The stay trick
This is one of the hardest tricks to teach your dog. But once your puppy learns this trick, all other tricks will be easy. This trick is all about self-control. If your dog is hyper, it would be difficult to make him/her stay in one place. But that is the essence of the whole trick.
To perform this trick, you will need to have a few treats in your hand. Treats always come handy when you teach tricks to your dog. The best time to teach tricks to your dog is when your dog is hungry.
Make your dog face you. Sit in front of your dog and look into his/her eyes. Usually we advise you not to look into a dog’s eyes because the dog will consider it as an ego tussle. But with pet dogs, it is okay, because they know that you mean no harm to them.
After making proper eye contact with your dog, your dog will even be reactive to your facial reactions and your eye ball movements. Now slowly go back by five steps. And when you move back, keep on repeating the words “Stay”. The main idea is that your dog should not start following you. If the dog starts following you, take him/ her to the starting position. Once your dog stays calm in the place, you can walk up to him and give the treat. The idea is to reward the dog with a treat as long as he understands the word “stay” and remains in the place”.
If you spend 30 minutes to 1 hour training your dog this way, your dog will learn this trick and get conditioned to it in less than a week. Once your dog masters the art of self control of staying put in one place even when you are some 50 meters away, then that is a very good sign. You can also tweak this trick by teaching your dog to be patient while eating food.
Fetch
Choose a ball or toy that your dog loves and start by throwing it a short distance. A dog’s first instinct will be to chase the ball and pick it up. As soon as your dog picks up the ball, tell it to “come” and encourage it to return to you by speaking in a happy voice and praising it. When your dog comes to you, use the “drop it” phrase to get it to release the ball to you. Your dog should understand the words “come” and “drop it”. Make sure you treat your dog quickly and give it praise. Usually dogs get irritated while dropping and they may grip the ball tighter and you would have to fight to retrieve the ball. This is why you need to treat the dog immediately.
Try these two tricks with your dog this month and let us know how your dog is progressing with the lessons. Keep your dog clean and free using our Tickfree range of products. An active dog definitely needs to be in good hygiene and this is where Tickfree comes into play.