Can your dog sneeze on command?

[Tonya]

A family friend's dog sneezes on command. It is so cute. You say ACHOO, and she'll sneeze. You say God Bless You and she wipes her nose with her paw. I asked her how she taught her and she said her daughter did it. How in the world can you teach a dog that? Does anyone else's dogs do that?

[ComedyDevil]

Does anyone else's dogs do that?

Sort of. When Ollie sneezes I say 'bless you' and he wipes his nose with his paw. But I doubt I could get him to actually sneeze on command.

[Kater]

I remember reading about this 'trick' in the book How To Teach Your Dog To Talk. It's different than most 'tricks' in that it is a conditioned reflex, which means it is something that the animal has no control over. It is similar to Pavlov's famous experiment in that his dog was conditioned to salivate when he heard the bell, regardless of whether he was fed or even smelled food.

Here is what the book says...

You want to "catch" every sneeze, but how can you initiate one? This should be done in short sessions because you're working with a conditioned reflex.
What causes a dog to sneeze? Something that's irritating. For that reason any of the following provocations should only be used once or twice each time you practice.
1. Rubbing your hand gently over you dog's nose.
2. Tickling the nose with a feather.
3. Blowing in her nose.
4. Making her excited.
5. Continual barking, particularly when you're teaching her to start barking (speak) on command.
6. A whiff of perfume.
7. Dog grooming spray.
Use these sneeze-producing irritants judiciously. Don't use sneeze powder. It can be harmful; the above methods are kinder. The signal for "sneeze" is to move your head in a big exaggerated upward movement and rapidly lower it on the "choo" part. The verbal command is, "Ahhh-Choo!" complete with head movements.

Sounds like it would be annoying to the dog! I think "scratch" is a cuter and more humane "conditioned reflex trick".

[pitc9]

I'm sure once Kay reads this she'll teach one of her's to sneeze!
Hey... maybe one of them already does!!

[primabella]

Sounds like it would be annoying to the dog!

I feel the same way. But it would be a useful trick if I wanted to snap a pic of Mickey in mid-sneeze, hehehe.

[cali]

lol shadow does but I did not intentally teach her that, one day she happend to decide sneezing on command was a fun trick lol but thats shadow, I am not sure we tought shadow anything she knows, she tought herself everything, then passed on a lot of it to the dogs we have now.

[cali]

lol ok then, non of those irritents make my dogs sneeze lol I tried em all, the dogs just looks at me like I was nuts

[Tonya]

Originally posted by Kater
I remember reading about this 'trick' in the book How To Teach Your Dog To Talk. It's different than most 'tricks' in that it is a conditioned reflex, which means it is something that the animal has no control over. It is similar to Pavlov's famous experiment in that his dog was conditioned to salivate when he heard the bell, regardless of whether he was fed or even smelled food.

Here is what the book says...


Sounds like it would be annoying to the dog! I think "scratch" is a cuter and more humane "conditioned reflex trick".

That doesn't sound very nice! I wouldn't want anyone to force me to sneeze like that!

[Miranda_Rae]

It sounds cool, but I don't think I would want to use some of that stuff to teach Heidi to sneeze on command....it doesn't sound very nice. I think that I would just say it when she sneezed naturally, but I doubt that I would get anywhere with it because we are still having some problems with shake. I have no idea why though, cause she gets everything else so quick. People will come up and say, "shake" to her and she will look at them like they are crazy, and I will say that she doesn't do that yet, and they act like I haven't taught her anything.

[Tollers-n-Dobes]

Skye, a Dalmatian I used to have did that. She was so smart though so whenever she sneezed we'd say something (I don't remember what) and she learned right away. We never purposely taught her though.