How to Teach Your Dog to Stick Em Up and Bang

This has to be one of the best party tricks to teach your furry family member. You will need to master “Lay Down” and “Roll Over” before moving onto this trick. Please refer to our blog “How to Teach Your Dog to Lay Down & Roll Over” for more information.

1. Stick Em Up
Also known as “Sit Pretty” or “Beg” is a trick to get your dog sitting on their back legs in an upright position. Your dog will need to know the command “Sit’” before attempting this trick

Firstly, command your dog to “Sit”. Once sat grab a treat and put it above their head to encourage them to look up. Naturally your dog may want to jump up and grab the treat. To start this actually helps. When they jump up, put the treat and your hand closer to their nose which helps them naturally sit back down on their back legs. If their front legs touch the ground, use your other hand to lift them back up and only reward them once they are sitting properly on their back legs with their front legs off the ground.

If your dog jumps up and isn’t sitting back down when you bring the treat closer to their nose, use your other hand to guide them back into a sitting position much like you would have when you taught them to sit.

Some of you may have a very polite dog that doesn’t naturally jump up to grab the treat when the treat is above their head. Instead they sit there patiently waiting for you to give them a treat. In this case simply use your other hand to lift their front legs off the ground and reward them with the treat. Rinse and repeat until your dog gets used to putting their own legs up without your help. Also start incorporating the words “Stick Em Up” before rewarding them with a treat.

Once your beloved family member understands the command “Stick Em Up” start incorporating a hand gesture. The obvious one being point your hand at your dog with your thumb in the air like it’s a gun.

2. Bang
Now that your furry friend has mastered “Stick Em Up” you need to complete the party trick with “Bang”! Some of you may also refer to this as play dead.

To start, you will need to get them to “Lay Down”. It helps if your dog knows how to roll over and is comfortable with that command. The trick is to only get them to half roll. So similar to “Roll Over” put the treat close to their nose so they can smell it then move the treat to their ear encouraging them to turn their head and turn to their side.

As your dog learnt this for roll over they may naturally want to roll over, use your other hand to stop them completely rolling over but stopping them while they are laying on their side. Reward them with a treat and give them lots of praise!

While they are on their side laying down if you bring the treat closer to the ground your dog should start to also lay their head on the ground. When they start to do this reward them with a treat and start using the command “Bang”.

The next step is to get them to hold this position before rewarding them with a treat so that they know to stay there until your next command or until you tell them to release.

You will need to repeat this trick a few times until they understand that when you say “Bang” they need to lay on their side and hold that position. Having them lay down at the start of the command helps them to understand what you want from them.

Congratulations! By now your furry friend should understand the commands “Stick Em Up” and “Bang”. Now for the fun part, joining the two together! Good Luck!