By now, your puppy probably knows the basics: sit, stay, come, down, speak, roll over, shake and maybe play dead. But it’s never too late to learn new tricks! Teaching your puppy new tricks not only provides you with much-needed entertainment, but it also helps to exercise your pup’s busy mind. Consider the following tricks for your dog:
- Sit pretty: Train your dog to sit upright. This one is quite the core workout!
- High five (or paw): It’s basically just an excuse to touch your pup’s cute toe beans.
- Wave: Your visitors will love to see your dog wave goodbye.
- Spin: Teach your dog to run in a circle. Bonus points if you can get them to spin in either direction!
- Army crawl: This trick starts with your dog learning the “down” command and then progresses to crawling.
- Wait: We’re not training the same trick as “stay” here. Train your dog to let you set a treat on their nose and wait patiently until you give them permission to flip the treat into the air.
- Reverse: Teach your pup to walk backwards! This trick can also come in handy if you decide to pursue dancing classes with your pup.
- Bow: Everyone loves play bowing! You could teach your pup to do this on command.
- Around the World: You are the world, and your puppy is the moon in orbit. Rather than spinning on their own axis, your pup will go in a circle around you.
Remember to always use positive reinforcement when training your dog. For more complex behaviors, you may have to reward small steps in the right direction. With a little bit of patience, your dog will be the smartest canine on the block.
Need a refresher on calling your puppy to come back to you? Learn more on how to improve recall on cue.
