Authored by Jeremy Siek in Dogs
Published on 12-19-2008

Dogs are undeniably man’s best friend. A dog provides a person with the needed relief in the afternoon after a long day at work. A dog will warm up to you by nuzzling and by jumping up and down your legs the moment you step inside your house. Coupled with your children’s loving hugs, the affection given to you by your dog is enough to soothe those tired muscles.

That’s not the only thing that a dog can do to amuse you. Imagine how fun it would be to sit down and watch your dog play tricks in front of you, at your command. It’s not only you that would enjoy this, but also your family as well as your visitors. Tricks also show how intelligent your dog and, if you love your dog, are also a source of pride for you as the owner.

How Do You Go About Training a Dog?

The keyword is patience. Even a human being who is beginning to learn something new will take time to learn. The important thing that you should understand is that dogs have a different concentration span than us humans. They easily get bored. Unlike humans, dogs can only be trained for 5 minutes. Any longer than that and your dog will lose interest and might even be pissed off.

Always offer your dog treats, whether or not he got the trick or not.

What Tricks Should I Teach My Dog?

You can teach your dog just about any tricks, as long as you have the patience and determination for it. However, if you want your dog to look really cool and bright in front of its audience, here are some really cool tricks that you can train him with:

Jump Rope

This is one of the hardest yet most amusing trick for your dog to have up his sleeve. Training is quite tricky, and very difficult.

First, prop your dog up on box. The box should have enough space to turn his body around but should limit his walking. Next, grab his collar and slowly (so as not to scare off your dog) press and slide a stick under his legs so that he’ll stop over it. Do it slowly and gradually pick up speed until your dog understands that he has to step over the stick. Make sure to say “JUMP ROPE” so he’ll associate the prodding with the command. Replace the stick with a rope once he gets used to it and start again.

Talking Dog

This is not about teaching your dog how to speak, but simply teaching him to bark at your command. Like the jump rope trick, this is definitely very tricky.

The idea is to get your dog to bark at your command. At the beginning, you have to use a certain stimulus to get your dog to bark. Each dog has its own specific stimulus, so you’ll have to find that out first. Next, have the stimulus introduced by someone else at your signal while you say, “SPEAK!” just before it is introduced. After a while, the dog will learn to associate the word SPEAK with a bark and will respond to it without the stimulus.