How to Train Your Dog to Shake His Head ‘Yes’

Hold a treat in your fingers and bring it to your dog’s nose. Move your hand up and down slow enough that your dog can follow the movement with their nose, 2-3 times.

While your dog is following your hand, mark with your sound or clicker and then immediately give them a treat.

Keep following steps 1 and 2, but as soon as you can (ideally before 5 repetitions), make the same movement with your hand without the treat in it. If your dog fails to understand what to do, return to using the “bribe” for a few more repetitions.

This trick won’t be funny if you have to have your hand in your dog’s face every time you want a nod. Gradually get away from the training hand movement towards a hand signal that will be less distracting. Continue to mark/reward.

After you have the behavior where you want it in a low distraction environment, then you can start to strengthen the trick by practicing in new places, from a further distance away, and from different starting positions.

Ultimately, you want your dog to do a trick without constant food rewards. Once your dog has the trick down-pat, start choosing only the best examples of the behavior to reward, slowly working to a reward rate of about once in every ten successful tricks. Non-food rewards like praise can still be given every time.

This method takes excellent timing, but it is the preferred method for experienced trainers who like to encourage their dog to volunteer behaviors that can be “captured” with a timely mark/reward. For the first step, just observe your dog until they give you a behavior that is close to a ‘Yes’ nod, even though it is not yet perfect.

Mark/reward anything that seems to be in the direction of a nod. You want to work up to a reward rate of once every 2-5 seconds for the initial behavior. Fast reward rates keep your dog engaged.

When doing the capture method, you need to take whatever is close to the ultimate behavior you want at first. In this case, it will likely be a very small dip or lifting of the nose. Remember to reward after you mark, even if your timing was a little off.

Once you are getting the initial movement offered at a rapid rate, you are ready to add your cue. At first, just wait until you get the behavior to give the cue, then start giving your signal just prior to when you know you are about to get the behavior.

You are going to “shape” your dog’s behavior from the initial offering to what you are looking for in a final trick. Do this by being clear and consistent while you slowly raise your expectation of what you will mark/reward. In this case, go from a slight nod, to a deeper nod, to multiple nods, etc.

Once your dog has the behavior you want, and reliably gives it to you on cue, then you can practice the trick in new places and from a longer distance away.

With a treat in your hand, get close to your dog’s nose and go up and down so that your dog will follow the treat with their nose.

Use your clicker or marking sound to let your dog know that a ‘Yes’ nod is what you will reward. Repeat 2-5 times.

Do the same hand motion except without the treat in your hand. Repeat 10-15 times.

Think of the signal you want to be your “secret signal.” It may be a very abbreviated hand signal, or even a foot signal for super stealth! Gradually fade away from the luring motion towards the new non-verbal cue that you want for this trick.

You really want your dog to say “Yes” on command to any question you ask and cue. To do this, start asking a question followed by a cue, then mark/reward. It is critical that you also ask questions without the cue, and do not mark/reward even if they give the nod. This will teach your dog that it is the cue, not the question, that should get a nod. You will probably also want to teach a ‘No’ headshake eventually to really blow your friends away. By making sure your dog is responding to your secret signal, you can get either a ‘Yes’ or ‘No” response on command to any question.

After your dog has learned the cue and gives you the behavior every time, then start practicing it in different parts of the house, in the yard, or while on an outing. Your dog will be nodding on cue anywhere in no time!