Mary Allen
Autumn is coming in big steps, the temperatures are falling, it’s storming and the pouring rain is making your walks rather short. And now – what can we do to ensure that our dog gets enough exercise despite the bad weather and that with fun too? Learning a trick or a piece of art provides a lot of fun for the dog and owner.
Can I Practice Tricks With Any Dog?
Basically, every dog is able to learn tricks, because dogs can learn new things throughout their lives. But not every trick is suitable for every dog. Please pay attention to the state of health, the size, and the age of your dog. You should also be careful not to overwhelm your dog with the exercises and prefer to do the training sessions in short sequences, several times throughout the day.
What Do I Need
Depending on the trick, you need a few accessories and in any case the right reward for your dog, for example, small pieces of food or your favorite toy. A clicker can also be an advantage when learning tricks and stunts because you can use it to reinforce positively with pinpoint accuracy. In addition, the tricks and tricks can also be freely formed using the clicker, which in turn means a higher workload/exertion for the dog.
Trick: Open the Drawer
You need a piece of rope, a drawer with a handle, and a reward.
Step 1: Your dog should first learn to pull on a rope. You can pull the rope across the floor and make it exciting for your dog. The moment your dog takes the rope in its snout and pulls on it is rewarded. Repeat this exercise a few times until the behavior is confident, then you can introduce a signal for the rope pull.
Step 2: Now tie the rope to a drawer that is easy for your dog to reach. Now you can move the rope a little more to make it interesting for your dog again. If your dog then puts the rope in his snout and pulls it again, you are in turn rewarding this behavior. Repeat this step a few times and then introduce the signal.
Step 3: As the training progresses, increase the distance to the drawer to send your dog to it from a distance.
Feat: Leap Through the Arms
You need some space, a non-slip surface, and a treat for your dog.
Step 1: To start, your dog should learn to jump over your outstretched forearm. To do this, squat down and stretch out your arm. With the other hand holding the food or toy, encourage your dog to jump over the outstretched arm. Repeat this step several times until your dog safely jumps over your arm, then introduce a signal to do so.
Step 2: Now bend your arm a little at the elbow to form the lower semi-circle. Again, your dog should jump over it a few times before adding the second arm.
Step 3: Now add the second arm and form the upper semicircle with it. In the beginning, you can leave some space between the arms to get your dog used to the fact that there is now also a limit at the top. As the workout progresses, close your arms in a fully closed circle.
Step 4: So far we’ve done the workout at chest height. To make the trick even more challenging, depending on your dog’s size and jumping ability, you can slowly move the arm circle up so that at the end of the workout you might even be able to stand and have your dog jump through.
Feat: Bow or Servant
You need motivational help and a reward for your dog.
Step 1: With a treat in your hand, position your dog in the desired position. The starting position is the standing dog. Your hand is now slowly guided between the front legs towards the dog’s chest. In order to get the treat, your dog has to bend down in front. Important: the back of your dog should stay up. In the beginning, there is a reward as soon as your dog goes down a bit with the front body because this way you can avoid your dog going into the sit or down position.
Step 2: Now you should work on making your dog hold this position longer. To do this, simply hold down the hand with the motivation a little longer before the reward is given. Make sure that you only increase the length in small steps so that the buttocks stay up in any case. Once your dog is confident in the behavior, you can introduce a signal and remove the encouragement.
Step 3: You can now practice bowing at different distances from your dog or when he is standing next to you. To do this, slowly increase the distance between you and your dog.