Tips on teaching pets tricks
Cats and dogs can often learn a few things
DEAR PET TALK: » I want to teach my pet to do tricks. How do I do this?
— Dog And Cat Lover DEAR DOG AND CAT LOVER: »
I will assume you would like to teach both a dog and cat some tricks. Let’s start with your dog – they’re much more compliant when it comes to pleasing the humans in their life.
Dogs are much more likely to “learn” tricks because of their multi-millennial relationship with our species.
First — think small. Training should be sessions of no more than three to five minutes in a place with no distractions.
Before tricks, start with basic commands: “Sit,” (rump on floor), “Lie down” (front paws on floor, head above floor). You can teach the latter by having your pup watch your finger as you put it down on the floor while saying “Lie down.” ( Treat training will also work – but work on getting your dog to follow your directions just with voice commands as soon as you can). With “give me paw,” or “paw,” do the following. Say “paw,” and gently lift dog’s paw. Give him a treat. Do it again. Repeat several times. Dogs need time to have instructions installed on their hard drive, so to speak.
Cats are trickier. They may have natural behaviors which can “turn into” a trick with repetition. Spenser, our family cat (also a member of TheraPAWS, with Be PAWSitive Therapy Pets) is 13 years old. We adopted him when he was 12, and found that if we threw a sparkly ball on the floor, he would fetch and retrieve. No other ball would do. We didn’t teach him, but that’s what he likes to do. But if you put a treat in your hand and close your fist he will “tap” your hand with his paw to get the treat. Cats can be very treat-motivated, and an easy trick is to hold a treat above your cat’s nose and slowly raise it so they rise up (briefly) on their hind legs. Cat treats range from 2 to 4 calories each, so break in half to reduce calorie intake.