Although I try to use the most proven and modern training methods (positive reinforcement + respect) I am not a professional dog trainer. Any advice you take from me or my videos is at your own risk.
General Training Tips & Warnings
- All of the training tutorials on this site require a lot of kibble or treats. On the days when you train your dog to do these tricks, I recommend that you cut down the amount of food you give your dog during meals.
- Once your dog has learned the trick, you should gradually reduce the amount of times you give them a treat reward. Eventually, for most tricks, they should be able to do it without any reward at all. Some of the more advanced tricks may still require treats to keep them motivated.
- In order to teach difficult tricks you need to break it down into very small steps and don’t rush ahead.
- If your dog starts to get frustrated, take a break. This is especially important when you are teaching a challenging trick.
- Pay attention to the listed prerequisites
In general, it’s recommended that you don’t use the verbal command until your dog starts doing what you want him to do. For important commands this is very important, but for the tricks on this site I chose not to follow this recommendation for a few reasons:
1. These tricks are just for fun and not critical (as opposed to safety-related commands such as "stay," "STOP!" etc)
2. For most of them the verbal command isn’t required
3. For the “Where’s your tongue?” trick, repeating the command from early on helped Cooper recognize and respond to it more quickly