To teach your dog tricks, even simple ones, you’ll need to have some small reward treats, be in a calm environment, and keep training sessions between 10 and 15 minutes long. Also, don’t forget to give your dog lots of praise and a reward treat when he gets something right; otherwise, he’ll lose focus.
To get your dog to give you his paw, first teach him to sit. Then, as you say the word “paw,” take your dog’s paw in your hand, give the dog a treat, and repeat. After a few repetitions, slow down your response time by saying the word, counting to one, and then taking the dog’s paw. You should notice your dog bringing his paw up as you say the word. If he doesn’t, try again. Most dogs pick this one up very happily after two or three sessions.
The high five is a development of an earlier trick, in this case the cast-the-paw trick, like many other tricks. Raise your hand a little bit higher than you would for the paw trick while holding a reward in your fingers. As we previously taught him, your dog will reach up for the reward with his paw thinking you want to perform the paw trick. As soon as he does, you say “high five” and give him the treat. This trick should be quite simple for your dog to learn once he has mastered the paw trick. After just a few sessions, he will be performing it using hand signals rather than vocal commands.
Getting your dog to jump through a hoop, before you start this one I would just like to ask you to be a little sensible and not hold the hoop too high as you do not want your dog to heart himself while doing the trick. Sit your dog on one side of a hoola hoop, get the dogs 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. When I started doing this trick I had a medium sized dog (a Labrador) so I started with the hoop 6 inches from the ground and slowly raised it to waist height, if you have a smaller dog you might want to start with the hoop touching the ground so the dog just goes through the hoop and then slowly raise it as he gets used to the trick.
Training Your Dog To Sit Like You
Small dogs can be taught how to “sit up,” but larger dogs should avoid learning this trick because it is difficult for them to maintain their balance.
One of the first tricks you teach is how to sit up, which lays the foundation for many other canine tricks. Prepare some goodies as a reward and place your dog on his haunches in a corner so that he cannot fall forward or sideways and has little to no room to lose his balance. This will help you train your dog to sit up.
Keep him from pitching forward by holding one hand under his chin and with the other hand hold the treat above his nose and keep repeating distinctly and deliberately say, “sit up.” Do not make him sit up too long at any one time, but repeat the lesson frequently and reward him often with plentiful of praise and treats.
He will need a lot of help from your hand during his first lesson to keep from pitching forward, but as he gains control over the balancing muscles and learns what you want, he will depend less and less on it to keep him in position, so you can gradually provide him with less help until you only need to keep one hand in position two or three inches from his neck or chin to be ready to stop him from pitching forward; later on, you can gradually reduce the amount of help you give him.
He will sit up well with constant practice. When you set him up, lean him against the wall so that he has support only for his back. Once he is proficient at maintaining his position, practice him against chair legs, cushions, or other objects that provide him with less and less support. Eventually, he will learn to maintain his balance and sit up on his own without any support.
The final lesson will teach him to sit up as soon as he hears the words. If he has been diligently drilled, it will likely only be necessary to call him out into the room, show him a treat, hold it up a suitable distance from the floor, and say “sit up”; he will do so when he should be given the treat while still in position.
The only requirement for perfection is to repeatedly practice him until he sits up at the word without being presented a reward; that can be given to him once he has achieved
You have now a foundation for many other tricks. He can be taught to beg by moving your hand up and down just in front of his paws, which he will move in unison with yours. He can also be taught to salute by bringing one paw up to the side of his head, or to hold a wooden pipe in his mouth, or to wear a cap on his head or other articles of wearing apparel.
Try him first with a cap, then once he gets used to that you can put on a coat and gradually accustom him to the other clothing items. This is how you train a dog to submit to being dressed up; do not try to get him to wear too many things at once.
Enjoy teaching your dog the “sit up” trick and most importantly have fun along the way!
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