Just as humans are right or left handed, dogs also tend to be right or left pawed. Your dog may find it easier to turn in one direction than the other. You can sometimes tell which paw your dog prefers by throwing a toy to the same location several times and seeing which direction your dog turns when she comes back.

To make it easy on yourself and your dog, start out by teaching your dog to spin in the direction she naturally prefers. We’ll begin by simply luring the behavior. Hold a good high value treat (the more smelly the better!) right in front of your dog's nose and move it slowly in a circle for your dog to follow. Mark the completion of the 360 degree spin with a click of your clicker or your mark word (“Yip” or “Yes”) and give your dog a treat from the opposite hand (not the hand you used to lure her around).

Once you’re getting the behavior, remove the lure from your signal hand. Repeat the same motion you were doing previously, just without the tasty treat in it. When your dog completes the spin, mark the behavior and reward. If your dog will not follow your empty hand, try making your hand smell and look as if the treat is still in it. Often when we remove the treat, we hold our hand differently and it’s too big a change in the picture for the dog. After a few repetitions, try again.

Next, start working on fine-tuning your hand signal. Instead of putting your hand right in front of your dog's nose, move your hand a little farther from your dog’s nose and make the circular motion. Gradually make the circular motion smaller. How small you eventually want this hand signal to be is up to you!

When your dog is reliably performing the spin with your new and improved hand signal (reliable meaning an immediate response at least 8 out of 10 times when you cue the behavior), it’s time to add the verbal cue.

To do this, say your verbal cue ("Spin"), followed by your hand signal. As always, mark and reward the behavior when you get it. When adding the verbal cue, it’s important that it always come before the hand signal. The association between the two cues (the verbal and the hand signal) will only be established if your dog consistently hears the verbal cue before he sees the hand signal.

To see if you have a solid association between the two cues, try saying the verbal cue and see if your dog responds correctly. If she does, mark the response and reward.

If you do not get the behavior, wait 5 to 10 seconds and give the verbal cue again, followed by the hand signal. Continue to build the association between the two, and then try the verbal by itself again.

Eventually, your dog will start to perform in response to the verbal cues alone because she will have learned that the verbal cue always predicts the hand signal (which predicts the behavior, the mark signal, and the treat!). Once they understand that, why wait for the hand signal?!

To teach your dog to spin both to the left and the right you will need separate cues for each direction. The hand signal is pretty easy – circle your hand left for one direction, right for the other. Many people use “Spin” for one direction, and “Twist” or “Twirl” for the other. The word you choose is not as important as your consistency when using it.

Congratulations – you’ve taught your dog to spin!
It's a whole lot easier than getting them to wear a costume!!