Sit, shake, fetch, and play dead. Those are probably the most basic and known tricks that a dog can master. But if your dog is already great at those, you’ll be happy to know about some other unique, cute tricks that you can practice for the new year.
January is National Train Your Dog Month, so it’s a perfect time for your pup to learn something new. Also, if you’ve made a New Year’s resolution to teach your dog more tricks, these are a great place to start!
Make a new trend with your pet by trying out these fun and amusing tricks. You just need two things–patience and enjoyment–so you can keep practicing and get to your goal.
The Snoot Challenge
Perhaps you remember The Snoot Challenge. It got pretty popular in 2018, but it’s still a lot of fun, and it’s an easy and impressive–not to mention adorable–trick for most dogs to learn.
Pet owners either hold their hands together in a heart-shape or form a circle with their fingers. Their pet then puts their muzzle–also known as the snoot–in between those fingers.
Depending on the size of your dog, you can either form a small circle with just your index finger and thumb or form a bigger circle with two hands. The trick is to let your dog feel that it’s safe to stick their nose in that space.
Usually, dogs feel that this gesture is similar to them being petted, so this may be an easier trick to achieve. Or it can take some training, which might involve you having them come to you first, then making them feel comfortable with the idea of putting their muzzle through your fingers.
It may help to hold a treat behind the finger circle you form so your dog will investigate. They may stick their snoot through to get a better sniff of the treat. Once they get use to this, you can try it without the bait.
Fair warning: it can take a while to achieve this feat, so be patient! Take care not to make your hands clamp down on your dog’s muzzle–that way they don’t feel uncomfortable. And don’t forget to video your success!
Harry Potter Spells
Even after almost two decades since the movie series debuted, Harry Potter remains well-loved by fans. And wizard and witch pet lovers still try to involve their dogs in the fandom. Check out the video above of a dog responding to his owner’s commands spoken as Harry Potter spells.
The interesting thing is that you can mimic this approach by changing your verbal commands. Dogs are usually easily trained for simple tricks like stand, sit, play dead, and fetch. It will surely take patience to change old commands to new verbal commands, but it will be fun if you and your pup are big Potterheads.
Just imagine the possibilities. You can use “Accio” for fetch, “Expelliarmus” for give it or drop the item, “Petrificus Totalus” for sit or stay, and even “Avada Kedavra” for play dead. There’s a list for the kinds of spells you can use with each command, but the trick for you will be being patient through the entire training.
Treat On The Nose
Make giving a treat to your pet even more fun and exciting by teaching them how to balance it on their nose first. A good time to try and train your pet to do this would be after they have eaten and before you give them a treat.
The first step is to have your dog seated upright in front of you. Gently touch their nose bridge, letting the weight of your finger rest on it so they can have a feel of what it’s like to have something on their nose. Always praise them when they do not move away from your finger.
Take a treat hold it over your dog’s nose. Use the command you say when telling them to stay still so they will get used to having a treat in front of them without eating it immediately. Again, never forget to give your pup lots of praise.
The next step is to put the treat on their nose without letting go first. Use your stay command, and reward your pup for doing a good job.
Finally, put the treat on top of your pet’s nose and instruct them to stay still. Count to three seconds before instructing them to eat it.
Like with other tricks, this will require a lot of patience given the number of steps to achieve it, but it’s going to be worth it. Check out this fun video below to see how it goes.
Which of these tricks do you want to try out first? What other cool, simple tricks have you taught your dog? Let us know in the comments below!
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