Important Not-So-Common Skills to Teach Your Dog
Teaching your dog new tricks is one of the best experiences for any pet parent. Such skills help your dog improve their overall behavior, expand their knowledge, and stimulate them physically and mentally. However, some skills are important to teach your dog for safety reasons. Keep reading to discover some uncommon yet essential skills you should teach your furry friend today!
How to take food gently.
Teaching your dog to take food gently is important as a dog who is too rough when taking food from a person’s hand could inadvertently harm the person. To teach your dog to take food gently, you can say "gentle" or another word you deem fit each time you hand feed your dog food or a treat. You could also reward them when they are gentle by releasing the food or treat and teaching them to be gentle by withholding the item when they are too rough. Your dog will quickly learn that they receive what they want when they are gentle, which will influence them to be more gentle.
2. Bite inhibition skill.
Bite inhibition trains your pup to use its mouth softly and to release things from their mouth that shouldn’t be there, such as a person’s fingers. Each time you play with your pup, let them nip a little. However, always ensure the bite is not painful. When they bite harder, use a firm voice to say "Ouch." You can get up, step away, and stop playing with your pup for a short while. Doing this makes them know you will only let them play with you if they are gentle with their bites.
3. How to settle in the middle of play.
Teaching your dog to settle in the middle of an excited moment can be key for teaching them to develop an “off” switch. This is incredibly useful for rough play between dogs and can also serve as impulse training for excitable dogs. You can begin teaching your dog this by getting them very excited. Use their favorite toy and encourage them to grab onto it, tug it, and be in the moment of rough play with you and the toy. At the height of your dog’s excitement give them the command to stop by saying “drop it” or “leave it”. You can then instruct your dog to lay down or go to a designated spot. Next, repeat the process. The goal is for your dog to learn how to stop immediately and calm down no matter how excited they are. This can translate to be useful in many settings, especially if you take your dog in public or socialize them around other dogs.
4. Go to the designated place when visitors come.
Many dogs quickly become overstimulated and overexcited when visitors approach the door for various reasons. For some dogs this is because they are eager to meet the person at the door. Other dogs are territorial and like to determine who enters the home and when. In these cases, it may be best to teach your dog a calming activity such as laying on their bed when someone approaches the door. You can do this by teaching your dog a “place” or “bed” command. Once the person is inside and has a chance to settle and your dog is displaying calm behavior, you may choose to invite your dog to calmly greet the visitor.
5. Refusing food from strangers
We all want our dogs to be as friendly as can be. However, this doesn’t mean that any and everyone in public should be able to access your dog. Human strangers often violate other people’s space, especially when seeing their furry companions. People may try to offer your dog food that you don’t want them to have or unwanted touch and interactions. In these situations, it’s useful to teach your dog to ignore other people and focus on you and to refuse food from anyone except yourself or except when given the command that it is okay to take something.
To teach your dog to ignore and refuse, you’ll want to teach them a command called “leave it”. This command tells your dog to leave anything they are interested in or anything that is presented to them immediately. When someone presents your dog with something or attempts to engage with your dog against your will, you should be able to say “leave it” and your dog immediately disengage. While it will take some time to develop this skill against high distractions like other dogs and people, the more you practice, the more it’ll translate to other environments.
Final Take Away
We hope you’ve learned some important and not so common skills you can teach your dog. For assistance teaching the skills to your dog from the best professional dog trainers, contact us to book a free phone evaluation today! Our dog trainer will help transform them into your dream pet dogs!
