You give your dog a lot. All day long you gear activities, your time away from the house, and possibly even your exercise and sleep time around your dog and the schedule that works best for him. There are Saturday mornings you would like nothing more than to sleep in, but your dog often has other plans, waking you up bright and early to get outside. There are moments when you get up and feed him a meal or take him for a walk or just rub his belly because he gives you those beautiful puppy eyes. Wouldn't it be nice if every now and then he showed his appreciation to you by saying a few simple words like 'thank you'? You can teach your dog to show you appreciation beyond slobbery kisses. Maybe you can teach your dog to say 'thank you'.
Training your dog to say 'thank you' will require a dog who can learn to make sounds or already enjoys mimicking sounds. You will work with your little guy at making one sound at a time and then combine the two dog words that sound much like the words you know as 'thank you'. With lots of practice, your dog can say 'thank you' after you do anything for him without even needing to ask him to. You can also train your dog to show a kind gesture to give thanks instead of speaking.
Before you train advanced training such as speaking words or mimicking sounds, be sure your dog understands basic obedience commands first. A puppy who's already gone through 8 to 16 weeks of obedience training should be able to pick this up pretty easily. An adult dog can learn how to say thank you with some extra time and patience.
If your dog is motivated by food, bring lots of rewarding treats to your training sessions with you. You will want to train to speak in quiet training sessions without distractions, especially other noises. This will help your pup learn the noises you want him to learn without learning background noises as well. Take these sessions short and engaging. But repeat them often enough so you're a little guy learns to say thank you and remembers the sounds and commands the next time that you train together.