Teaching your collie to give you kisses is a simple trick to learn since it’s a natural behavior of your collie to lick your face when they are happy to see you. Despite this, it looks impressive when your collie can give you a kiss on command.
The best way to teach your collie to give you a kiss is to use a dog-friendly spread like peanut butter to get them to lick your face, then to use a command like “kiss” or “give kisses” and reward them when they do. It won’t take long for your collie to associate the action with the command and the reward and learn the trick.
In this article, I’ll go over the step-by-step process I used to teach my collie how to give me kisses so you can teach your collie too! It’s not a difficult trick to learn. They will pick it up in only a few training sessions.
How to Teach Your Collie to Give You Kisses (Step by Step)
Exploit Their Natural Licking Behavior
Use their natural behavior and reinforce what the action means by using the word or phrase you want to assign the command to. Not all dogs are lickers, and puppies are likely to try and lick you to death to show affection.
If you can’t exploit this, it’s no problem, but if you can use it to help them learn, it helps.
Whenever your dog starts to lick you, tell them “kisses” or “give kisses” or whatever variant of the command you want to use. Then, repeat the command each time they do and reward them with a treat along with some praise.
Adding an additional command such as “good” or “enough” when they stop licking you will help teach them to stop licking you.
Some dogs can be a bit overly excited and have trouble stopping when they start giving you kisses, especially puppies. So teaching them to stop licking you is also a good idea and using commands when they naturally stop is also effective for teaching this.
Use an Edible Dog-Friendly Spread
Not all dogs are big lickers, but they all love treats! So a dog-friendly snack spread such as peanut butter or a low-sugar jam can be a great incentive.
You’ll need to test a range of different products to see what works best for your dog, and you should always check to make sure it’s safe for your dog to consume.
Chocolate and Dairy are both harmful to dogs and should be avoided.
Take a bit of your lure and dab a small amount on your face or wherever you want them to lick you. Repeat the command word you wish to use. Then lean close enough to your dog so they can easily lick the deliciousness from your face.
The yummy treat will entice them to lick you, and after some time, they’ll start to kiss you even without the yummy spread.
However, you might want to offer a small, solid treat when first moving away from the spread trick.
Make sure you don’t put too much on your face to prevent your dog from trying to bite it off. You also don’t want to do this if your dog is a biter with spread-based treats.
If you’re uncertain, it’s a good idea to test it on your arm instead.
Practice Consistently!
The lack of consistency can quickly result in a confused Border Collie and a very frustrated you who gives up on teaching them anything.
Remaining consistent can be challenging, but teaching your dog to give kisses should be pretty straightforward.
Always use the exact command word/phrase that you used at first, regardless of which one you decide to start using with them.
Teach your dog to give kisses to the same place and don’t change it from your face to your hand. Keep the location consistent too. If you want to use a hand signal to show them where to kiss you, make sure you use it every time.
Gradually Remove The Treats From Training
It’s easy to fall into the trap of forever giving them treats for doing something cute since getting kisses is pretty adorable.
If you want your dog to be able to do commands without treats, you need to start weaning them off treats during training time.
Too many treats are unhealthy, so once they understand the trick, it’s time to move on to only positive praise.
Save the treats for when you start teaching them other tricks and commands.
Not doing this will mean they start to expect treats which might make them ignore you if they don’t get the treat.
Dogs can get annoyed or upset with us for not giving them treats if they expect it!
Final Thoughts
Giving kisses is an adorable trick you can teach your collie. It’s easy to learn and will be a fun bonding exercise for you and your collie.
How to teach your collie to give you a kiss:
- Praise them for their natural licking behavior
- Use a dog-friendly spread to encourage them
- Use a verbal and visual command to reinforce the trick
- Gradually start removing the treats from training time
- Practice often so that your collie remembers the trick
