Does your dog do cute stuff on his or her own?
Your dog is adorable. He or she does really, really cute stuff that you didn’t teach him, but it’s so amazingly darling that you’d really like him to do it more.
It’s really easy to turn your dog’s cute mannerisms into cued behaviors.
Name it and reward it!
We do it all the time! Torque “hugs.” Booker “dances.” And before Booker, our girl Ceilidh “danced” too (left). Tango wipes his beard. Actually, that one isn’t as cute as it is necessary. If you have a dog with a beard, you know that if you don’t teach them to wipe on a towel after they drink, the water is all over the house.
Hopefully, we’ve already trained you to have treats in every room of the house. If you don’t have your clicker handy, you can use “Yes!” for a marker word.
First decide what your want to call your dog’s habit that you want to turn into a trick. When you see your dog doing that “thing,” just click and say “good hug!” or “good dance!” or “good bow!” All dogs do cute stuff like play bows, or rolling over, or rubbing their backs on the floor.
Name it, reward it, and your dog will repeat it!
