Q: I saw a picture of your poodle playing a little piano one time. How did you train him to do that? I thought your poodle was nothing but trouble, but that was really cute!

A: That must have been an old picture as Oliver hasn’t played his piano in public for some time. He does enjoy it, though, and gave a private performance for my uncle the other day. You are right; Oliver is my poodle who can be a handful to say the least. That is why I taught him tricks. Many dogs who get in trouble, do so because they are bored. If their minds aren’t challenged, they will come up with their own games to play. Pull the couch cushions apart is a fun game for a dog, but not so much fun for the couch owner. I prefer to challenge my dogs before they challenge my patience. OK admittedly, half of the challenge with Oliver is trying to stay ahead of what he may pull next, so he is good at trying my patience. But then that’s life with Oliver.

Teaching a dog to play the piano involves a few training steps before ever getting to the piano playing part. You first start by teaching the dog to target a paw to an item. By targeting, I mean getting the dog to put his paw on an object on purpose. This means getting the dog to realize he can move his paw and put it on a certain place when asked to do so. Sounds hard, I know, but really the hard part is having lots of patience with this training.

I start with an object on which the dog should place his paw. It needs to be something flat that can sit on the ground. A cardboard circle or a cottage cheese lid works great. Set the item on the floor and see what the dog does. If the dog accidently steps on it, click (or say “yes” to mark the desired behavior) and give the dog a treat. At first the dog will have no idea what he did to get the treat. This is where you have to wait. As the dog looks at you to get another treat, look away. Sit still. Don’t tell the dog what to do as he probably won’t understand at this point. Just wait. When the dog gets bored, moves, and touches the object with his paw again, praise and treat. If need be, put the dog on a leash so he can’t go too far away. If you need to move around to different sides of the object yourself, that’s fine, but no guiding the dog to the object. Wait for it. The dog will eventually, accidently or on purpose, touch the object. Click and treat.

Many dogs will get the idea quickly. Some dogs take a lot longer. Once the dog is touching the object with a paw reliably (this can happen in one session or it can take weeks), add a cue word. I use “foot.” The word “foot” to Oliver means touch something with your paw. It started with a ceramic tile (he kept picking up the other objects with his mouth, so we moved to something more solid).

Once Oliver learned to pick up his foot to put on the tile on purpose, I started changing the object. We worked with a Staples “Easy” button, which was really cute when he’d push it and it would say, “That was easy.” Then I bought some children’s toys at a yard sale that had buttons that made noise. He soon learned that when I put anything down on the floor, he could put his paw on it, make noise, and get a treat. It was an easy step to the piano at that point.

The next step was teaching him to alternate paws. When Oliver was reliably playing the piano with one foot, I stopped rewarding him for the one foot playing. He would look at me, bang on the piano, and wait for the treat. Nothing. He’d bang again. Nothing. He then stepped up on the piano with both feet, and voila, a treat appeared. He tried the one foot method again and got nothing. It wasn’t long before he was getting both feet up there and then started alternating feet. I also discovered that the more applause he got the more of a ham he became and really got into his playing. The main point is to have fun with each session. Reward anything clever your dog does and then when it becomes consistent, step up the game and wait for something new. You’ll be amazed what your dog might come up with while trying to earn his reward!