Teaching Your Sheltie Puppy Basic Tricks
Once your Sheltie puppy has mastered some training, you can start to teach your pup some basic puppy tricks. The most common trick is the catching trick. This involves you teaching your Shetland Sheepdog puppy to follow simple commands from you. You will want to keep the puppy in a sit-stay position and then toss a plush toy in your Sheltie puppy's direction. You do not want to throw the toy upwards into the air just in his general direction. Your Shetland Sheepdog puppy should aim to catch the toy in his mouth. Once this trick has been established, you can move on to a more difficult trick.
The more advanced trick is the finding trick. For this one you will want to keep your Sheltie puppy in the sit-stay position again and show him the plush toy. You will want to then show him that you are hiding the toy under a chair or pillow and then say to your Shetland Sheepdog puppy "Where is the toy??" "Go find it!" Your puppy should start to become attentive and then search for the toy in the spot that you hid the toy. If he does not search for it, you should help him by pointing and moving things away to get to the hidden toy. After a few tries your Sheltie puppy should catch on.
This next trick is one that everyone will notice but will be fairly easy for your Sheltie puppy to perform. This is the rolling over trick. Shetland Sheepdog breeders can attest that Sheltie puppies love to roll around and wiggle by nature, so by giving one simple command like "roll over" and then moving your Shetland Sheepdog puppy to that position, your puppy will begin to understand that "roll over" means that he should get into the position you have desired for him. You always want to give great praise when your Sheltie performs the trick correctly. This will insure that you will get the correct response in the future.
Once these fun tricks have been mastered you can teach your Sheltie puppy a more challenging trick. This trick is the trust trick. It involves you placing a biscuit on your Shetland Sheepdog puppy's nose and balancing it there. This may take a few tries until you can get it just right without your Sheltie puppy moving about. Once the biscuit is balanced you will want to then put your hand out in a stay position so that your dog will not move about. You will then want to give the release signal (tapping the chin upward slightly) and then say "take it!" this should bounce the biscuit up and your Shetland Sheepdog puppy will catch it in his mouth.
