20 Unusual Tricks You Should Start Teaching Your Dog Today

Want to teach your dog some tricks? Besides getting you the exercise you should've gotten from the gym membership you hardly ever use, dog ownership also gives you the opportunity to command another creature to make a fool of itself for your amusement.

Veterinarians agree that the old saying about old dogs (something about teaching them how to fish?) is not true as long as the dog is physically healthy enough for training.

But most dogs past puppyhood with a little teaching can sit, roll over, and fetch. And puppies, being adorable, are given a free pass to be useless. If you want your pet to be the canine equivalent of that person everyone wants to talk to at a party, you might want to teach him these 20 less common tricks.

Granted, the water fetch doesn't, strictly speaking, qualify as a brand new, stand-alone trick -- sorry, adding the word "water" only improves things like guns and slides -- and the "military" salute looks significantly less patriotic when you see a dog performing it with a straight doggy arm (see the photo in the original article for reference). Still, this list is refreshingly free of filler and offers detailed instructions on teaching your pooch some pretty neat things.

The worst-case scenario: If your dog overcomes age prejudices to fail successfully at learning any of the suggested tricks, you can always adopt a cat instead. Not only are they able to do most of these things without being taught, but they would not want you teaching or ordering them to do so anyway. That means less effort required from both parties.

Or, considering adopting another dog and teaching the new dog new tricks. Peer pressure might do wonders for your less scholarly dog.

To see the full list of unusual tricks for your dog to learn, visit the Dog Notebook site by clicking the link below.