While you may be thinking, there is no way on Earth I could ever teach my dog to do something like this (how do you teach them to exhale?) You are going to be surprised at how EASY it is!
I recently noticed that my youngest sheltie will stick his nose in the water bucket after herding and blow bubbles! It really is super cute, and I am guessing he is doing it because he is hot or to get the dirt out of his nose, since he only does it after a lot of activity.
At the same time, a friend of mine on Facebook, Jess Bell, trick trainer extraordinaire, posted a video of her dog blowing bubbles in a bowl. I commented on her post “Oh my gosh! My dog does this too!” to which she responded, “This is a trained behavior.”
That blew me away…wait, you trained it? Of course, being a trainer I had to ask her how she did her trick (I know, David Copperfield would have hated me) and then, even worse, I asked if I could share it with the world. She very nicely agreed and once again surprised me with how easy it really was to teach this impressive looking trick.
A Natural Thing Dogs Do
It’s all made possible by one fact. When a dog submerges their nose in water, they instinctively blow air out of it to keep from inhaling water. So really, you are not teaching your dog to “blow bubbles” so much as to stick and hold their nose (for a short time only!) under water.
Here is Jess Bell’s Aussie, Cohen, performing the finished trick!
The Steps
The easiest way to teach this is by shaping (rewarding your dog for small steps toward the finished behavior). If your dog does blow bubbles naturally, you can try to “capture” it, but if they are like my dog, they may not do it enough to make training it easy.
1. Click/reward for orientation to (looking at/noticing) the bowl.
2. Click/reward for approaching the bowl.
3. Click/reward for touching the bowl.
4. Water can be added before you start, or after you have the dog targeting the bottom of the bowl dry. This will depend on your dog’s comfort level. If you start dry, fill up the water slowly.
5. Once water is added, your dog will naturally start blowing bubbles. Click/reward.
6. Start adding whatever cue you want to use as your dog approaches the bowl and stick his nose in.
About the Author
Based in Wilsonville, Ore., animal lover Kristina N. Lotz is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer – Knowledge Assessed (CPDT-KA) and works as a full time trainer. She is the founder of, A Fairytail House, a unique all-positive all-sport dog training facility that helps rescue dogs in her area and provides free seminars and training classes for the community. In her spare time, she trains and competes in herding, agility, obedience, rally, and conformation with her Shetland Sheepdogs. She smartly married a Veterinary Technician, who helps keep the fur kids happy and healthy, and provides a quick resource for articles.
Toledo, United States.
