need to push her just point and say bang bang now she can do it from a standing position still you should start with from a lying down position because it took her a couple of months to "die" from a standing position and she is even a fast learner

I like "play dead"

Everytime you make a fake gun with your finger and say "BANG!" The dog lays on his/her side.

To teach, start with your dog in the "down" postion, then say "BANG!" and push your dog onto his/her side. Give a treat. Repeat and gradually stop pushing her over and make her do it herself^_^

-Nicole

I taught my dog to bow. I kept saying bow every time he stretched (you know, with his chin on the floor and bum in the air!!) and put my hand on the floor with a treat in. When he bows, he gets the treat. NB To start with he will prob just try and get treat but he will get it in a couple of days.

you can teach him to stand and stay.This is how you do it.you get a treat and tell him to get it.then when he is on his back legs say stay.then through it in the air and say get it.he will learn this very quickly if he is a smart dog

We taught my beagle to roll on her back and play dead when you used your finger like a gun and made a shooting noise. So funny