It has been said that a dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself, and many would agree.
A very warm welcome to all.
Well, by now I should think you are all very impressed with your dogs and have seen how clever they are if you take a little time to teach them and have some fun at the same time.
ALSO READ: You and Your Dog: Building trust during lockdown
If you have been following my articles from the beginning and perfected each step of each game, then you will be ready for the next game.
TEACHING YOUR DOG TO SHAKE HANDS
STEP 1
Tell your dog to sit. Now hold out your hand and say ‘shake’.
If the dog does not quite understand what you want him to do, gently pick up his paw and hold it in your hand.
Praise him and give him his treat. Repeat only five times, as you do not want him to become bored.
Once he is comfortable with you holding his paw in your hand you can then progress to step 2.
STEP 2
Now your dog will understand what you want, so you can now ask him to ‘shake’ and you can hold your hand out with your palm facing up so that when he puts his paw in your hand you can shake hands with him.
You can ask him to shake when you feed him his meals.
This game is also useful to teach your dog to allow you to clip his nails.
TEACHING YOUR DOG TO A ‘HIGH FIVE’
This game is also taught in the same way that the shake is taught, except that in this game you will hold your hand vertically in front of the dog.
Here you will tell him ‘high five’ and wait for him to touch his paw to your hand.
As soon as he touches your hand with his paw give him a treat.
In the high five you do not hold his paw, he touches his paw to your hand and you praise and treat him.
Just imagine when you come home from school or work and your dog comes running to greet you: tell him ‘high five’ and he will give you a ‘high five’.
These two games are very easy to teach and most dogs learn them quickly, but remember not all dogs are alike.
If your dog takes a bit longer to learn it, just be patient, he will soon be loving to shake and do ‘high fives’.
Now you will be the hero in the neighbourhood with your clever dog.
During this lockdown period I would like to share some ways to make toys for your dogs so you will have no need to leave home to buy anything.
All the toys can be made from things you have at home.
Toy#1
TUG ROPE
Ask your Mom for any old T-shirts, preferably two different colours.
STEP 1
Take the T-shirts and cut a small slit at the bottom of the T-shirt.
Now you can rip the shirt right up to the top, cut the strip off at the top and cut a second strip, then you take the other T-shirt and cut only one strip.
STEP 2
Now you have three strips – tie a knot at the top of the three strips, then plait them together.
When you have plaited them together tie a knot to secure them at the bottom.
Now go out into the garden and have fun with your dog and his new tug rope that you have just made.
Toy#2
TREAT HIDDEN IN A TENNIS BALL
This is a fun way to get your dog to think and to use his fantastic nose.
STEP 1
Take a tennis ball which you have washed in the washing machine to remove any of the loose fluff.
You must do this as the fluff on the tennis ball can be dangerous for your dog.
STEP 2
Once the tennis ball has no loose fluff on it, cut a slit in the ball about 4cm long.
Now place some treats in the ball … give it to your dog and see how quickly he can get the treats out of the ball.
NOTE: Never leave your dog with the ball unsupervised as he could chew pieces off the ball and choke on them.
Toy#3
FLIRT POLE
For your next toy you will have to ask your Dad for some help.
See if he has any type of a dowel rod or any piece of wood or plastic, about 1 metre long.
STEP 1
You will need some string, your dog’s favourite toy and the stick.
STEP 2
Cut the string so that it is about 2 metres, attach one end of the string to the pole, attach the toy to the other end of the string. You now have a flirt pole.
What are you going to do with it?
Well, let us see why we made this fun toy.
Take you dog outside into the garden show him the toy, some dogs who have never been engaged in play will not be too interested, but wait until you start to swing the toy around and around.
Your dog’s natural prey instinct will kick in and in no time he will be trying his best to catch the toy.
I look forward to sharing more tricks with you all next week, please take care and have fun.
Yvonne Eland
ADIPCBM (UK) Canine Management and Behaviour Specialist
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