Directional Commands for Your Genius Dog

Teaching your dog directional commands isn't very useful unless he does a sport such as agility, but it can be a neat trick nevertheless. After all, there's nothing cooler than being able to brag to friends and relatives that your dog is so smart that he knows his lefts and rights.

To start off, you should have a few tasty treats and a quiet, open area in which to practice. Try to have as few distractions as possible. Remember, learning new tricks should be a fun, positive experience, so to start off, try playing with your dog to get him excited for his upcoming training session. After a couple minutes, take out the treats.

When you're first starting off, it's best to keep the sessions down to 2-4 minutes, several times per day. The longer the session, the easier it is to lose their interest. Also, during the first few days, don't actually use the words "left" and "right." These will have no impact on your dog, like an English-only speaker trying to interpret the Hiragana with very little instruction.

Sitting on the ground with your dog is the easiest way to go about teaching him the basics of turning. Holding a treat tightly in your hand, right next to his nose, lead him in a full circle until he's facing you again, then give him the treat. After repeating this a couple of times, take a break to play and reward your dog for cooperating. By now, he will have realized something is up, but it will still take a few sessions until he truly knows the concept of turning, so be patient!

After a few days (or weeks, don't rush your dog or he won't want to learn new tricks anymore), you can start incorporating the "left" and "right." To ensure he won't be confused, make sure you figure out which directional he should take in relation to you. The easiest method is having the dog turn right and left from his perspective, much as you would if someone told you to turn to your right or left. Continue using the treats, and make sure you never work on these exercises for more than four or five minutes, no matter how motivated your dog may be.

Eventually, your dog will either learn the verbal commands for right and left, or you may incorporate hand signals. Depending on your dog's level of motivation, these tricks can take anywhere from two weeks to four months to learn. Just remember to keep things fun and interesting and be consistent in your training.