Raising a dog is a profoundly fulfilling experience as it allows a person to enjoy the companionship of a pet and train the canine along the way. Dogs are supremely intelligent beings, capable of learning behaviors quickly, which is an attribute primarily associated with said four-legged animals.
Cats and most other quadruped pets lack the brilliance that dogs possess. That’s not to say that other pet four-legged animals are absolutely dense; they are not as sharp as the oh-so-adorable pooches. Hence, bringing up a fluffy pup offers a much more rewarding experience than any other pet.
The satisfaction a paw-parent feels when their canine-child acts on command are unmatched. If you wish to taste the same unbridled joy, then you should teach your pup these unbelievably easy tricks. But let us warn you, coaching your furry fellow will take some time and quite a lot of patience.
Kiss
Yes, we get that your canine-companion already showers you in endless kisses, but do they kiss you on command? For most people, the answer to that question is a resounding no, and that’s okay. Dogs are intelligent, alright, but they need some guidance to use all their brain matter effectively. That’s where teaching comes in. If you want to teach your dog to kiss you whenever you want, here’s what you need to do.
Get a pack of treats, a post-it or piece of tape, and a clicker. Now paste the tape or post-it on your palm and display it in front of your dog. Eventually, your little one will move forward to touch your hand with their mouth. When their mouth comes in contact with your hand, press the clicker to mark the behavior, and feed a treat to your canine.
Repeat the same method multiple times until your dog learns to kiss the post-it/tape every single time. Once that happens, you can place the sticky note on your cheek and ask your doggie for a kiss. Press the clicker when you get one!
Continue with the mentioned teaching method, and soon your dog will be kissing you whenever you want!
Play Dead
Getting a dog to play dead is a little tricky but devilishly amusing, especially if someone unfamiliar with your fur child falls prey to the trick. To train your canine companion to play dead, use the back-chain method, in which we move backward when teaching a behavior. That is, we start from the last bit of the action first, then move toward the first part-this way, a dog remembers the first step distinctively.
To begin training, flaunt a treat in front of your fur child and get them to lie down on their tummy. Once they are on the floor, move your hand holding the treat over their face, rolling them in the process. Doing so will get your canine companion’s side on the ground. At this point, treat them after buzzing the clicker. Repeat the technique several times until you can eliminate the treats but still trick your dog into lying back. Once you have reached this point in your training, repeat the treat-less hand movement multiple times, then replace it with a verbal command.
As you can probably imagine by now, teaching a dog to play dead is not going to be easy or quick. But once you are done, you’ll have unimaginable fun tricking others.