DAY 6

Are you and your dog both bored during the lock down? Have you run out of training commands? How about trying out this nifty one of teaching your dog to wake up all the lazy people at home.

Do give it a try and let us know how it goes.

Oh! Wake Up!

Your dog can be more efficient than two alarm clocks when it comes to waking up your kids in the morning.

This command is a favourite with mothers. You can use it to wake up or alert a family member who refuses to wake up when an alarm clock goes off. You will require two people to perform the training.

The sleeper should lie in bed with a handful of tasty treats that the dog absolutely loves. Show the dog the treats and encourage her to nudge the sleeper’s hand or lick the sleeper. Any action the dog carries out should be rewarded with enthusiastic praise and a treat. Repeat till the dog gets the idea that she will get a treat if she nudges the hand or licks the face or carries out a similar action.

Once the dog has understood what gets her a reward; add a command. So you can say, “wake ‘em up, wake ‘em up!” and encourage the dog to nudge the sleeper or lick the face.

Once your dog has understood the command perfectly, move her back to the entrance to the room. Now when you say the command, encourage her to go to the sleeper on the bed and wake up the person. Praise her exuberantly and reward her with a treat when she does. Remember, to keep the dog’s focus on the sleeper it is imperative that the sleeper rewards the dog. The command giver can just praise but should do no more.

As your dog gets better at the command, you can increase the distance by a few steps every session till you get to a point where the dog can go from one room of the house to the bedroom and wake up the sleeper. To get the dog to go from any room of the house to the bedroom, you will need to rehearse it from different rooms, till the dog gets the idea.

Once your dog is doing the command perfectly, encourage her to nudge or lick the sleeper for longer before she gets the reward. For sometime, the sleeper should keep a box of treats next to the bedside so as to reward the dog when she wakes him up.

Now your doggy is ready to be your official ‘wake up call’ in the morning. And she will be far more effective than any alarm clock!