Time to rollover and get moving after a long weekend! Welcome to the second posting in our Trick series – teaching your dog to rollover!

Welcome to the first in our Trick Tuesday series. Every Tuesday, we'll be posting a new trick tutorial.

The first packs a punch as a 3-fer. Teach your dog to shake-a-paw, give you 5 and wave all with the same basic lure.

Method: luring
Skill level: beginner
What you'll need: Food, dog and a conditioned reinforcer

Welcome back to Trick Tuesday - every Tuesday, a NEW trick tutorial!!

Today, we will teach you how to master a hand target.  Hand targets are the beginning of teaching your dog to target to objects.
We can quickly turn this into motion towards other objects. Once your dog understands how to target to a small piece of plastic, for example, you can then make your target command mobile and start to teach your dog to turn off light switches or close doors - even blow bubbles in water.  The sky is the limit!

Method: Capturing
Skill Level: Beginner
What you’ll need: Food, dog, conditioned reinforcer

Welcome back to Trick Tuesday! Every Tuesday, another trick!

This week we add a bi-directional spin to our bag of tricks. This trick is lots of fun and can even turn into a “washing machine” command. Once your dog understands how to spin in both directions individually, you can put them together.

Method: Luring
Skill level: Beginner
What you'll need: Food, dog and a conditioned reinforcer

Welcome back to Trick Tuesday! Every Tuesday, another trick tutorial.

Today we will work on teaching our dogs to weave around and through our legs. This trick is a real crowd pleaser.

Method: Luring
Skill Level: Intermediate
What you’ll need: Food, dog and a conditioned reinforcer

Welcome back to Trick Tuesday!  Every Tuesday, another trick tutorial.

Today, Reggie challenges the cuteness factor by helping me demonstrate the "sit pretty" trick.  This one takes balance and core strength for the dog.  Be sure your dog is physically sound enough to participate.  This isn't a good trick to teach our senior dogs!

Method: Luring
Skill Level: Intermediate
What you’ll need: What you’ll need: Food, dog, conditioned reinforcer, pillows (optional), wall (optional)

Welcome back to Trick Tuesday!  Every Tuesday, another trick tutorial.

This week's trick is a fun one!  We are going to teach the dogs to "Play Dead."  In order to teach this trick, we'll be using a method called, "Back Chaining" where we start with the last behaviour and work our way backward to the first.  Our goal is that on one command, our dogs stop, lie down, flop onto their sides or back and hold position.  So, we'll start by teaching them to hold position on their side.  Once they've mastered that, we'll add in the position change.

Method: Back chaining
Skill level: Intermediate
What you'll need: Food, dog and a conditioned reinforcer

Welcome back to Trick Tuesday!  Every Tuesday, another trick tutorial.

This week’s trick is a flashy one!  We are going to teach the dogs to jump up into our arms.  In order to teach this trick, we need to make sure that we have a dog that is physically capable of jumping a good height and we need to ensure that the handler is strong enough to catch them!

Method: Encouraging
Skill Level: Intermediate
What you’ll need: Food, dog, conditioned reinforcer, chair or bench (optional)

Welcome back to Trick Tuesday!  Every Tuesday, another trick tutorial.

This week’s trick is all about fun!  We are going to teach our dogs some jumping skills.  In order to teach jumping, we need to make sure that we have a dog that is physically capable of jumping without causing himself injury.

You can make your own jumps out of household equipment.  No need to buy or make anything fancy.  A couple of boxes or pillows and a broomstick work great!

Method: Luring
Skill Level: Intermediate
What you’ll need: Food, dog, boxes or pillows, broomstick, toy (optional), Hula Hoop (optional)

Welcome back to Trick Tuesday! Every Tuesday, another trick tutorial.

This week’s trick is all about fun! We are going to teach our dogs to back up on command. This one is for everyone! Any dog can participate

Our goal is to start by rewarding 1 step backward, then 2, and then ask for a bit more with each repetition.

Therefore, we’ll be capturing the behaviour we want from our dogs.

Welcome back to Trick Tuesday! Every Tuesday, another trick tutorial.

This week’s trick is about balance and rear-end awareness. We are going to teach our dogs to do a hand stand. Before starting this trick, make sure your dog is physically fit and capable of putting pressure on their front end.

We are going to use our back-up command and a ramp to teach our dogs to balance on their front end only.

Method: Capturing
Skill Level: Advanced
What you’ll need: Food, dog, conditioned reinforcer, movable ramp

“Oh my word, NO!!!!” That was her response when I asked her if she wanted to practice nail trimming with her Head Start puppy. Clearly she was terrified of the process. I asked her why. “My last dog used to fight so hard, we had to muzzle him and eventually had to resort to anaesthetizing him to get his nails trimmed. It was awful!”

We hear these and other similar stories all of the time in classes and we consider it all the more reason to work hard with your puppy to get them used to nail trimming. With a little bit of knowledge and practice, nail trimming can be a simple part of grooming. Remember that even if you don’t want to trim nails yourself, your dog will have to be part of the process and it’s essential that they are comfortable with it.

Welcome back to Trick Tuesday! Every Tuesday, another trick tutorial.

This week’s trick will help your dog win the hearts of everyone around them with its adorable nature! Our tutorial will help you teach your dog to target their chin to an object or your hand./p>

We are going to use our chin command as a jumping off point for another trick in coming weeks.

Welcome back to Trick Tuesday! Every Tuesday, another trick tutorial.

This week, we are going to teach your dogs to crawl! If you have trouble getting your dog to move to you without getting up, you may find that setting up a pole for them to crawl underneath aids in their understanding.

Welcome back to Trick Tuesday! Every Tuesday, another trick tutorial.

This week, we are going to teach your dogs to crawl BACKWARDS! We’ll do this by combining our “down” skill with our “back up” trick. If you missed the backup trick tutorial, you can view it here:

Welcome back to Trick Tuesday! Every Tuesday, another trick tutorial.

This week, we are going to teach your dogs to run backwards between our legs. We’ll do this by combining our “spin” trick with our “back up” trick. If you missed the backup trick tutorial, you can view it here:

If you missed the spin trick tutorial, you can view it here:

Welcome back to Trick Tuesday! Every Tuesday, another trick tutorial.

This week, we are going to start to teach our dogs some Frisbee skills! In order to have a successful Frisbee dog, your dog must enjoy retrieving. Teach them to first love bringing objects back to you before considering the game of Frisbee.

Welcome back to Trick Tuesday! Every Tuesday, another trick tutorial.

This week, we will continue on with our dog’s Frisbee skills! Starting with a basic “take” trick, we’ll progress to teaching them to jump over our leg to catch the Frisbee. If you missed last week’s Trick Tuesday where we introduced the Frisbee, you can view the video here:

Welcome back to Trick Tuesday! Every Tuesday, another trick tutorial.

TThis week, we’ll be teaching our dog’s a Frisbee back vault! This one is a bit more complicated. Make sure you have a solid understanding of Frisbee basics. If you missed last week’s Trick Tuesday where we introduced the “take” command, you can view the video here:

Welcome back to Trick Tuesday! Every Tuesday, another trick tutorial.

This week, we’ll be teaching our dogs Frisbee Juggling! This trick is a simple and fun way to build your dogs catching and dropping skills. Make sure you have a solid understanding of Frisbee basics. If you missed our Trick Tuesday video on Frisbee foundation, you can view the video here:

Welcome back to Trick Tuesday!  Every Tuesday, another trick tutorial.

This week, we are going to start the process of shaping by teaching our dogs how to get into a box. The traditional definition of “shaping” is asking our dogs to offer successive approximations on a skill or behaviour. Shaping is so much fun and can be used to teach limitless skills.

What we are doing is asking our dogs to offer or “shape” a behaviour. Essentially, we are teaching them to think and problem solve. To start shaping, you’ll need an easy behaviour, like getting into a large box. Initially, click any step, motion or even just slight attention towards the box. Then, wait for a little further commitment each time until you’ve reached your desired behaviour.

Welcome back to Trick Tuesday!

Every Tuesday, another trick tutorial.

This week, we are going to teach our dogs to put their heads down on command. This is a really crowd pleasing trick to show a “sad” or “guilty” expression with your dog.

Have fun teaching this one!

Method: Capturing
Skill Level: Advanced
What you’ll need: Food, dog, conditioned reinforcer, target (rubbermaid lid), previously taught trick (chin)

Welcome back to Trick Tuesday!  Every Tuesday, another trick tutorial.

This week, we are going to teach our dogs to stand tall. This one is lots of fun!

Method: Luring
Skill Level: Beginner
What you’ll need: Food, dog, conditioned reinforcer

Welcome back to Trick Tuesday! Every Tuesday, another trick tutorial.

This week, we are going to teach our dogs to give us a “High 10!”. You won’t want to miss out on teaching this extra 5! ;o)

Have fun teaching this one!

Method: Luring
Skill Level: Beginner
Food, dog, conditioned reinforcer, previously taught trick (stand tall, sit pretty, high 5)

Welcome back to Trick Tuesday! Trick tutorials for you and your dog!

This week, we are going to teach our dogs to untie our shoes. What a great, fun trick to impress your friends with.

Method: Capturing
Skill Level: Advanced
What you’ll need: Food, dog, conditioned reinforcer

That’s Right! Ice Cream for Dogs!!!

Who doesn’t love ice cream? Studies show that people who consume ice cream on hot days are more productive and generally cooler. Kidding! It’s just a great treat and on a hot day, and that can be just the ticket! It got us thinking – wouldn’t our dogs enjoy taking part in this ritual too? We asked them and the answer sounded close enough to “yes,” so we went out in search of a delicious recipe for all natural ice cream for dogs. The reviews were all stellar, as Hippy-Shake will attest to in the video below.

The secret to a well behaved dog is not long, drawn-out training sessions. It's using your day-to-day life and habits to consistently teach good skills and manners. We talk a lot about manners.