Dexter is the life and soul of every party. He's a sucker for attention, going from guest to guest looking for cuddles and love. You can’t really blame him. He spends most of his time stuck in the house with the same old faces. Plus, you’ve taught Dexter a long list of funny tricks so he knows exactly how to impress. He can roll over, jump, play dead, and a whole load more. But now you want to extend your repertoire and teach your dog a rarer trick - closing his eyes.
The immediate appeal is an entertaining joke that is guaranteed to impress friends and family. In fact, Dexter could soon feature on Instagram and Facebook stories up and down the state with this giggle-inducing trick. But there are also other reasons to teach your dog to close their eyes. For example, this trick can come in handy if they’ve had an eye injury and need to stay still so a vet can examine their eye.
Training a dog to close their eyes isn’t actually that difficult, despite very few dogs being able to do it on command. The trick is finding a situation that naturally causes them to close their eyes and then capitalizing on it. And by capitalizing on it we mean reinforcing the behavior with tasty treats and fun toys. The other way to perform this trick is to lead by example. Dogs mirror their owner's behavior, so if you can show them how to close their eyes on command, they may soon follow suit.
You’ll see the quickest results if your dog is just a puppy, perhaps just a couple of days. This is because they will be eager to please and should be fairly receptive to training. But if your pooh is older and their performing days are in the past, then you may need a couple of weeks before you yield consistent results. Stick with training and you’ll soon have a unique and entertaining trick to impress with.
The great thing about this trick is you need just a few bits to get started. The main component will be a selection of tasty treats. Alternatively, you can break the dog's favorite food into small pieces. For one of the methods, you will also need toys and a clicker.
Set aside just 5 minutes or so for training each day. It’s best to keep training sessions short to keep things fun and to hold their concentration. You can practice in a quiet room in the house or out in your yard.
Once you have all of that, just bring patience and an optimistic attitude, then work can begin!