Dog school

Clicker training is not just for professional animal trainers. We will show you some simple exercises that will you can use to set some exciting challenges

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Dog school - give a paw
Dog school - sit up and beg
Dog school - servant - bow down
Dog school - twist
Dog school - crossing paws
Dog school - dead dog
Dog school - waving
Dog school - stack the cups
Dog school - sticking out the tongue

Fantastic dog tricks to copy - how to use dog tricks to stimulate your dog mentally

At the Meradog dog school for use at home, we want to show you possible ways to maximise your dog's mental (and therefore also physical) stimulation during dog training. A clicker is used to teach the dog a wide variety of dog tricks and commands. This not only strengthens the relationship with your dog, but also trains the abilities of both parties to read and understand each other. And with the dog food or dog biscuits from Meradog, your dog is guaranteed to learn the dog tricks easily and quickly.

Who better to accompany you and your dog through the dog school than a dog: Amy, one of the Meradog employee dogs came from Hungary to her new home in Germany at the age of 7 months. After a brief period of acclimatisation, she found the “normal” dog's life comprising eating, sleeping, walkies and a few hours of dog school per week too dull. After Amy had destroyed sofa cushions, cork tiles, tablecloths, remote controls and telephone books, it quickly became apparent that the dog needed to be occupied! Dog school, dog training and dog tricks to be performed at home were designed to arouse Amy's attention.

Dog school - give a paw

Dog school - tips

For many dogs, having a paw enclosed in your hand is a little unsettling at first. Allow your trick student to become accustomed to this gradually. There are numerous instructions that suggest the following approach: Enclose a reward in your hand and hold it out to the dog. Sooner or later, it will start to scratch at it, at which point you must click and reward. After several repetitions in dog training, your dog will also touch your empty fist. You can then open your hand and reward the contact with your palm with Meradog dog biscuits or Meradog dog food. Personally, I have ruled out this approach for pedagogical reasons. If I hold something in my hand, then it belongs to me alone and Amy is not permitted to request it, neither by poking nor by scratching with the paw. If the method described does not work for you (some dogs are unreceptive to this type of contact) and you want to attempt this second alternative dog training, my advice is not to reward your dog with the dog biscuit from your closed hand, but to feed it a second dog biscuit so that at least it does not reach its original goal through its demanding behaviour.

Step 1: Make your dog sit down in front of you and carefully tap it on the foreleg. At some point, your dog will decide by itself to raise its paw slightly. Click and reward this behaviour.

Step 2: Repeat step 1 until your dog understands the process. You can recognise this in many dogs when they perform the desired movement before they hear your command. Increase the level of difficulty by only clicking if the dog raises its paw high.

Step 3: Touch the foreleg with your flat open hand. The dog may already place its paw in your hand during this step. If not, slide your hand under its paw. It will now understand what you want from it and, after several repetitions, will automatically place its paw in your outstretched hand. Then add the command: “give a paw!” to the trick

Dog school - sit up and beg

Dog school - before you start:

There is some disagreement as to whether growing dogs should perform this exercise. Play it safe and rehearse this dog trick exclusively with adult dogs. This dog trick is also not suitable for very large breeds. Consider how your dog will go about sitting up and begging. Should it stand on its hind legs or simply raise its front paws while in the sitting position? The structure of the training is identical and differs only in terms of the height at which you end up holding the Meradog dog food or the Meradog dog biscuit. I have opted for the latter variant and chosen the command “Amy, how does a meerkat sit?”.

Step 1: Make your dog sit in front of you. With the help of a dog biscuit or dog food, guide your dog's nose upward. As soon as your dog also raises its front paws even slightly, click and reward it.

Step 2: Slowly increase the height to which the dog is to sit up until it has reached the final position. Be patient if your dog takes a little time to learn to hold its balance. Now introduce the command "sit up and beg!".

Step 3: You should now phase out the use of the dog biscuit or dog food to guide the dog. Simply pretend that you are holding a reward between your fingers. The hand movement combined with the command will be sufficient for it to understand what to do. Finally, only reward your dog if it sits up and begs after the verbal command.

Dog school - servant - bow down

Your dog bows down by lowering its upper body while keeping its hind legs stretched. As previously mentioned in the dog school basic knowledge, this behaviour can also be captured, although this usually takes a long time because you always have to wait until your dog stretches. Particularly tasty Meradog dog food or Meradog dog biscuits will make dog training easier.

Step 1: Your dog is standing in front of you. Now use dog food or dog biscuits to coax it to lower its upper body slightly without allowing it to tuck in its hind legs.

Step 2: Now coax it further and further downwards until the upper body is fully lowered (that is, as if it was lying down). Make sure that its rear end remains upright. If your dog repeatedly tries to lie down fully, support it with your other hand. It will then understand that its rear end should remain upright.

Step 3: Introduce the “servant” command and slowly phase out your hand movement so that your dog only bows down in response to the verbal instruction.

Dog school - twist

This exercise involves the dog rotating about its own axis. Use Meradog dog food or Meradog dog biscuits to motivate your dog and to rehearse this dog trick.

Step 1: Hold dog food or dog biscuits between your thumb and middle finger and extend your index finger. Use the dog food to coax your dog into a circular motion once about its own axis. Click and reward one complete rotation.

Step 2: Repeat this exercise several times until your dog turns in a circle if you have no reward between your fingers and only heeds your gesture.

Step 3: Introduce the command "twist". Once your dog masters the exercise, you can slowly increase the distance between it and your circling hand so that you no longer need to guide the dog but can also give the visual signal from a distance.

Dog school - crossing paws

Dog school - prerequisites:

This is a trick that can easily be taught to a dog that already knows how to give a paw while lying down. To further boost its motivation, you can use the tasty Meradog dog biscuits or the wide selection of Meradog dog food. This will help you manage even the most challenging exercise in dog training.

Dog school - tip:

A nice command for dogs learning this dog trick is “how does the lovely lady lie?“.

Step 1: Make your dog lie down in front of you. Have the dog give a paw and, with each repetition of the movement, gradually move your hand further and further towards your dog’s second foreleg until they cross over in the air.

Step 2: While the forelegs are crossed, remove your hand just before your dog would normally place its paw in your hand. Click when both paws lie crossed on the floor.

Step 3: Introduce the command and gradually phase out the use of your hand to assist the dog.

Dog school - dead dog

A dog trick that is not particularly difficult to teach but requires a great deal of self-control from your dog! Therefore, be sure to use some particularly tasty Meradog dog biscuits or particularly tasty Meradog dog food to boost your dog’s motivation.

Dog school for professionals - a really dead dog!

If your dog masters the dog trick through distraction, try it using supreme discipline: Your dog should not respond to touch and should let its raised paw fall or even let it go limp when lifted. Step 4: Vary your position relative to the dog or practise at other locations so that your four-legged friend generalises the trick.

Step 1: Make your dog lie down in front of you and coax it into lying on its side with the help of some dog food or dog biscuits. Click and reward this position.

Step 2: Slowly increase the length of time for which the dog must remain lying on its side.

Step 3: Introduce the command “dead dog” or “bang!”. Now pay closer attention to make sure that your dog does not move during the exercise, i.e. does not raise its head slightly or (very difficult!) wag its tail.

Step 4: Increase the level of difficulty by moving away from your dog, walking around it or talking to it.

Dog school - waving

You can also significantly increase your dog's motivation to participate in this trick by using particularly tasty Meradog dog biscuits or Meradog dog food. Dog school - prerequisite: Give me five!

Step 1: Make your dog sit in front of you. Give it the hand signal (with your open palm facing the dog) for “give me five!”. Just before the dog makes contact, pull your hand away and make a waving movement. Your dog will wave its paw through the air. Click and reward this movement.

Step 2: Repeat step 1 several times until your dog also performs the movement if you give the hand signal from a distance. Introduce a command such as “wave” or “bye“.

Step 3: Stop rewarding your dog if it only waves its paw once. Gradually expand the exercise so that it repeats the wave 3-4 times in response to a single command.

Step 4: Vary your position relative to the dog or practise at other locations so that your four-legged friend generalises the trick.

Dog school - stack the cups

Dog school - prerequisites:

Stacking cups is a dog trick that will require your dog to demonstrate a great deal of dexterity. It also involves a chain of behaviour, which means that your dog must perform several behaviour patterns consecutively on command during dog training: Picking up the cup, carrying it to the other cup and placing it inside the other cup. This dog trick is easier to develop if your dog is able to retrieve on command. You will also need at least two sturdy plastic cups.

Dog school - tip:

If your dog does not retrieve on command: Let your dog discover what it is supposed to do with the cup on the floor. Start by clicking when the dog picks up the cup, then when it carries it and finally when it brings the cup in your direction. With the right reward such as the delicious Meradog dog biscuits or Meradog dog food, your dog will also master this trick in no time.

Step 1: Hold one cup in your hand and place the other one some distance away on the floor. Instruct the dog to retrieve the cup on the floor. Hold out your cup to your four-legged friend and click and reward if the cup in the dog's mouth touches your cup.

Step 2: Move your cup less and less towards the dog, and let it do the work instead. It will quickly learn that touching the two cups will result in a reward.

Step 3: Keep holding your cup in your hand, but only give a reward if your dog touches your cup with its cup from above and then only if it stacks the cups inside one another.

Step 4: Move your cup lower and lower until it is standing on the floor. Ultimately, your dog should stack the cups without you holding the second cup. You can also expand this exercise by having your dog stack several cups on command.

Dog school - sticking out the tongue

This is a dog trick that requires no coordination skills but presents your dog with an extreme mental challenge. Sticking out the tongue, e.g. when licking the flews, is an action that is performed subconsciously. Therefore, your dog will very probably have to think long and hard about what it is that you are confirming in this training session. To rehearse this trick, we suggest using particularly tasty dog biscuits or dog food. If your dog tends not to lick its flews thoroughly after eating, you can also carefully wipe a layer of liver sausage across the tip of its nose. However, you then run the risk that the dog will concentrate too much on the delicious liver sausage and will no longer pay any attention to the objective of the dog training.

Step 1: Give your dog a piece of food and wait. After eating, it will most likely lick its flews and nose. Click at this precise moment. However, make sure that you don’t click while your dog is still chewing. This will only confuse it and you will also be rewarding its ability to eat on command…

Step 2: Repeat the procedure using the reward from the previous click. However, you should take a break every so often to check whether your dog has understood the point of the exercise. If it licks its nose even though its mouth is no longer watering, it is quite possible that it has already figured out what you want it to do. Give it a jackpot!

Step 3: If you want the trick to look as if the dog is actually sticking out its tongue rather than just licking its flews and nose, you can develop the movement further. Your dog will try out different variants and gradually get closer to your desired version.

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