There are many easy, fun and cool dog tricks you can teach your dog.

Many breeds of dogs were developed to work, and unless you have sheep to herd or acres of squirrels to hunt, your dog could probably use a little extra work to do.

Other advantages to teaching your dog tricks:

• Most training should be structured play. Dogs enjoy learning, and the more they learn, the more they learn how to learn.
• Many dogs love to work. Your dog does not differentiate between trick training and formal obedience.
• It teaches your dog to pay attention to you and to enjoy it.
• Your kids can show off the smartest dog in the neighborhood.
• Sometimes it is just darn cute.

With a little imagination, you can teach your dog all sorts of easy tricks. Sometimes the trick itself isn't that fancy, but if you are creative with the command, you can make it really cute.

Speak, Bark and Count
A previous Rottweiler of mine not only knew basic arithmetic, he could calculate square roots and do division. How? Pretty easy to teach, if you have a dog who barks.

First, I shaped the behavior. Whenever I knew he was about to bark (hello squirrel), I'd raise a finger and ask, what's one plus one? The instant he woofed once, he got praised. After a while, all I had to do was get him geeked up, then raise a finger and woof! From there it was easy.

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