Teaching Your Dog the Basic Tricks

Once someone brings that brand new puppy into their home, and it is finally potty trained, the next step is to teach it tricks. Any breed of dog can learn tricks, but certain breeds have a bigger capacity to learn, or just a tendency to pick up directions faster. However, the method to teaching most tricks is the same. This guide will show you how to teach your dog tricks, as well as a few examples. It is geared toward teaching your dog basic tricks such as sit or stay, as well as more advanced tricks.

Dogs naturally like to make their owner happy, and when they are given a reason to obey their owner, such as food, they are even more willing. Food will be your number one aid in the process of teaching your dog tricks. However, the kind of food is rather important. While teaching tricks to your dog, the food used should be very, very tiny treats. They can be found at any pet store for rather cheap, and last for an extremely long time. It may take some experimentation to see which treats your dog favors the most, but most dogs will obviously not be too picky.

First thing you should do is figure out which trick you will teach your dog. Pick one trick, and focus on that until they learn it. Do not move to a different trick in a training session, as it could easily confuse the dog. You should start teaching your dog tricks while they are in a calm state. If they are in an energetic mood, it can often be hard to get a good response from them. Once you have chosen the trick, and find your dog in a calm state, start the training.

Focus on a keyword, such as "Sit", and repeat it many times throughout the session. This will allow the dog to make a correlation between the word and the action. If you need to assist the dog through the movement, it is OK to do so. Throughout the training, if the dog completes the trick even slightly, praise them and give them a treat. They should be praised every time they do something good, but only given a treat every now and then.

Each training session should be about 20 minutes, which can either feel extremely fast or dreadfully slow. The main thing to remember is to focus on one trick at a time, and give constant praise. It can take numerous training sessions for the dog to finally figure it out, but with consistent focus, the dog will eventually figure it out.