Teach Your Dog to Turn Right and Left

This issue’s training tip is brought to you by AKC Canine Partners Program Manager Penny Leigh, who competes with her All American Dogs in numerous sports. 

Teaching directionals to your dog can be very beneficial for many sports, plus it is a cute trick and great way to impress your neighbors!

Dogs can learn “right” and “left” on a verbal command. For agility, this can enable you to turn them at a distance, and in rally, it is helpful for many stations, including the Masters right and left spin exercises.

To start, I have the dog stand in front of me and I have lots of small high-value treats. I use luring to teach this in the early stages.

Remember, when the dog is facing you, to think of this as looking in a mirror so you make sure you turn the dog in the correct direction.

I put a treat in my right hand, put it near my dog’s nose, and then lure my dog in a circle to his right. When he completes the right circle, I mark and reward. I repeat to the left and I like to use my left hand for the left turn. I am not saying right or left at this time.

As soon as your dog is consistently following your hand in a complete spin both directions, you can fade the lure from your hand so you are not holding a treat any longer. Just use your hand to turn the dog and then reward from your pocket, a bait bag, etc. You also can begin giving them the verbal commands of right and left.

Now change the picture. Also do left and rights with the dog at your sides, both left and right sides. This is especially important for agility dogs who must work equally well off either side of your body. Once they are working well at your side while you are standing still, try walking and asking them to turn right or left.

As your dog is doing this more confidently, begin fading your hand motion to make smaller movements and to not make a complete circle. The goal is for the dog to learn this on just a verbal command with no or little hand signal.

If your goal is agility, then you can begin to add the command to wrapping a cone or a jump wing or stanchion.

This is also a great trick that you can use in the AKC Trick Dog program to earn a title!

Another plus about teaching spins in both directions is that it is a great warm-up. It helps flex dogs to get ready for most any activity.

Leigh’s All-American, Cameo, earned a MACH and two PACHs in the AKC Agility program and made the finals of the AKC National Agility Championship and the Westminster Masters Agility Championship. Her All-American, Volt, is a top dock diver, with a personal best of 32-feet, who has qualified for many NADD national championships and received an invite to the Purina Incredible Dog Challenge.