List of Dog Tricks To Teach Your Dog

The Roll Over Trick

The Roll over trick is one of the most popular tricks . After the handshake and spin, some of your friends will ask if your dog knows any other tricks. The Roll over never fails to impress.

This trick takes time to master and need a lot of patience. Your dog can get distracted or find difficulty in knowing what to do.

Start with the down position. Hold a treat and lure your dog to its side. Turn the treat in a circular motion so that your dog needs to roll to get closer to the treat. When your dog has done the half turn, offer praise and reward with the treat.

Once your dog masters the half turn, the rest will be easier. Hold the treat till your dog performs the full roll over.

Teaching Your Dog To Pray

We watch on Youtube many dog owners making their dogs pray before taking their food. You can do the same too.

This is one of the best dog tricks in the list that is not difficult to teach.

You need to teach your dog how to paw or beg before imparting this trick.

Start with the sitting position, raise your dog front paws onto your forearm. Once the paws are on your forearm, praise and give the treat.

This is the first step of the process. You need to repeat a few sessions before the next step.

Second step is to hold a treat using the other hand (while both his paws are on your first forearm) and slowly lower the treat down between his paws. His nose should follow the treat and his head eventually between his paws.

The second step can take some time to master. Anytime his paws leave your forearm, restart the whole process again. This is a fun and impressive trick that its worth your while to teach your dog.

Teaching Your Dog To Sing

Dogs like to imitate human beings. If you have a musical instrument at home and start to play, some dogs get excited and bark along.

However, some dogs need some time to exercise their vocal cords.

Make sure your surroundings are tolerant of dog singing. If your dog were to sing everytime you play a musical instrument, this can get pretty annoying for your neighbours.

You can teach your dog to sing like this Husky with a cute little baby:

Observe your dog when you start playing music. Some songs stimulate your dogs better than others. When you have a song you like, start to howl in an exaggerated manner and see if your dog follows.

Once your dog starts to imitate your howling, give him a treat. You can give advanced singing training by howling longer and for different tunes of songs.

As dogs are close relatives of wolves, it is no surprise that they will catch on their natural instinct of howling after some practice.

Teaching your dog to Slalom

This trick is exciting to watch and gives a good workout for your dog. Many indoor dogs get little chance to hop around. The slalom is the perfect opportunity for your dog to show off his agility skills.

Caution: Please use bendable and softer slalom poles for initial training. Do not risk injury to your dog by using stiff poles.

Only when your dog is familiar with this trick should you start using bollards and even human beings to weave between.

For a start, begin by positioning two poles.

Hold a treat at your dog’s nose and let your dog follow the treat as you navigate it, weaving the treat in and out of the poles. When your dog have done a complete slalom of 2 poles, give him a treat and verbal praise.

Slowly increase the number of poles to the slalom course till there are about 15 poles for your dog to play with.

You have to be consistent in the distance between the poles. Larger dogs will need larger distances between poles. Do not estimate the distance. Use a measure tape to position the poles.

Unless your dog is going for agility competition, do not squeeze your dog between the poles. This might cause serious injury to your dog. You can close the gap between the poles but do not reduce the gap drastically.

With practice, your dog will feel excited everytime you set up the slalom course and will be eager to weave in and out just to please you!

Keeping His Toys

If you ever tried to place all your dog toys into one basket, your dog has no problems bringing them out one by one.

Problem is, your dog usually leave the toys lying around in a mess.

Teaching your dog to clean up that mess can take a bit of time.

Start by sitting on the ground with your dog’s toy box with you. Throw one toy away. Once your dog chases and retrieve it, catch his attention with a treat in your hand over the toy box. Give the Come command and wait for him to come back to you with the toy.

He might get too excited and drop his toy before reaching you. Keep the treat and restart the whole process. Never compromise and give him the treat at this stage.

When he successfully drops the toy into the box, reward him with a treat and lots of verbal praise. Pat his head and give him a big hug. The next step is simply moving yourself away from the box and execute the action by pointing to the box.

An Alternative training to keep his toys is shown in this video:

Identifying Objects By Name

This trick teaches your dog to identify common objects when you mention its name.

Dog have good memory and can recognise many phrases and names. Dogs are known to learn the names of objects and people as well. It is possible to teach your dog the names of his toys and the place he sleep.

Hold the object in your hand and command your dog to touch. At the moment he touches the object, say the name of the object out loud and reward the treat. Repeat as many times as possible for each object so that your dog is able to remember.

Ringing the Bell

This is a useful trick for your dog when he needs to go outside to relieve himself. The bell serves as a “call” to open the door for him.

Tie a bell at the doorknob or handle. Hold a treat near the dangling bell and encourage your dog to touch it. Once he touches the bell, give the treat.

Next step is to associate ringing the bell with opening of the door. Before opening the door, command your dog to touch the bell before opening it. After doing this about 10 times, your dog should be able to link the ringing of the bell to door opening.

Some playful dogs will trick you into opening the door so that he can go out and play. If this happens often, do not open the door if you have just given him a toilet break. Stay firm and refuse to open the door unless your dog needs to relieve himself.

Teaching Your Dog to Beg

This is a comical trick your dog can perform. It is a trick that can melt the heart of dog lovers. Some call it begging, some call it sitting pretty. But anyway you call it, it is a great exercise for your dog as it uses his back muscles and hind legs for support.

Start in the sit position, hold a treat in your hand and let your dog smell it and follow it. Slowly lift the treat beyond his reach in the air. When your dog raises his front paws and stand, say your command and give the treat.

Repeat this a few times till the treat is not necessary to perform this trick.

The Hush Command

Many dog owners receive complaints from neighbours about their noisy barking dogs. Dog lovers generally have a higher tolerance for barking but some people do not appreciate that.

So it’s important to teach your dog the Hush command so that your dog knows when to stop barking. Barking can warn you of potential dangers but sometimes too much of it just gets on your nerves.

So the Hush Command will help you assert control over your dog’s barking

Whenever your dog goes into a barking frenzy, look sternly at him and wait for him to stop. There will be a point your dog looks at you and stop momentarily. Give him a treat.

Repeat this routine a few times. Everytime your dog stops barking, add in a “hush” command to stop it

Lengthen the duration of silence as you go along or add in a hand signal.

Now, you have to understand that every dog is different. Some dogs respond to your stern look but some do not. So, to add on to this training, watch the video below where the trainer suggests different ways to stop continuous barking.

Tug and Give

This is a fun trick for most dogs. Most dogs tug at random things. It is always a challenge to time the tugs. Being able to tug on command allows your dog to fulfill certain tasks for you too.

The give command also teaches your dog to release items in their possession to you. This is a helpful trick and works well with the Fetch Command.

The Tug Command is best practised using a rope toy. Toys of other materials tend to be brittle and could also wreck your dog’s teeth. So start with a rope toy and command your dog to take it.

If he does not take it immediately, then you have to offer him to touch it and offer the treat. By now, you should be familiar with the procedure to get your dog interested in something.

Once your dog takes the rope, gently shake the rope and tug the rope toy. Naturally your dog will pull against your tugs.

When your dog tugs the rope toy, give the treat to your dog.

After a few rounds of tug, it’s time to teach the Give command. With the rope toy still in your dog’s mouth, save “Give” while offering a treat at the same time. Your dog will drop the toy to receive the treat.

Do it a few more times over a few days and your dog will associate the Give command with letting the toy go. Practice often with the tug and give commands and you will have a dog who does what you what him to do.

Yawning On Command

Many dogs yawn when they feel anxious. This natural act of yawning is hard to teach because you need to praise the dog precisely at the moment he yawns.

It helps to have a clicker on hand to teach this trick effectively because yawning is a natural action. You need the click to specifically point out it is the desired action.

When you spot your dog yawn, click your clicker and give a treat. Your dog might be a little surprised what is going on. Remember to say the Yawn command at the same time. Repeat this as often as you can.

After several sessions (spread out for days), try to give your dog the yawn command and see if he performs the yawning.

Teach Your Dog To Take An Item

Teaching your dog to take stuff is a very useful trick. With this trick your dog is able to perform more advanced tasks such as bringing you specific items. This is one of the most practical tricks in this list.

Place one of your dog’s favourite toys on the ground. Wait for your dog to pick it up in his mouth. Then click and offer a treat. After doing this a few times, start to use the command “take it” at the same time your dog picks up the toy. After some time, your dog will start to pick things up at your command.

He will soon start to take up things that you point to or things that they know by name. You will be surprised!

Teaching your Dog To Bring It

After mastering the “Take It” Command, the Bring It Command is just a natural progression to more sophisticated tricks.

This trick will progress to the classic take and bring tricks such as bringing you a drink or tissue.

Command your dog to take this favorite toy. Command your dog to come towards you with the toy. Once he moves towards you, even if its just one step, give your dog a treat.

Shower praise and encourage your dog to move nearer to you with the toy.Upon bringing the toy to you, use the command “bring it” as you teach.

Remember to offer the treat as a reward during the training sessions.

Here is a fantastic video by kikopup demonstrating how she teaches her dog to fetch almost anything:

Bringing your Slippers To You

This is one of the favorite tricks you watch in movies where dogs fetch stuff demanded by the owner. In order to perform this trick, your dog needs to learn the name of the object you request to fetch.

Also he needs to master the Take it and Bring it Commands to do this well.

First step is to teach your dog what you want fetched. Make sure he knows the name of the object, which in our case is Slippers.

And since your dog has mastered the Take It command, tell your dog to “Slipper”. Once your dog touches the slippers, say the Bring It Command so your dog will bring It to you. Give him a treat and shower with praise.

You can perform the same trick for bringing tissue, leash or dish.