10 Fun Tricks to Teach After Your Dog Masters Shake
So your dog has mastered shake. Paw delivered, hand received, treats earned. Somewhere in your living room right now, a dog who recently learned to lift one paw is being quietly congratulated as a scholar of the highest order.
Here's the fun part: shake is just the gateway. That one skill (offering a paw on cue) means your dog already understands the whole training game: watch you, try something, get rewarded. Every trick below builds directly on that foundation, and none of them require special equipment or a professional trainer. Just you, a pocketful of something delicious, and five spare minutes.
Before You Start: The Three Rules of Trick School
Keep sessions short. Two to five minutes, once or twice a day. Dogs learn best in little bursts, and ending while they're still excited makes them beg for tomorrow's lesson.
One trick at a time. Working on spin and play dead in the same session is like studying French and Spanish flashcards back to back. Your dog will blend them, and you'll get a confused pirouette that ends in a flop.
Pay well. Save the really good stuff — tiny pieces of chicken, cheese, whatever makes your dog's soul leave their body — for training. Boring kibble gets boring effort.
If your dog doesn't have a solid shake yet, start with our step-by-step guide to teaching your dog to shake first. Everything below assumes that paw-offering machinery is installed and working.
The Tricks
1. High Five
Difficulty: Very easy
From shake, simply hold your palm higher: around chest height instead of floor level. Most dogs generalize almost instantly: paw goes up, meets hand, everyone gasps like it's a movie finale.
Method sketch: Cue "shake," then raise your hand a few inches each repetition until your dog learns to reach up. Add the new cue "high five" once they're reliably meeting your raised palm.
2. Wave
Difficulty: Easy
Once the high five is solid, stop making contact. Hold your hand up, let your dog's paw swing at empty air, and reward the swipe.
Method sketch: Lure with your hand just out of reach so your dog paws at it, then mark and reward the motion. A few short sessions later, "say hello" becomes your dog's party trick for guests.
3. Spin
Difficulty: Easy
Hold a treat at nose height and slowly trace a circle toward your dog's tail. Dogs follow their noses, and following their noses turns out to look exactly like a spin.
Method sketch: Lure one full rotation, reward, repeat. Once the motion is smooth, add your cue ("spin" or "twirl"), fade the lure, and teach the opposite direction as a separate trick with its own word.
4. Play Dead
Difficulty: Medium
The classic. Best taught after roll over (below), since it uses similar body mechanics, but plenty of dogs learn it cold with a lure and a dramatic finger-gun cue.
Method sketch: From a down, lure your dog's head sideways toward their shoulder until they roll onto a hip, then flat. Reward heavily for flopping still, and release with a cheerful "all better!" before they decide getting up was their idea.
5. Roll Over
Difficulty: Medium
Start from a down position. Lure your dog's nose toward their shoulder blade, then along the floor behind their head so they roll onto their back and over.
Method sketch: Reward small wins first (shoulder drop, back touch, full roll) rather than waiting for the whole move. Soft surfaces help; nobody performs their best work on hardwood.
6. Speak and Quiet
Difficulty: Medium
This pair teaches your dog that barking (and stopping barking) are both controllable skills. Fair warning: once "speak" exists, some dogs become extremely enthusiastic about demonstrating it.
Method sketch: Capture a natural bark (doorbell knock usually works), mark it with "speak," reward. When they pause for breath, mark the silence with "quiet" and pay even better. The quiet half is the valuable one.
7. Fetch by Name
Difficulty: Medium-hard
Any dog can fetch. A dog who fetches the specific toy you named is showing off, and honestly, fair.
Method sketch: Start with two strongly different toys and clearly named returns — "get the ball!" Reward only correct choices, then add a third toy and keep going. Curious how much vocabulary your dog can actually handle? Our post on how smart your dog really is covers the famous dogs who learned hundreds of toy names — most pets comfortably manage a starter set of five to ten.
8. Put Toys Away
Difficulty: Hard
Fetch by name, inverted: your dog carries a toy to a basket and drops it in. This is the advanced dog tricks tier, and it's built entirely out of two skills your dog may already have: retrieving and dropping on cue.
Method sketch: Hold the basket under your dog's chin while they hold a toy, cue "drop," and reward when the toy lands in. Gradually lower the basket to the floor and increase the distance. Expect this one to take weeks, and expect the payoff (a dog tidying the living room) to be worth every session.
9. Take a Bow
Difficulty: Easy
The showbiz closer: front end down, rump up, the classic play-splay performed on cue. It photographs beautifully, which matters around here.
Method sketch: Many dogs naturally offer a stretch-bow after a nap: capture that moment with your cue and a reward. Otherwise, lure their nose down and slightly back under their chest from a stand, rewarding when the elbows dip while the rear stays up.
10. Weave Through Legs
Difficulty: Medium
Your dog zigzags between your legs as you walk: equal parts agility drill and parade march. Great for rainy days and showing off at the park.
Method sketch: Stand with legs apart, lure your dog through the gap in a figure-eight pattern between your calves, one pass at a time. Add steps forward as they get smooth, then add the cue and fade the lure.
Why Trick Training Matters More Than the Tricks
Here's the secret no one tells beginners: the tricks themselves are almost beside the point. What you're really building in those five-minute sessions is a shared language. Your dog learns that watching you pays off, that trying new things is safe, and that you are, reliably, the most interesting thing in the room.
And it runs both directions. You start noticing how your dog thinks, which rewards motivate them, what frustrates them, how quickly they connect cause and effect. Trainers call it building engagement; owners tend to call it "my dog suddenly listens to me." Same thing.
There's also a quieter benefit: mental work tires dogs out in a way a second walk often doesn't. Ten minutes of trick practice can settle an evening zoomie machine better than an extra lap around the block.
What it says: every session tells your dog, in their own language, that you're a team.
The Takeaway
Shake was the diploma; these ten tricks are the rest of the education. Start with high five or spin for an easy win, save put toys away for when you want a long-term project, and keep those sessions short, upbeat, and generously paid. In a month you won't just have a dog with more moves: you'll have a dog who lights up the moment you reach for the treat pouch.
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Your Dog Deserves a Portrait as Impressive as Their Repertoire
From shake to spin to a flawless play dead, every trick is another chapter in your dog's story. Capture the star of the show in a custom pet portrait that celebrates all that talent.