How to Train Your Dog to Hide

If you don't already have one, these are easily bought from most pet stores.

Although hide can be the first trick you teach with the clicker, it would be better to get your pupper used to easier tricks such as sit and lie down first. This trick will also be easiest to master if he is sitting or lying down.

Pop a small sticker towards the top of the dog’s nose; make sure that the stickers are easily removable. Tip- If you cause your pup discomfort at this stage, he might be put off learning the trick.

The sticker will likely be a little annoying for your pooch, and as such he will move his paws over his nose and eyes as to ‘hide’ in a bid to get the sticker off. When he does this, click and treat.

Now as well as clicking and giving a treat, make sure you use the 'hide' command every time he does the trick.

Once you’ve repeated the previous step until he seems confident in associated the ‘hide’ command with the trick. Remove the sticker and say ‘hide’ and you pooch should cover his eyes as before. If he doesn’t get this, put the sticker back on and repeat the previous step until he’s ready.

Your pooch could be perfect for this method if he naturally rubs his face with his paws. When you see him doing this, give him a treat and tell him what a good boy he is.

Whenever you see this behavior and wherever you are, don’t hold back your praise.

If he’s having a little trouble picking this trick up, you can hold up his paws gently over his eyes, in the ‘hide’ position you’d like him to adopt.

Now each time, just as you see him go to touch his face with his paws, in a confident, authoritative manner say ‘hide’. Be careful to make it friendly too, so he knows although you mean business you’re also having fun.

Make sure you take an authoritative stance, standing up straight, airing confidence and making yourself look like the boss, while teaching this trick.

If your poochie doesn’t seem to display natural face rubbing behavior or respond to the sticker/clicker training technique, why not use a doggy neckerchief or headband?

Make sure that when you place either of these props on your pooch, that they are fitted tight enough so that it covers their eyes, but loose enough that you can get a couple of fingers between the object and your furry friend. It is very important that these objects do not cover your four legged friend’s nostrils, as we don’t want to make breathing difficult for him.

With the placement of these items, your furry pal should get a little irritated by them and try to pull them off with his paws. This is exactly the behavior you want, as it mimics the hide command. When he does this, give him lots of praise and a big treat.

Keep doing this until each time he does the right movements with his paws to remove the object.

Now that he’s confidently hiding with the help of these props, each time he does it say ‘hide’ in a confident but friendly voice. Keep repeating this step so he associates the command with using his paws to remove the object.

Now it’s time to uncover those doey eyes and simply use the command ‘hide’. He should now be conditioned by this command and should repeat the trick as before without the assistance of the objects.

Hopefully, the trick ends at step 6, however, some pooches pick ‘hide’ up quicker than others. If he doesn’t get the command to start with, be patient and go back to using the objects as before, really putting emphasis on the command ‘hide’ each time he covers his eyes with his paws.