To teach your New Zealand Heading Dog tricks, even easy ones, you need to get some small snacks, take him to an obscure suitable place and keep the teaching sessions to under 15 minutes or your New Zealand Heading Dog will begin to get bored. Don’t forget that when he gets something correct offer him lots of praise and a reward treat, just be careful not to get him overly thrilled or he will lose concentration.
Teach your New Zealand Heading Dog to offer you his paw
To teach your New Zealand Heading Dog to give you his paw, first get him to sit, then as you say the word ‘paw’ take his paw in your hand and give him a treat. After that do it again, and after a couple of tries don’t take his paw so fast. Say the word ‘paw’, count to 1 and after that take it. You should observe that he is bringing his paw upward as you state the word. If he doesn’t then go back to saying it at the very same time. Do it a couple of more times then slow your reaction again. After just a couple of sessions most New Zealand Heading Dogs pick this trick up quite quickly.
Teach your New Zealand Heading Dog to give you a high five
Like a lot of tricks the high 5 is a continuation of an earlier trick, and in this case it’s the paw trick. Place a treat in between your two fingers and lift your hand somewhat higher than you’d raise it for the paw trick. Your New Zealand Heading Dog will expect you want to perform the paw trick and will reach for the treat with his paw as we had taught him in the previous trick. Once he rises you state “high five” and give him the snack. When your New Zealand Heading Dog has mastered the paw trick this 1 will likely be extremely easy to understand and with only a few sessions he will be performing it from your hand signal rather than your voice.
Teach your New Zealand Heading Dog to leap through a hoop
Before you begin this one I would just like to ask you to be a little practical and not suspend the hoop too high up as you do not really want your New Zealand Heading Dog to harm himself while doing the trick. Set your New Zealand Heading Dog on one side of a hula hoop, get him to take note of your hand on the other side of the hoop. Hold a snack in your hand and give the New Zealand Heading Dog the direction to stop sitting. At first he may attempt to walk around or underneath the hula hoop. If this occurs start once again. Your New Zealand Heading Dog wants the treat and will soon find out that walking around or beneath does not get it done so he’ll soon start going through it. The instant he does, state “hoop” and give him the treat. He will soon be leaping through the hoop upon the command of “hoop”. When I initially began doing this trick I had a medium sized dog, so I began with the hoop 6 inches from the floor and slowly increased it to waist height. In the case that you have a smaller dog you might desire to begin with the hoop touching the ground so he just goes through the hoop and after that gradually raise it more as he gets used to the trick.
I trust you have enjoyed learning these 3 tricks you can teach your New Zealand Heading Dog. Have patience with your New Zealand Heading Dog and most importantly, have a good time!
Don’t forget to check out these other articles about New Zealand Heading Dogs
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