How to Teach Your Nintendogs Tricks

Last Updated: June 21, 2020

Do you love your Nintendogs? They're great fun and very cute, but also extremely stubborn! To teach them tricks, it takes a lot of hard work and patience, as with a real dog. But it is possible. Read this article and the next time you show someone your dog's tricks, there will be a lot of oohing and aahing going on!

Part 1

Part 1 of 2:

Basic Tricks

1
Call your dog over to you by saying its name. If it doesn't work, use the whistle call.
2
Teach the dog to sit. When your puppy is standing in front of you, touch the stylus between its ears and quickly down its snout. Slightly rub the dog a bit and slide your stylus down to the bottom of the screen. The pup should place its rear on the floor.
- Use the Training Icon, located in the upper right corner of the screen. Touch it and speak clearly in the microphone and say "sit", or "sit down", whatever you want to call it. You can # repeat this action until your dog learns it for any trick. Once the dog masters it, type in what the trick is, in this case "sit", or whatever.
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3
Teach the dog how to lie down. When your puppy is sitting, rub the top of its head again and slide the stylus down the dog's snout, to the bottom of the screen. Your puppy should now lay his whole body on the floor. Touch the training icon.
4
Make the dog play dead. When your puppy is lying down, touch its chest and move the stylus either to the left or right. The puppy will lay on its side to the direction you want.
- When you play dead to the left, it counts as a separate trick from playing dead to the right.
5
Teach the dog how to roll over. When your puppy plays dead, touch its belly near the ground. Slide your stylus to the top of the screen and watch it roll onto their back.
6
Make it stand up. Tell your puppy to beg, and then grab a front paw while begging and lift it up. Once the dog is standing fully, let go of the paw and touch the training icon. Notice that the training icon appears only after you have let go of the paw. You have to do it at the right time, because of you let go too soon, he will just drop back down to all fours, and if you hold it too long, he will get mad and not let you touch him.

Part 2

Part 2 of 2:

Teaching more advanced tricks

1
Take a bow. You can't coax your puppy to do this, but since they are always so playful, they'll naturally come up and do this a lot. Just touch the training icon when they do. Remember, bowing facing you and bowing away from you are different things.
2
Rub its own ears. Touch and hold one of your puppy's ears and eventually it'll rub at it with a paw. Left and right ears are different, as are rubbing when standing, sitting, and lying down.
- There are six ear rubbing tricks in all.
3
Shake hands. Pick up and hold your one of your puppy's front feet. Touch the training icon.
- There are ten handshaking tricks.
- Be aware that it may be hard for your dogs to learn this one.
- Touch the training icon and say "shake".
4
Make the dog beg. When your puppy is standing, touch its belly and slide your stylus up. It will beg for you if it's happy and will love you a great deal. If not, it will simply rear on its hind legs for a bit, which doesn't count as a trick.
- If your puppy is fed, watered, clean, and happy, it will more likely to beg. This is one of the more difficult tricks simply because the puppy must love you a lot and it takes time to make a bond that strong.
5
Spin it around. Grab your puppy's tail and hold it. It will spin, chasing its tail. Spinning left is different than spinning to the right
6
Teach break-dancing. Tell your puppy to roll over and then spin it. If it is happy, it will spin on its back and break-dance. Your puppy must first know the "roll over" and "spin" tricks and be able to hold them for 10+ seconds.. It's also helpful to have a fed, watered, and clean puppy.
7
Make it jump. When your puppy bows, touch above its head. It will leap into the air. However, using "jump up" with "beg up" or "stand up" will confuse them.
8
Create a back flip. Ask your puppy to sit and then jump. If it is happy, it will do a back flip for you. An alternate way to do this is put on the Flower Waltz record and wait until the end, and your dog will backflip. Go to the main screen before it does, then press the bulb after the dog flips. This is much easier than the former method.
9
Get the dog to yawn. Sometimes in overview mode, your puppy will yawn. Press the training icon and say "yawn". This may take a while, as do most. Have patience and your dog will have it in no time!
10
Get the dog howl. If you hear a dog bark, quickly zoom into your dog, as he/she will answer back in a howl! This is very rare, so it takes 1 to 2 times for her to learn it.
11
Get the dog to rear-up. You can only do this with two or three dogs. If your dogs start to play/fight together, zoom in on one of them, as they should eventually rear up on each other.
12
Get the dog to sniff. You can either zoom in as your dog is sniffing the ground and press the training icon, or have your puppy sniff another dog. You can only do this at home, as you cannot teach your puppy tricks at the park!
13
Get the dog to scratch. If your puppy is very dirty, you should see little black specks flying around him/her. She will eventually scratch, and she will do it frequently. Just simply touch the training icon from far away zoom mode, it zoomed in on that particular dog from your home page.
14
Get the dog to tap its foot. When your puppy is standing, touch its back foot. It will shake it.
15
Get the dog to jump from the back. Have your puppy roll over, and then have it jump. It will spring up onto its paws like a fighter recovering from a fall. It'll lose interest in being told the name of the trick almost as soon as it's done, though, so touch that training icon quick!
16
Get the dog to dance. Have your puppy beg, then grab a paw and pull it to the top of the screen. Your puppy will now stand on its back paws and fidget around. The left and right paws are counted different, though once your puppy's up, there's no difference in the appearance of the trick.
17
Rotate it on its butt. Have your puppy beg, then have it spin. It should now turn around on its haunches, looking like a crazy version of a toy top. Your puppy also needs to be even happier than it was when it learned beg - this trick is more difficult. It may just get down and spin on all fours.
18
Perform a handstand. Have your puppy lay down, then beg. It'll get up on its front two paws in a handstand. This is another difficult trick, requiring happy, clean, well-fed puppies.
19
Hop like a bunny. Make your puppy dance, and then ask it to jump. It'll hop around on its back legs like Peter Cottontail. Probably the most difficult trick to get, just because the dog's happiness must be through the roof. You may also, during a walk, meet another trainer and then just jerk your dog's leash up to the top-right corner of the screen and it may hop three times.
20
Sneeze. Your puppy can be either standing, sitting or lying down to perform this trick. While they are performing any of the pre-mentioned commands/tricks tap your puppy on the nose and they will sneeze. This trick is one of the easiest to teach to your puppy.
21
Speak. Sometimes a happy puppy will spread its front paws apart and bark at you. You can then tap the training icon and teach your puppy to speak.
22
Charm. Have a puppy lie on it's side. Before your puppy rolls over, cross his/her paws together and teach it charm!

Community Q&A

Question

What should I do if there is nothing in the tricks list?

Community Answer

If there is nothing in the trick list, it simply means your dog hasn't learned it. All you need is to just be patient with your dog. Depending on the personality of your dog, it may take up to 20 times of telling them to "sit". If they are a rambunctious dog, they may not want to be obedient and they will take much longer.
Question

My dog isn't doing the trick he learned. What should I do?

Community Answer

Reteach it to do the trick. Go into the Trick list and delete the trick. Your dog should forget the trick. Reteach it, speaking clearly, and remember the way you spoke while teaching it. You'll need to say it like that every time.
Question

Why does my dog sometimes spin instead of stand, like I ask for?

Community Answer

Sometimes your dog will confuse two tricks; make sure that you praise your dog when it does the trick correctly, so that it does not confuse them. If that doesn't work, try deleting the move and re-teaching it.