15 Tricks to Earn Your Intermediate Dog Trick Title

Q: <strong>What happens after we obtain the Intermediate dog trick title?</strong>

You will receive a certificate , your dog will add replace TKN and add TKI to the end of his name , and you've officially earned bragging rights for your dog's pedigree. The Intermediate dog trick title letters are TKI. So if your dog is named Desi, his new name would be Desi, TKI.

The American Kennel Club (AKC) has various titles for different types of performance and dog training skills that you and your dog can test for. The AKC Intermediate Dog Trick Title is an easier title to train for because:

Some of the skills you test for you’ll learn when training good manners, like heel with automatic sit.
You can test from the comfort of your home.

If you have already achieved your Novice Dog Trick title, you can obtain your Intermediate title by learning ten new tricks.

Food luring is allowed only for crawling in the Intermediate title.

How to Obtain the AKC Intermediate Dog Trick Title

First, download the intermediate trick list and highlight the tricks you want to test for. The test requirements and eligible tricks for each title can be found on the AKC website. For the Intermediate test, you cannot food lure to complete the trick. Keep practicing each trick until your dog knows it well enough without luring or shaping.

Once you are ready to test, you can video the tricks and email them into an evaluator. The AKC website has recommendations for how to find an evaluator but I asked my local dog trainer if they could review the videos. The evaluator may or may not charge a fee. Fill out the dog trick list form and send in the videos. Once they approve, they will fill out the form and send it back. Then you can upload it to the TAP Portal on AKC and pay the fee (around $30).

shallow focus photography of adult fawn pug

Trick 1: Head Down

Training your dog to put his head down is actually really easy, but requires your dog to lay down on command first. To train Ezra Head Down, I put a treat in my fist and quickly moved my fist to the ground right out of his reach. When he put his head on the ground, I marked and rewarded.

Trick 2: Crawl

This is the only trick in the Intermediate test that allows food luring, so take advantage! The Crawl test for Intermediate requires your dog to crawl forwards for five body lengths, which is a build upon the three body length requirement necessary to earn your AKC Novice Dog Trick Title.

Learning to crawl first requires the dog to lay down on command in a square position. Then, I would hold a premium training treat just out of his reach. When he begins to move towards the treat, I would pull it a little further out of reach. When he started to actually crawl, I would mark and reward. Keep practicing with food luring until your dog can crawl the full five body lengths.

Trick 3: Play a Game

I’m not sure this really even counts as training….all you do here is give your dog a favorite game and let him play with it. I like to use games that have hidden treats to force the dog to use his brain to get the treats, like a food puzzle.

a brown and white dog eating out of a blue and red toy

Trick 4: Place

Place is a highly recommended skill for so many reasons that I don’t consider it a trick, but an obedience skill. Regardless of your trick title ambition, you should learn it to help with keeping your dog calm when visitors arrive.

Trick 5: Go Find

To train this, your dog has to have a strong stay and recall. I like to Place Ezra, and then go into a different room and hide. Then I call him and he should find where I am. When he does, I give him a treat.

Trick 6: Heeling with Automatic Sit

If you took basic obedience classes, your probably taught your dog how to heel. All you have to do is food lure your dog to walk behind you and stop at your side. For some dogs, it’s easiest to do this next to a wall so your dog lines up parallel to you instead of perpendicular. Then you can easily add a sit to it by luring into a sit.

Trick 7: Leg Weave

This trick may be the hardest trick we learned for the Intermediate title. The Leg Weave is best to train with Touch or food luring. Stand wide enough so that your dog can do a figure eight around your legs. Food lure to walk between your left leg, circle around your right leg, back between your legs and around your left leg. It’s a lot of circular motion and you’ll have to food lure and treat at many smaller milestones along the way.

brown short coated puppy on brown wicker basket

Trick 8: Paws Up

Training Paws Up is easiest with food luring. Start low by putting your arm out horizontally in front of your dog with a treat above it. Don’t feed the treat until both paws are on your arm. As your dog successfully puts his paws up at lower heights, begin to food lure higher and higher until your dog has to stand on his hind legs to put his paws on your forearm.

Trick 9: Push a Button

You can train this trick using a button that you can record custom messages on. It can be cute because you can ask your dog questions and have him press the button in response. To train it, put the button on the ground and hold a treat right above the button. Begin to reward every time his paw touches the button. Then eventually only reward when he is able to fully press the button.

Trick 10: Shell Game

Playing the shell game with your pup is pretty fun, and it’ll be an easy trick if you tested finding a treat under a cup in the Novice title. For the Intermediate trick, you test with three cups. The easiest way to train this is to train the dog to find the treat under a single cup by knocking it over and eating the treat. When he consistently does that, add another cup so that the treat is under one cup and the other cup is empty. Then add another cup.

Trick 11: Sit Pretty

For most dogs, a sit pretty behavior is to sit back on their hind legs with their front paws held in the air in front of them. But the AKC will allow large dogs to sit normally and tilt their heads to the side. I was able to train Ezra to sit back on his hind legs by getting him into a sit in front of a wall. Then I held a treat above his head and moved it behind his ears. His nose followed the treat and he naturally sat back on his hind legs. Eventually you can move away from the wall and keep food luring. Then eliminate the lure.

Trick 12: Wave

Though another easy trick to learn, I recommend first learning how to high five your dog. Once he fully understands high five, I would start training Wave by making a high five motion. When Ezra picked up his paw to high five me, I moved began to making waving motions with my hand and move my hand backward a few inches so that he never made contact. I kept practicing, and then added the cue word “wave.”

Frequently Asked Questions

No. Unfortunately, you must obtain your Novice first. But, you can get them both at the same time. Just test for the Novice first and then immediately test for the Intermediate. AKC will process the Novice title first and then process the Intermediate afterwards.

Yes! Just like when you got your Novice dog trick title, your dog doesn’t need to be a purebred to obtain the Intermediate dog trick title. Your dog just needs to be registered with the AKC, or have a PAL number, or a Canine Partners number.

You can either do it in person or virtually. If you opt to do test virtually, film yourself in either a continuous video or in short clips. Then submit to an approved evaluator. If your evaluator signs off that you presented at least 10 Intermediate dog skills, you can log into AKC’s portal and apply for the official title.

Not sure how to find an approved evaluator? Reach out to the AKC for help by emailing cgc@akc.org.

You will receive a certificate, your dog will add replace TKN and add TKI to the end of his name, and you’ve officially earned bragging rights for your dog’s pedigree. The Intermediate dog trick title letters are TKI. So if your dog is named Desi, his new name would be Desi, TKI.

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15 Tricks to Earn Your Intermediate Dog Trick Title