Dog tricks work even better this way.
In addition to patience and constant practice sessions, i.e. repetition, one thing above all must be right: the reward. How you reward them depends entirely on your dog. The best way is of course with treats. Vitakraft has many dog snacks for large and small dogs. If your dog is trained to make clicker sounds, this will of course also work. In any case, your four-legged friend should be motivated and attentive. After all, the main focus of everything you teach your dog is to have fun together.
Practice makes perfect
If you want to teach your dog a trick, you need to introduce him to it step by step. After all, he won't know what you want him to do straight away. Put him in an attentive position and practise the first steps with him. As soon as the movement goes in the right direction, give him a reward straight away. And then repeat, repeat, repeat. You will see: Little by little, the tricks will become more fluid. Each trick should be accompanied by a command or hand movement that is very different from one another. Otherwise your four-legged friend will get confused. If simple tricks and commands work, you can then reach into the big box of tricks. Here are three tricks that are sure to be fun for both of you:
TRICK 1: TIDY UP
Wouldn't it be great if your dog could tidy up his toys himself? The trick is actually quite simple: bring the toys or other objects lying around to a crate - and then drop them. Nevertheless, this is more for advanced learners than beginners. Your dog should already have learned to fetch and know the fetch signal. Instead of coming to you, the dog now only has to bring the object to the crate. The best way to do this is to place the crate directly in front of you. Throw the toy away and call the "fetch" signal. When he has brought it to you and the crate, say "out". The toy falls to the floor - or preferably directly into the crate. If this happens by chance, praise him lavishly and give him a treat straight away. Once your dog has understood that it's all about the crate, you can move on to the next stage and place the crate next to you or a few centimetres away from you. Now only reward the hits. And associate them with a command, for example "crate". If this works well, you can take it a step further by scattering the objects around the room and sending your dog to collect them. This trick is also ideal for older dogs who can no longer jump around so wildly. And if you have children, they might also learn to tidy up this way ;-)
TRICK 2: PAWS OFF
As we were already talking about tidying up and therefore cleanliness in trick 1, you can increase this with this trick. After a long walk, your dog wipes its own paws so that it doesn't carry all the dirt into the apartment. And on command! The only thing you need is a soft and, above all, highly absorbent doormat so that you can actually save yourself the towel. And this is how it works: Sit opposite your dog and place the doormat in between. Now hide a treat under the mat. It is important that the dog is watching you. Then give your four-legged friend a sign that he can look for the treat. He will normally sniff and scratch the mat with his front paw. As soon as he does this, reward him with a treat and praise him. Of course, he must never be allowed to reach the treat under the doormat. So send him back to sit and repeat the exercise, combining it with a light tap of your hand on the mat. Repeat the scratching a few times. If necessary, wait until your four-legged friend scratches the mat intensively with both front paws. As soon as he does this, reward him again. Once he has done this to some extent, the command is added. For example, "clean up" and then tap the doormat with your hand.