Our four-legged friends learn many things. In this article we will see how to teach the dog to cover his eyes.
Who lives with a four-legged friend is aware of the great skills that the latter presents to learn new commands.
It is very important to train your dog, especially some commands that can also be useful in saving his life in certain situations.
However, we can also train to follow some slightly more fun commands. In this article we will see how to teach the dog to cover its eyes with its paws.
How to teach the dog “shame”
Teaching the dog commands can not only be useful in dealing with some situations, but it is also a way to keep its brain always active and have fun with them.
One of the funniest commands to teach our four-legged friend is ” shame “, that is, teaching the dog to cover its eyes with its paws.
To teach this it is necessary to have a lot of patience and to use, as for any other training, positive reinforcement , so we must have rewards.
The latter can be the favorite treats or croquettes of our four-legged friend. That said, we can use two methods to teach the dog to cover its eyes: the natural method and the blindfold method.
As for the natural method, we must take advantage of the moment in which the dog covers its eyes by themselves with its paws and reinforce this behaviour by covering our eyes with our hands too.
When it covers its eyes by themselves, we pronounce the command word , which can be: “hide”, “shame”, “be shy”.
After giving them the command, let’s praise them and give the prize to our four-legged friend, we do this every time the dog executes the command, in this way he associates the command with the treat.
Repeat these actions for 5-10 minutes a day, gradually reducing the delicacies, until you only give the command to the dog.
Bandage method
Another method to teach the dog to cover his eyes with his paws is that of the blindfold.
For this method we need a blindfold , or a handkerchief or a simple shirt, anything that can be put in front of its eyes without them getting hurt.
Then cover the dog’s eyes and hold on to its paws so that it doesn’t take off the blindfold right away. In the meantime, talk to them calmly and in case your furry friend gets scared, remove the blindfold and reassure them.
Then give them the command ” be shy”, “hide” or “shame” and let go of its paws. The moment it brings its paws to its eyes, praise them and reward them.
Practice for 5 minutes a day for a few days, then remove the blindfold and give the command to the dog. If the latter does not immediately execute the command, take its paws gently and bring them to its face, then give them a treat and praise them.
Practice for 10 minutes a day for a few days, then gradually decrease the frequency of the treats until you only give the command to the dog without rewarding them.