Discover 100 Cool Things to Train Your Dog: Fun Tricks for Every Canine

Embarking on a journey to teach your dog new tricks is one of the most rewarding experiences a pet owner can have. Beyond the sheer delight of seeing your canine companion perform impressive feats, training offers a fantastic opportunity to deepen your bond, provide essential mental stimulation, and foster a well-behaved dog. From simple commands that enhance daily life to complex routines that showcase their amazing intelligence, there are countless Cool Things To Train Your Dog that will bring joy to both of you. This comprehensive guide provides 100 inspiring dog trick ideas, designed to spark your creativity and encourage a lifetime of learning and fun with your furry friend. Get ready to explore an ultimate list of dog trick ideas and transform your training sessions into engaging adventures. cool things to train your dog to do

Foundational Tricks for a Well-Mannered Pup

Starting with basic yet impactful tricks lays a strong foundation for more advanced training. These simple behaviors not only impress but also instill discipline and focus, making subsequent lessons much smoother. They help you understand your dog’s learning style and build a robust communication system.

Sweet and Simple Dog Tricks

These entry-level tricks are perfect for beginners, offering quick wins that boost your dog’s confidence and your training morale. They are visually appealing and incredibly useful for everyday control.

Wait: This trick teaches calm self-control, as your dog learns to patiently await permission for a reward. It makes your dog appear obedient and focused, serving as an excellent prelude to more complex actions. Dog trainers appreciate its role in fostering concentration during training and daily routines.
Shake: A classic “handshake” trick where your dog offers a front paw on command. It’s remarkably easy to teach and is a friendly alternative to jumping up when greeting people.
Hands Up: A fantastic trick where your dog sits back and holds both front paws up simultaneously. Despite its impressive look, it’s easy to reinforce with good timing and teaches focus by encouraging an unnatural but rewarding position.
Speak: Teaching your dog to bark on command can be very useful, especially as it allows you to then teach them to be quiet on command. Dog trainers often use this as a tool to control excessive barking.
Quiet: A natural follow-up to “speak,” this trick teaches your dog to stop barking on command. It’s invaluable for managing noisy canines and is a frequent solution passed on by dog trainers.
Are You Tired?: This trick provokes a yawn on command, creating the impression of a sleepy, communicative dog. It reinforces a natural calming signal dogs use, making it a clever example of shaping behavior for cross-species communication.
Fetch Your Bear (or any named item): Easily teach your dog to retrieve a specific item by name. This trick has immense potential, improving general focus and even recall in varied environments.
Say Your Prayers: A fun trick where your dog sits, places front legs on a prop, and drops its head in apparent prayer. It looks unique and provides excellent mental stimulation.
Wave Goodbye: Your dog enthusiastically waves a paw, a charming trick that can be a polite greeting alternative to jumping up, keeping your dog focused.
Go to Bed: An easy and impressive trick where your dog goes to their designated sleeping area on command, providing useful control within the home.
Sound Asleep: This trick involves your dog lying perfectly still, giving the impression of being fast asleep. It enhances control and encourages settling, which is adaptable for teaching your dog to relax in their bed.
Take a Bow: A graceful trick to conclude any routine, where your dog bows after performing other commands. It encourages intensive learning and adds a polished finish to any sequence.

Dynamic Dance Moves and Agility Challenges

For dogs with energy to burn and a desire to move, dance moves and agility tricks offer fantastic physical and mental workouts. These tricks build coordination, balance, and intense focus between handler and dog, turning ordinary moments into extraordinary performances.

Impressive Dance Moves

These tricks can be taught individually or chained together to create captivating routines, highlighting the elegance and coordination of your dancing dog.

Reverse: Your dog walks backward while facing you, looking especially neat when you walk towards them simultaneously, creating a dance-like effect. It teaches intense focus while performing physical tasks.
Twist: An easy-to-teach trick where your dog spins in a circle on all four feet in front of you. It’s a great confidence booster for dogs in training.
Target Stick: Using a target stick directs your dog’s focus and movement, opening doors for many complicated tricks. Your dog will follow the stick, anticipating a reward, which is impressive on its own.
Pick Up Stick: Building on targeting, this trick teaches your dog to pick up and pass a walking stick to you. This is a foundational step for teaching your dog to retrieve many other items, making it a very useful exercise.
Commando: Your dog crawls along on its belly. Despite its complex appearance, it’s a simple trick to teach and can be extended to crawling under objects for added cuteness.
Roll Over: From a lying position, your dog rolls 360 degrees onto its back and then its stomach. This quick trick is versatile and can even be used to teach your dog to roll in their blanket.
Weave: An expert display of teamwork where your dog weaves through your legs as you walk. It looks smooth and effortless when perfected.
Circle Me: Your dog circles your body, a neat and impressive trick that adds flair to heelwork or obedience routines.
Stand Tall: Your dog learns to stand on its rear legs, a physically demanding trick best suited for fit canines, improving stamina and focus.
Walk Tall: A variation of “stand tall,” where your dog walks on its hind legs. This challenging trick significantly improves focus, balance, and stamina.

Agility Dog Tricks

Agility tricks are perfect for energetic dogs, providing a fun way to use up energy while enhancing fitness and concentration. These tricks are visually dynamic and incredibly rewarding to teach.

Hurdle: Teaching your dog to jump over hurdles is addictive and a core part of competitive agility. It expends energy and encourages focus.
Bounce: Your dog springs repeatedly into the air, looking as if they have springs. This is a fun and challenging trick, as it’s not a natural behavior for most dogs.
Hop It: An impressive standalone trick or part of a routine, where your dog hops over a target stick. It’s neat, versatile, and often used in advanced obedience routines.
Sneaky: Your dog crawls underneath objects, initially a low hurdle, then any obstacle. It’s simple but highly adaptable, allowing you to direct your dog under various obstructions.
Weave Poles: Quickly taught by luring with a treat or target stick, your dog navigates through a series of poles with speed and agility, an impressive competitive act.
Through the Hole: Your dog jumps directly through a loop formed by your arms. This fantastic and fun trick is the ultimate demonstration of teamwork.
Jump Into Your Arms: Your dog trusts you enough to jump directly into your waiting arms. This trick deeply enhances the trust in your relationship.
Hoop: Your dog jumps through a hoop held at various heights or angles. This trick builds both skill and human-canine trust.
The Moving Hoop: An extension of the “hoop” trick, requiring your dog to jump through a hoop as you move it, showcasing ultimate teamwork and coordination.
Leap Me: Your dog jumps over the back of a person on their hands and knees, and eventually over you. This trick boosts stamina and trust between dog and trainer.

The Versatile Service Dog and Helpful Household Companion

Imagine your dog not just as a pet, but as an active helper around the house, performing tasks that assist you daily. These tricks transform your dog into an invaluable companion, whether it’s for practical help or simply showing off their impressive skills to family and friends.

Service Dog Skills

These tricks give your dog a taste of a working life, demonstrating their incredible capacity to assist humans with various tasks, from opening doors to fetching specific items.

Shut the Door: Your dog learns to close an open door on command, utilizing positive reinforcement and targeting techniques.
Open the Door: Teaching your dog to open a door can be adapted for different handle types and dog sizes. A dog that can open a door on command is truly impressive and can lead to more advanced acts.
Fetch the TV Remote: A trick used daily, ensuring you never lose your remote again (though prepare for a soggy one if your dog drools!). It’s a foundational step for training your dog to retrieve almost anything.
Pick Up Keys: Taught to service dogs, your dog learns to pick up dropped keys and return them to you, often using their initiative without a direct command.
Find Keys: An extension of picking up dropped keys, this trick is useful for finding lost keys both indoors and outdoors. It’s one of the most practical and easy-to-teach skills.
Fetch the Newspaper: Your dog can learn to bring you the newspaper as a daily task, also fostering a positive response to the mailman.
Differentiate Between Items: Your dog learns to recognize and retrieve specific items by name (e.g., bone, bear, ball). This appears highly skillful to onlookers.
Wake Up: A heartwarming trick, originally used for waking deaf individuals, where your dog responds to an alarm and wakes you. It’s fun, rewarding, and a pleasant alternative to an electronic alarm.
Pass a Note: A fun trick for the family, where your dog delivers a note to someone in another room. It can be modified for various household communication tasks.
Fetch a Drink: Your dog fetches a drink from the fridge or cupboard. Once they know how to open a door, this trick becomes less challenging to teach and highly entertaining.

Household Chores

Surprisingly easy to teach, these tricks empower your dog to help with household tasks, making them a truly integral part of the family while showcasing their intelligence.

Wipe Your Paws: Your dog wipes their muddy paws on a mat before entering the house, utilizing their natural behavior and proving very helpful after walks.
Shake (Dry Dog): While natural for a wet dog, teaching a dry dog to shake on command is both useful for avoiding water indoors after a walk and a fun display of positive reinforcement training.
Put Your Toys Away: Watching your dog gather all their toys into a box on command is impressive and instills pride. It challenges their thinking process to achieve a reward.
Fetch the Phone: A useful and impressive trick where your dog retrieves the phone when it rings.
Take Off Your Socks: A fun and impressive trick that never gets old, where your dog gently removes your socks. It can also boost the confidence of a sensitive dog through tug play.
Unzip Your Jacket: Your dog helps you take off your coat as you enter a room. This impressive trick encourages focus during greetings, preventing over-excitement.
Laundry Basket: Your dog puts laundry into a basket, similar to putting away toys, making them a true helper around the house. It provides a foundation for many other retrieval tricks.
Close the Curtains: Your dog closes the curtains on command, a fun and unusual trick that consistently impresses visitors.

Engaging Search Missions and Crowd-Pleasing Performances

Dogs possess an incredible sense of smell and a natural desire to please. These categories delve into advanced search techniques inspired by professional working dogs and a collection of classic crowd-pleasers that are surprisingly easy to teach using positive reinforcement.

The Working Dog: Search and Retrieve

These tricks introduce your dog to the principles of working roles, tapping into their innate abilities and providing excellent mental and physical exercise.

Find It!: All search tasks begin with retrieval. Your dog learns to fetch a hidden item and bring it back on command, stimulating their mind, exercising their body, and offering control.
Present!: For dogs who love to hold onto toys, “present” teaches them to come to you with a toy, sit, and offer it back. This enhances focus on the toy during walks and training.

Search Tricks to Impress

Inspired by professional dog training, these search tricks are entertaining for both you and your dog, offering a glimpse into the sophisticated world of scent work. Using a command like “seek” or “find” can apply to all.

Use Your Nose: This trick encourages your dog to use their scenting ability to find a hidden toy, which is both a learning process for both of you and impressive to an audience. It teaches focus and control.
Room Search: Your dog searches an entire room to find a hidden toy, eventually sniffing it out from various heights and locations. This trick is mentally and physically exhausting for a dog.
Garden Search: Searching the garden for a toy is a great trick for outdoor gatherings, allowing your dog to show off their expertise with style. It’s excellent for stamina and focus.
Route Search: Mimicking security clearance, your dog searches a walking route for their toy in a quiet area. This provides a robust physical and mental workout.
Vehicle Search: Your dog searches the outside of a vehicle for a toy, an impressive trick for parties or as your personal vehicle security dog. It encourages the dog to think and act professionally.
Group of People Search: Like airport sniffer dogs, your dog searches a group of willing volunteers for a hidden item. This professional-looking trick encourages intense nose work.
Track a Person: Your dog uses their nose to track a person at the park, a fun and engaging activity that can tire out even the most energetic dogs.
Patience (Passive Response): Also known as “ask nicely,” this trick teaches your dog to indicate the location of a hidden item passively, without touching it. This is crucial for situations like detecting explosives and perfectly teaches focus.

Crowd Pleasers

These tricks are universally enjoyed and surprisingly simple to teach using positive reinforcement, bringing smiles to everyone who watches.

Give a Paw: A timeless classic, asking for a paw on command always brings a smile and is a fundamental greeting trick.
Swap the Paw: Building on “give a paw,” your dog learns to offer the other paw instead. This comes naturally and encourages the dog to think for a reward.
Both Paws: Your dog sits and places both paws onto you for a reward, a lovely variation on the classic shake. It requires some thought from your dog but becomes a favorite behavior.
Kisses: Teach your dog to give a big kiss on command. This fun and lovely trick is easy to teach and delightful to share.
Look Left / Look Right: Fascinating tricks that make it seem like your dog understands English. They require excellent timing to teach and are purely based on positive reinforcement.
No: This trick gives the impression that your dog is saying “no” to a question, using excellent timing to chain together already learned behaviors.
Sky / Ground: Your dog looks upwards or downwards on command, convincing an audience that they understand your instructions. “Ground” is easy to teach with positive reinforcement and fun to watch.
Yes: Your dog nods its head when asked a question, a fantastic and challenging trick that improves your training timing.
Wolf: Teach your dog to howl like a wolf, an endearing and impressive display that is wonderfully cute.
Singing Star: Similar to howling, but your dog “sings” along with you, creating a fantastic duet. It’s fun and a great stress reliever.
Growly Bear: Your dog growls on command, an unusual trick that shows how a dog can perform for a treat.
Whistle: Your dog comes running keenly when hearing a whistle, greatly enhancing canine recall.
Stand Still: Your dog learns to stand perfectly still, disregarding distractions around them. This trick combines focus and concentration for both dog and trainer.
Fetch His Bowl: Your dog retrieves their food bowl to ask for food. While it might lead to frequent requests, it’s a great and persistent trick.
High Five: An extension of “give a paw” and “wave goodbye,” making a great conclusion to a combined routine.
Balance: The ultimate self-control trick, where your dog balances a treat on their nose and then gives it back unharmed. It encourages focus and control.
Stay: Your dog learns to remain completely still despite distractions. This trick offers crucial control in busy situations.
Statue: An advanced “stay” where your dog remains still even when you go out of sight, building trust and control, perfect for parks.

Adorable & Advanced Tricks for Canine Charmers

These tricks range from universally adored cute behaviors to advanced coordinated movements that showcase your dog’s flair and your refined training skills. They deepen your connection and provide endless entertainment.

Cute Tricks for the Cutest Dogs

These classic and endearing tricks are guaranteed to melt hearts and will never get old. They highlight your dog’s charming personality and intelligence.

Fetch My Slippers: A classic, useful, and extremely cute trick, taught with positive reinforcement.
Fetch Your Leash: Every dog should be able to fetch their leash when asked, and they’ll likely do it unprompted with practice. This classic trick never ages.
Make Friends: Your dog gently approaches someone and places their head in a lap or on a leg, offering friendship. This encourages gentle greetings even from the most energetic dogs.
Smile: A funny and incredibly cute trick where your dog “smiles.” It can be challenging but rewarding to shape your dog’s unique smile through reinforcement.
Laugh: Your dog makes a snuffling sound akin to laughter when excited. This unusual trick is wonderful to witness and shows your dog truly having fun.
Get Busy: An extremely useful trick where your dog toilets on command, helping significantly when time is short on walks or before training sessions.
Bang (Play Dead): Your dog drops to the floor and plays dead when “shot” by an imaginary gun. It’s fun, cute, universally entertaining, and easy to teach when practiced well.
Touch Your Nose: Your dog lifts a paw and touches its nose on command, creating the impression that your dog understands your language.
Ashamed: Your dog lies on the ground and puts a paw over its muzzle, as if ashamed or in trouble. This extremely cute trick requires concentration to train.
Sore Paw (Feigned Injury): Your dog lifts a paw into the air, feigning injury, a great trick to fool unsuspecting visitors and demonstrate teamwork.
Go Around It: Your dog goes around any obstacle on command (e.g., sofa, car, lake). It’s original and fun.
Catch: While dogs happily catch treats, this trick teaches them to catch more unusual objects, encouraging alertness and focus.
Nose Nudge: Taught to assistance dogs, your dog applies a gentle nose nudge to get your attention non-invasively.
Touch With Paw: Your dog learns to touch an item with its paw, useful for everything from switching on a light to ringing a bell.
Doorbell: The ultimate trick: your dog rings a doorbell to come back into the house from the garden, encouraging initiative.

A dog sitting attentively in front of its owner, showcasing focus and eagerness to learn new tricks during a training session.

Coordinated Canine: Advanced Flair

These advanced tricks use props like a target stick to add pure flair to routines, showcasing your dog’s amazing coordination and precision.

Rear Leg Twirl: A physically demanding trick for dogs with sound hips, where they stand on their rear legs and twirl in a circle. It’s amazing to watch and extremely impressive.
Loop the Loop: Your dog spins quickly in a continuous circle on all four feet until released. This fun trick expends canine energy and looks fantastic.
All Change: Your dog loops first one way, then the other, requiring intense focus during physical activity and making for a highly impressive display due to the change in direction.
Twirl Stick: Your dog quickly completes a loop around your target stick. This pretty trick is great as part of an enhanced obedience routine and a wonderful use of props in canine freestyle.
Freeze: The perfect final trick, where your dog becomes a statue in whatever position they are in, not moving until released. It requires ultimate timing and skill to teach.

Training your dog with these various commands and actions is an enriching experience that extends far beyond simple obedience. It’s about building a language, fostering trust, and creating countless memorable moments together. Whether you’re aiming for practical assistance or just some fun parlor tricks, teaching your dog cool things to train them will enhance their life and yours, proving that every dog can be a star. We encourage you to explore these ideas and embark on your training journey; your dog is ready to learn and amaze you with their incredible potential! For more detailed guides and tips on specific tricks, be sure to visit Dog Care Story’s extensive resources on dog tricks to train your dog.

Dog Tricks