Having guests over is a great way to have some fun, share some food, and enjoy fellowship with friends and family. Your puppy will no doubt be the star of the show, attracting all sorts of attention. Why not teach your pooch some impressive puppy tricks to make your guests Ooh and Aah?
Training a puppy can quickly get monotonous for both of you if you don’t switch up your routine. Keep your sessions fresh by throwing in some cute tricks after you work on basic puppy training commands. Training your canine pal is a great way to bond. Learn how to teach your puppy these 9 impressive dog tricks to make your guests smile.
Get Your Puppy in the Right Mindset to Learn Tricks
If you want optimal results when teaching your dog fun new tricks, you need to make sure your puppy is in the right frame of mind and ready to learn. You’ll have more success if you keep your sessions 10-15 minutes long and repeat them until your puppy catches on.
Use strong-smelling, highly coveted puppy treats to entice your puppy and reward them when they do the desired action. Introducing a variety of dog training treats keeps your puppy wanting more and interested in the session.
9 Impressive Dog Tricks to Teach Your Puppy
Wait
We all know dogs can go berserk when your doorbell rings. They may rush to the door, bark, spin in circles, and jump up on your guests when they walk in the door. They may also try to escape and dash outside!
While not a flashy trick, your guests have to be able to come into your home in the first place! Teaching your dog to Wait trains their focus on you, stay where they are, and then move only after you release them.
A puppy who knows “Wait” means your guests will not be bombarded with a most exuberant welcome, which could frighten children, knock over people, result in nail scratches and dropped hot casserole dishes, and cause general chaos.
You can also use Wait to give your dog some feeding manners or in any situation where they need to be calm and still while you complete a task. Your guests will be impressed with your puppy’s manners!
Grab a buddy to help you team-teach the Wait command. Start at the door your guests will come through. Have your friend on one side of the closed door, you on the other interior side, and your puppy in the Sit position. When your friend opens the door slowly, reward your puppy every time they do not lunge toward the door while saying “Wait.” Next, add the doorbell or knocking. With consistency and lots of rewards, your puppy will catch on in no time.
Spin
You laugh so hard when your puppy spins in circles chasing her own tail, so why not teach her to spin in either direction on command?
Start with a tasty treat as a lure. Holding the treat just beyond your puppy’s reach, lead your puppy to turn around while pursuing the treat. You can add a spinning hand motion in addition to the treat. Keep praising your puppy until she gets the hang of spinning with no treat but with either the hand motion or verbal command. Teaching her to spin in both directions is doubly impressive!
Speak
Don’t you wish your puppy could talk? Well, now he can! He’s been waiting for you to give him permission. Just kidding, but giving a bark on command is a pretty cool trick. You’ll have your puppy “talking” to your guests, but remember to teach your puppy to stay away from sensitive topics like politics or religion!
While we might kid around about what topics a puppy would or would not talk about, teaching Speak command is quite a fun party trick. The key here is patience since you’ve probably done the opposite to desperately get your puppy to be quiet!
Some dogs are natural barkers, and others don’t really make a peep. The key is to get your dog riled up and excited about something to entice a bark, and then immediately reward your puppy after he barks with the Speak command.
You’ll want to make sure you are not inviting your dog to speak his manifesto though. You just want to reward a single bark. It may be counterintuitive to you to get your puppy to do the one thing you may have even cried in frustration over during night crate training, but helping your dog speak only when you want him to will help control him when he’s about to “tell” the entire table full of guests all of the many reasons why he loves you while you’re trying to eat.
High Five
A high five from a human is a way to say “Way to go!” What better way to lift your spirits than to have an adorable puppy give you a high five? Your puppy will love giving everyone at your gathering a high five!
Start with a tasty treat and your puppy in the Sit position. Use a treat to lure your dog slightly to the side, and pick up the paw that naturally lifts up when he stretches to one side to get the treat and say, “High Five!” with lots of energy. Do this a few times, and see if he will offer his paw before he goes for the treat. Place your palm vertically and flat so your puppy eventually touches his paw to your open palm. Now watch him work the room whenever someone says “High Five!” to him!
Sit Pretty
After you teach the basic Sit command, why not teach your puppy to Sit Pretty? When a puppy Sits Pretty, she leans back, sits on her haunches vertically, and hangs her paws down. In addition to making a fantastic social media post, your puppy will be primed to learn the Bang Bang/Play Dead and the Hug command. This pose can also help your puppy to build core strength and balance.
Put your puppy in a Sit position. Hold the treat above the puppy’s nose and say, “Sit Pretty!” As soon as her feet are off the ground, immediately praise her. The next step is to add time to the vertical position before rewarding her with a treat.
Bang Bang/Play Dead
If you want to make your guests laugh, pretend you’re in a Western and teach your dog to play dead when you say “Bang bang!” while pointing at your puppy. Then tip your hat at everyone!
The Bang Bang/Play Dead trick is a great follow-up to the Roll Over command. You can actually work backward to teach this command. Place your dog in the Down position while you are also crouched down with them, and make sure they know the Roll Over command.
Once your puppy can follow Sit, Down, and Roll Over, you can teach them the first “Bang Bang” part. Start holding your fingers like a pistol and say “Bang bang!” while you guide them to roll over. Slowly inch your way to a standing position and keep repeating the saying and rewarding treats. Eventually, you can start in a standing position with your puppy in a Sit. When you say, “Bang bang!” your puppy will know to drop into a Down position and then roll over!
Hug
A strong hug can say more than words could ever communicate, and we know you give your puppy plenty of hugs. Wouldn’t it be nice if she threw her paws around your neck and hugged back? Now you can! Teach your puppy to hug you and your guests if they want one. It goes along really well with the Give Kisses command. Who doesn’t love an infinite amount of puppy love?
Start in the Sit Pretty position. When your dog is holding the position, reach out and put your arms around your puppy while giving the Hug command. Reward with a high-value treat. Keep repeating until your puppy hears Hug and immediately Sits Pretty and gives you or your friend a hug.
Give Kisses
There’s nothing quite like an unexpected, sloppy kiss from your puppy showing her love to you! However, sometimes you just aren’t in the mood for a slobbery show of affection. You can get a kiss when you’d like by teaching your puppy the Give Kisses command to both delight your friends and also show your puppy when a kiss is appropriate or not.
Time to grab the peanut butter jar in addition to a delicious treat! Put a small dab of peanut butter on your face and let your puppy lick it off. Now the fun part: smear a dab of peanut butter on your cheek. Say, “Give me a kiss!” and praise your puppy when she licks it off. Keep repeating “Give kisses!” until she can kiss your cheek without the peanut butter reward. You can also make kissing noises during this trick to have your dog associate the noise with giving you a kiss.
Jump Through a Hoop
You may be wondering why you should train your puppy to jump through a hoop when you already are the one jumping through all the hoops to give your puppy an excellent life! For this trick, you’ll need a hula hoop from your kids’ toy collection or a cheap one at a discount store and some tasty treats.
Let your puppy get used to the hoop, sniffing around it and moving it around while praising her with treats, especially if it makes noises or lights up. When you know she’s used to it, start by using a treat to lure her through the hoop to the other side and say, “Through!” or “Hoop!” whichever you prefer. Give lots of encouragement and praise. Slowly lift the hoop off the ground a bit more each time until you have your puppy jumping through the hoop.
Have Patience and Consistency When Teaching Your Puppy Fun Tricks
As much as we want to wave our magic wands to skip the difficult part of training to get the best results right away, we will have to do it without the help of the Training Fairy Godmother. We know we have to put in the work!
Training a puppy to do impressive tricks will take a consistent approach using a firm yet gentle tone of voice. You also need to be consistent in how you train, whether you use a clicker method or food-based treat motivation. Pay attention when you train as well, making sure to give equally spaced, short sessions to reinforce learning.
Now that you’ve decided on your method, the most important aspect of training a puppy is your patience and attitude. It can get frustrating at times because some breeds are more stubborn than others and sometimes have their own ideas!
Never, ever scream, yell at, or strike your dog for not obeying commands. End the session if you feel anger or frustration bubbling up. You can always try again later, a much better alternative than making your puppy cower and be afraid of you. Training should be a great bonding activity, not one full of fear.
Teach A Pawrade Puppy Impressive, Fun Tricks
The first step to teaching a puppy new tricks to impress your guests is to first find a puppy for sale! Our team members will help you every step of the way. We’ve got all sorts of tricks up our sleeves to make your puppy adoption experience a smooth one.
*Paid partnership with our friends at Chewy
