Teaching your dog new tricks might not be the easiest thing in the world, but it’s highly beneficial to you and your dog. Teaching your dog new tricks can help strengthen your relationship with your beloved pet in many ways. Below are some great reasons why you should start teaching your dog new tricks.

1. Make everyone safe- While learning to teach your dog new tricks, you learn many training techniques which can also be used to gain control over your dog. Teaching him basic tricks like sit and stay can also be used in life situations like crossing the street or entering a store.

2. Give Your Dog Something to Do- It doesn’t take long before your dog gets bored and decides to take on a new hobby of chewing anything in sight, including your brand new sofa. Teaching your dog new tricks will keep him focused on the task at hand, and will entertain him for hours!

3. Help Keep Your Dog’s Mind Sharp- Training your dog will keep his mind active and responsive. As dogs get older they become less physically active, but learning tricks will keep his mind active and alert.

4. Help Create a Better Bond between You and Your Dog- Your dog will look up to you as being the pack leader, and will listen to you instead of trying to get your attention in destructive ways. Best of all, once you teach your dog new tricks, the both of you will become a team.

5. Show Off- You can show off your dog if you teach it some cool tricks, and your dog will get people’s attention. Dogs love attention and they love being in the spotlight so they will like performing in front of your friends and family. Of course, you will also get the recognition of being a star trainer.

6. Make Vet Check Ups Easier- Both the veterinarian and you dislike it when your dog can’t control itself during a checkup. If you teach it to be calm during the check up, it will make both of your lives easier and you won’t be embarrassed that your dog is acting up.

7. Gives Your Dog a Hobby- We all have hobbies we like to do such as watching TV or playing games, but dogs also need things to do. Training your dog new tricks is a great way to pass the time on a rainy day when you can’t take him for walks.

If these reasons have inspired you to teach your dog tricks, then you’ve come to the right place. We have a great dog forum that is full of dog owners training their dog new tricks every day!

My father e-mailed me this amazing pet show video today, I thought it was so great and special that I had to create a blog post about it! It’s only about 5 minutes long but well worth every second, especially the ending!

As I watched this pet show, I wonder how much time and effort went into training these dogs. I wonder what training techniques they used to achieve this high level training and how they were able to coordinate the entire show. I’ve trained my dogs to do quite a few tricks over the years but never anything quite to the caliber that is demonstrated in this pet show. I found this inspiring and showing what actually can be done if we really set our mind to it.

Since I am experienced in training dogs, I was able to spot several signals, in the beginning obviously the whistle being used was a signal, but throughout the video there were several distinct hand and body signals.

Overall, this was an outstanding performance and would love to see it live in person. I think that the best trick performed in the pet show is the two dogs standing together while getting other dogs jumping above them. You can clearly see that both of the dogs are cautious to get hit as they tilt their heads back. There definitely must have been quite a bit of training involved to get this behavior.

What do you think? Leave a comment below if you enjoyed watching this pet show and which trick ‘awed’ you the most!

People often ask me how they can train their dog to do a variety of tricks. Some of the easier ones to start with is shake a paw, high five and roll over. From my experience, I have found that you can learn how to teach a dog to roll over in 3 easy steps.

• The first thing you want to have is some delicious dog treats to train your dog. It is best to use a special treat that your dog doesn’t normally get to eat so that he is enthusiastic about the training. I recommend using turkey sausages because they are inexpensive and easy to cut into small pieces for training.
• Begin your training by putting your dog in a sit position, and then you want to bring the treat next to his nose and down to the ground, and gradually move your hand towards his neck. Give your dog a treat for following your hand and going onto his back. Next, you want to move you hand further away from him so that he rolls over. Make sure that you praise your dog often throughout the training. The most enthusiastic you are during your training session, the more your dog is going to love training with you.
• Once your dog can roll over, you will want to say the command “Roll Over!” at the same time that you “lure” him with the treat. Remember to always give him a treat after he rolls over so that he learns what is expected of him.
• Practice these exercises every day for a week. After that, you will want to phase out the treats so that your dog can roll over without having to use treats. I also recommend that you train in different environments; train in your backyard, your local park or at your friend’s house – that way your dog will be able to perform his new trick everywhere he goes.

Tips:

• You can always use toys instead of treats if your dog is not motivated by food. Use a special toy that you can keep especially for training, like a tug-toy or a squeaky toy.
• Your training session should only be about 5 to 10 minutes long, and you can train several times a day (up to 3 times a day).
• Don’t forget to always praise your dog throughout the training, especially when he completes the roll over trick. You want your dog to have the greatest fun during training, and if you are enthusiastic, he will pick up your energy and will be more willing to work with you.

I hope that you enjoyed this short tutorial on how to teach a dog to roll over, visit the Dog Trick Academy blog and forums if you would like more dog tricks tutorials to train your dog.