There are several tricks that we can teach our dog, with which we will show off to our friends and have fun for a while, in addition to feeling very proud of the animal when everyone is staring.
One of them is crawling or crawling on the ground , a movement that is not natural for dogs, but that they can learn in a very simple way with a little work and some treats.
First you have to learn some previous orders
We cannot begin to teach the command “crawl” without first having memorized some previous commands, such as sit and stay, which are even easier to teach, especially if we do it when they are puppies.
In any case, an adult dog can also learn them, just like crawling, although it will cost us a little more and we must be more patient, repeating the sessions and making them somewhat shorter.
How do we teach him to crawl?
We have to go to a quiet place where the animal has no stimuli that distract it , such as a room in the house, our garden, a park without many people, etc.
There we give him the order to sit and then to stay still. Immediately, and without waiting too long so as not to tire the dog, what you have to achieve is to direct it towards the ground.
We can do it in several ways, either with the command “lie down” if you know it, although it is more spectacular if you do it from a sitting position, so when he is like this we show him a treat that we will not give him if he gets up.
Calling his attention , we make him look at his favorite snack and move him to the ground, with the idea that he will lie down on his own , but when he does, we are not going to give him the reward, because we want him to crawl.
Therefore, we have to distance ourselves a little by showing him the candy. If he crawls on the ground we say “crawl” and then we reward him.
This must be repeated several times without tiring him, starting again the next day until he starts crawling when we ask him to, always giving him his reward if he does it well, at the right time when he starts crawling.
The clicker can be useful to us , a tool that is nothing more than a badge that makes a sound, after which we reward it. It is used a lot in positive training, since the dog associates the “click” with a stimulus and will be aware of the clicker, which helps it to be focused on the training and not be distracted by anything.
At first it may be a little difficult.
As soon as he starts , it may be a little difficult for him to crawl, since what he will do is get up and come running when we show him the prize , which should not be given in this case.
As he does it wrong, our dog will realize that it is not what we expect of him, so he will begin to crawl towards us, perhaps a little at first and getting up, although he will understand as soon as he does it a couple of times and receives his prize.
Depending on the breed, it will be more difficult to assimilate it, but it is not a complicated exercise and any dog can do it if we set our mind to it.
We can complicate it a little by giving the order remotely
When the dog already crawls without failing on most occasions, which means that he has the trick under control, we can take it a step further and complicate it.
To do this , what we have to do is add distance when we give the order . This means that we ask him to sit and stay, we move a few meters away and then we tell him to crawl.
With this, what we achieve is that the distance it travels attached to the ground is increasingly greater, making the trick more spectacular, although always with caution and only allowing it to do it for a few meters, because we do not want our dog to become damage.
After a while, it will no longer be necessary to give him a treat, although it is advisable to do so from time to time and congratulate him profusely, give him his favorite toy, etc., all so that the dog understands that we are very happy. with what he has done.
It helps keep your head busy.
In addition to showing off, teaching him this trick will serve to keep his head busy, since there are several breeds that need it , such as sheepdogs and all those that are very active.
On many occasions, some of these dogs end up in shelters because their owners do not know how to give them what they need, which is nothing more than spending time with them and teaching them tricks of this kind, with which the animals enjoy and occupy their brains learning.
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