How I trained my dogs

During my downtime some years ago I spent some time training two of my family's dogs and my own dog. I used some very easy methods to teach them a few tricks.

Luna-

Luna is a white golden retriever mix. She's a very happy dog that is some what dim witted. She also has a very small attention span so I believed trying to teach her a few tricks would be all but impossible, especially for how young she is.

The first task was to teach her to sit. Now I didn't have access to dog treats so I used small bits of hot dogs which personally I think work better. To get her started I would hold the treat over her head and say sit so she could get the command into her head. Sure I lost a couple of hot dog pieces but it was worth it. After maybe saying the command "sit" three times, while still holding the hot dog piece over the dogs head I lightly pushed down on her butt, just above her tail. After repeating this a certain amount of times she finally sat down. She managed to get the command in only about an hour. She surprised me with that.

I used a similar method with the command "lie down", except I pushed lightly on her shoulders. She caught on to that one rather quick. Maybe twenty minutes at the most.

Then to make sure she knew the commands I took away the treats. She was confused at first but with the same hand gestures I used before she managed to get the idea and soon she didn't even need the gestures.

Shake was the difficult one. I didn't use a treat for this one so she had no idea what was going on. The way I started was having her sit. Then I would tap on her front paw, saying shake. It took a while for her to lift up her foot but soon she did and just before she set her paw on the ground I would gap it. Give it a gentle shake and then let her paw go. I would then pet her and say good girl in a very happy tone. After maybe thirty minutes of this she finally got it. Soon after I got her to switch the paws in my hand simply from saying, "other paw," and then after that I got her to give a high five. Standing I would say high five and she would jump up and land both her paws on my hands held palms out at about waist level. She also gives a normal High five when I am sitting on the ground.

It's awesome to do something epic on a video game and then get a high five from man's best friend.

Zoe-

Zoe is Luna's mother. I unfortunately only managed to teach her to sit and lay down. I used the same techniques I had used with her daughter.

Miley-

Miley is my lovable little mutt of a dog. There is now real way to tell what she is. I taught her the basics but I also taught her how to chase her tail. This was done by tying a piece of hot dog to her tail and saying, "get your tail," She soon understood the command and began chasing her tail without the hot dog. Now it is her favorite pass time. When ever she gets bored she chases it.

I hope this helps some of you in your dog training.