Obedience training is a necessary task, but it is not always fun.  You may be looking for ways to break up the routine, making it more interesting for you and your pooch.  Trick training is a great helper to obedience training.  You are still “training” in the same ways, but you get to have a little fun while doing it.  Your dog will also love the chance to show off his new trick for other members of the family.

There are tons of different trick commands you can teach your pooch.  Shake is a good one to start with, because it is easy and calm.  No matter what you are trying to teach, remember to keep the training sessions short.  A good training session will last 10 to 15 minutes, but they can take place more than once per day.  And, never forget the treats!  Treats are essential when teaching your pooch how you want him to act.  Use small, low-calorie treats during training, since you will be giving him multiple treats each session.

The shake command starts with the sit command.  If you have already started obedience training, then you probably started with the sit command anyway.  If not, then take a couple of days to teach sit.  It’s easy, and it is necessary for other training.  Once your pet has mastered sit, find a quiet place in your home to teach shake.  Grab the treats and a chair for you to sit in.

Have your pooch sit in front of you facing you.  There are two ways you can get him to lift his leg.  You can tickle the area right above the paw until he instinctively lifts it, or you can manually lift his paw.  Each time you lift or tickle his paw, make sure you say “shake” (or whatever command you would like to use), and give him a treat.  Repeat this until your pet starts to lift his paw on his own when you reach down for it.  Depending on your pooch’s learning ability, ten to fifteen minutes may have already passed.  So, take a break for a couple of hours before you continue the session.

When you start the session again, you may have to start from the beginning, manually lifting your pooch’s paw.  Then, you’ll have to reach for his paw as you say “shake,” but allow him to lift the paw on his own.  You should slowly limit your movements:  make the reach for his paw shorter until there is no reach at all.  Practice the shake command for a day or two until your dog is comfortable with it.  Like all training, once your pet gets the hang of things, you need to replace the treat with a pat on the head or a belly rub.

To keep your dog from trying to shake every time you tell him to sit or every time you pull out a treat, it’s a good idea to go easy on the shake command.  Once you teach the command, teach another command such as roll over.  Mix up the frequency of the commands.  Another great addition to “shake” is teaching your dog to shake with his other paw.  You can go about the training the same way, replacing “shake” with “other hand” or a similar command.  When your dog gets the hang of things, you can say “shake,” give him a treat, and then say “other hand,” and give him a treat when he switches paws.

Since you are teaching your pet a trick, make sure you let him show it off!  Dogs love to receive tons of attention.  Have your friends or family members sit in the den while you let your pooch strut his stuff.  It’s a great way to reward him for his hard work.

Obedience training is necessary, but sometimes the routine can get stale.  Mixing obedience training with trick training is a good way to keep your pet interested, while continuing the fundamentals of training.  Most trick commands start with sit, so make sure your pet understands that command.  Shake is an easy one to start with, because it does not require tons of energy out of your or your pooch.  Always reward him for his hard work by giving him treats while training and then giving him a chance to show off his newly acquired skills.

This article was provided by pet super store - an online pet supplies store that has great pet products from PetSafe, Innotek and Dogtra.