Dog School

When training for this lesson it is best to use verbal and physical praise as the dog needs to hold onto the object. Do not use squeaky toys as he will want to chew them, and that is not the object of this training.

This is the basis for teaching your dog to fetch toys, which is a wonderful game and excellent exercise for your dog.

Tease the dog with the items you want him to hold, now kneeling down, position your dog on your left side, hold the lead under your knees, using your right hand on the collar, and gently open his mouth with your left hand saying “Good Dog” at the same time.

Make sure your dog is not unhappy from the previous teasing or he will relate this activity to being unhappy and it will never be something he wants to willingly do.

Holding his head up, gently put the object in his mouth while giving the “hold” command. He should willingly hold the object behind his canine teeth with is tongue retracted. Praise him verbally and physically for a job well done.

If he rejects the object by spitting it out say “bah!” and hold it in place, do not give the “hold” command at this point, you dont want him to relate the word “hold” to an unhappy experience. If he avoids the object follow his head keeping the item at nose level.

The next step is teaching him to pick things up, with him sitting on your left side, bring the object to his nose. Move to towards the floor, the dog will intently follow it with his eyes; give a “good boy” as a verbal reward.

Continue to hold the object on the floor while giving the command “hold”. As he moves forward, remove your hand and he will pick it up, reinforce with the “hold” command.

Now you have established the basis for many games that he can play and future tricks that you would like to teach him.

A dog learns dexterity when it learns to use its paws, this is easier for some dogs than for others, and is the fore runner to teaching him to shake hands.

Shaking hands should be approached as a game, because in the pack raising a paw is a sign of subservience.

In addition, teaching this will aid in establishing your pack-leader status. Kneeling down on the floor position the dog on your left side, give the “sit” command.

Hold his collar in your left hand and show the treat or toy in your right hand. Move the right hand to the floor in front of his paw, holding the collar to prevent him from lying down.

Move your right hand towards his paw and as he lifts his paw, move your fisted hand under it. Holding the treat inside your fist, gently lift his paw off the floor, remain holding the collar.

Lift his paw up as you give the command “paw”, and then give him the reward. Continue with this lesson until he learns to give you his “paw” on command.

Once he learns this effectively, you can move on to teaching him to use his paw for other things. Let him see you hide a treat behind a small piece of plywood, give the command “paw” and when he touches the plywood with his paw, reward him with the treat.

Continue with this lesson until he learns to touch whatever the treat is behind, this training is the basis for many touch games that he can learn later. You can later teach him to open doors with this game.

One trick that I have taught my dog is “other hand”, when I give her the command to “shake hands” she always lifts her right paw, occasionally I will give the command “other hand” at which point she places her right paw back on the floor and gives me her left paw.

There are many touch games out there to occupy a dog, one is a box that when the dog touches the front it throws a toy out for him to catch. This is a wonderful way to occupy him and relieve him of some of the boredom of being alone each day.

There are many ways to teach a dog to sit and stay, as with any training, every dog responds to training differently, once you learn how your dog trains easiest, stick to that method.

It is never acceptable or necessary to hit a dog while training, the one thing I have learned is that my dog will respond to love much faster than to pain.

The only thing they learn when you hit them is to fear you, eventually any dog that is beaten will become aggressive, whether outright aggression like barking or passive aggression which can end up with you or someone else being bitten.

Training a puppy can easily be included in his play time, and he can become trained without really knowing that is what is happening to him.

I have always found that training a puppy to sit is easiest when I get down to his level, in other words on the floor with him. His favorite toy can be a wonderful teaching aid for him to learn this simple but important lesson.

When he comes up to you to get his toy, just raise it above his head, he will sit in order to keep his toy in sight. As he starts to sit down give him the sit command.

Do this frequently when he is playing and eventually he will learn to sit on command, with or without the toy. The next part of this lesson is teaching him to stay. While he is in the sit position, move around him, making sure he stays in the same position, tell him to stay, as he gets more comfortable with

you moving around him, you can increase the distance from him as you continue to teach him to stay.

You have accomplished two things with this method of training, you have taught him to sit, and made his training time fun for both of you.