There are many fun and exciting tricks out there to teach your dog, but instead of the all-too-familiar play dead, why not do a trick that also recognizes the true heroes of our current pandemic? Every day nurses and doctors are giving their all to save a life, and often need to perform CPR to do so. Here's how to teach your dog to simulate this same heroic act.
Step One: Teach Jump
Hold the treat up for the dog and give the command to jump. As the dog does so, use a clicker to reinforce the behavior. Once this behavior is learned and the dog performs it every time, proceed to step two.
Step Two: Teach Jump On An Elevation
Now that the dog is comfortable performing the jump command, you want to next choose an elevated platform that works well with your dog's size. You want to get the dog to be comfortable to jump from and land onto this platform. Remember to use the treat to motivate the dog to jump and the clicker to reinforce the good behavior.
Next, increase the difficulty slightly by getting the dog to jump three times in a row, using the command Jump C, Jump P, Jump R. Once this is mastered, move to Jump C, P, R. You can also use Jump, Jump, Jump in quick succession.
Step Three: Practice On Self Or Volunteer
Being that most dogs are always told not to jump on their owner or other humans, this part can take some time for them to realize it is okay to do so. But once they get comfortable with this, it is totally worth it for this awesome trick.
You will want to lay on the floor and then extend your hand with the treat. Then, place your dog's paws on your chest. Next, command the dog to jump. Once the dog gets comfortable with jumping on you at your command, you can work to the three in a row jumps.
Please Note: If you have a larger dog you are performing this with, we recommend wearing extra layers to avoid any accidental injuries.
You can view the full videos below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUDP2qxvrVA (Owner does not allow embedding – please view on YouTube)
Here's another alternative way to teach the CPR trick that we found:
