French Bulldog Can a dog whose greatest athletic achievement is sliding off the couch in his sleep really learn ten tricks in one weekend?
Short answer: yes. Slightly longer answer: yes, but you are going to need cheese.
French Bulldogs carry a reputation for being stubborn, and that reputation is about half earned. They are not stubborn the way a Husky is stubborn. They are stubborn the way a toddler is stubborn, which means they will happily do the thing the second the thing looks worth doing.
That distinction is the entire trick to teaching tricks. Frenchies are motivated, not lazy. Find the currency, and this flat faced little gremlin will start offering behaviors you never asked for.
Two days is genuinely enough, too, because Frenchies learn best in tiny bursts rather than long training marathons. Their attention spans are short, their bodies overheat fast, and their brains work best when the session ends while they still want more.
So clear your Saturday, raid the fridge, and pick a rug with decent grip.
Weekend Ground Rules (Read This Part, Seriously)
Keep Sessions Shorter Than a Commercial Break
Three to five minutes. That is it.
Run four or five of these micro sessions per day with long naps in between, and you will get further than someone grinding out a twenty minute slog. Frenchies consolidate what they learn while they sleep, and sleeping is something your dog is already world class at.
Watch the Breathing, Always
Brachycephalic dogs overheat quickly and quietly. If your Frenchie starts honking, panting hard, or getting that wide eyed frantic look, the session is over. Not "one more rep." Over.
Train indoors on cool floors when possible, and keep water nearby.
A tired Frenchie is a happy Frenchie. An overheated Frenchie is an emergency. Learn the difference before you start, not during.
Pick Your Marker Word
Choose one sound that means "yes, that exact thing, treat incoming." Most people use a clicker or a crisp "yep!"
Say it the instant the behavior happens, then deliver the reward. Timing matters far more than volume, and yelling has never once made a Frenchie smarter.
1. Spin
Start here. It builds confidence fast and it looks impressive to houseguests for reasons nobody can explain.
Hold a treat at nose level and slowly lure your dog in a circle. Mark and reward the moment the circle closes.
After roughly ten reps, shrink the lure into a hand signal, then add the word "spin" right before the motion. Most Frenchies have this within two sessions.
Bonus points if you teach the opposite direction as "twist," because a dog who can spin both ways is basically a professional.
2. Shake
The classic, and easier than you think.
Frenchies paw at things constantly. You are not teaching a new behavior so much as putting a name on one they already do at 6am when the food bowl is empty.
Hold a treat in a closed fist near the floor. Your dog will sniff, lick, then eventually swat. Mark that swat.
The Common Mistake
Do not grab the paw and shake it yourself. That teaches your dog to tolerate hand grabbing, not to offer a paw. Wait for the lift, even if the waiting feels ridiculous.
3. High Five
Once shake is solid, this one costs you about four minutes.
Present your palm vertically instead of a closed fist, slightly higher than before. The paw comes up out of habit, hits your hand, and you mark it.
Change the cue word immediately so the two do not blur together. "Shake" is low and horizontal. "Five" is high and flat.
Frenchies love this one because it involves smacking a human, which appears to be a deeply satisfying experience for them.
4. Touch
Nose targeting looks boring on paper and turns out to be the most useful trick on this entire list.
Present two fingers a few inches from your dog’s face. Curiosity does the rest, because the natural response to a finger appearing is to boop it.
Mark the boop. Feed. Repeat.
Why This One Matters
Touch becomes your emergency steering wheel. Need your Frenchie off the couch, out of a doorway, or away from the neighbor’s picnic blanket? One cue, and their nose follows your hand.
It is also the foundation for closing doors, ringing bells, and several other party tricks you will inevitably attempt next weekend.
5. Sit Pretty
Here is where Frenchie anatomy gets interesting.
That barrel chest sits on top of short legs, so balance is a real challenge. Some Frenchies nail this in ten minutes. Others wobble like a bowling pin and need a wall behind them for support.
Start with your dog in a sit, then raise a treat slowly above their head until the front paws lift. Mark even a half inch of lift at first.
Build duration in small increments: one second, then two, then three.
Progress is not one big leap. Progress is a thousand slightly better wobbles, each one paid for in chicken.
6. Roll Over
Full disclosure: this one is harder for Frenchies than for most breeds, and a few will simply refuse.
Their spines are short, their chests are wide, and rolling requires a commitment to momentum that not every flat faced dog possesses.
Begin with your dog lying down. Lure the nose toward the shoulder, then over it. The body follows the head, usually.
If your dog gets stuck halfway and lies there on their side looking betrayed, reward that. Half a roll on Saturday becomes a full roll on Sunday.
7. Play Dead
Dramatic, hilarious, and genuinely easier than roll over because it stops at the flop.
Cue a down, then lure the nose sideways until the hip drops and your dog rolls onto their side. Mark the instant the shoulder touches the ground.
Add the Finger Gun
Once the flop is reliable, swap the lure for a pointed finger and a quiet "bang."
Frenchies have a natural flair for theatrics. Mine committed so hard to the bit that she started adding a little sigh at the end, which nobody taught her.
8. Speak and Quiet
Teach these as a matched pair or you will regret it by Tuesday.
Trigger a bark the way you normally would (a doorbell, an excited squeak, a knock on the wall), then mark the bark and name it.
Now the important half. Wait for the silence that follows, mark that, and call it "quiet."
A Frenchie who can bark on cue can also stop on cue, and the second skill is worth roughly a hundred times more than the first.
9. Take a Bow
Elegant, easy on the joints, and a great way to end any trick routine.
From a standing position, lure the nose straight down between the front paws. The chest drops, the rear stays up, and there it is.
The rear end will try to collapse into a down. Slide your free hand gently under the belly as a reminder, then fade that help after a few reps.
Keep the hold short at first. One second of a real bow beats five seconds of a sloppy one.
10. Find It
Save this for Sunday evening, when brains are full and bodies are done.
Scent work is a Frenchie superpower hiding behind that squashed little snout. They are shockingly good at it, and it burns mental energy without a single stair or sprint.
Toss a treat where your dog can see it and say "find it." Repeat until the phrase clicks.
Then start hiding treats behind chair legs, under towels, inside a cardboard box.
Ten minutes of sniffing will tire a Frenchie more thoroughly than a mile of walking, and it will not leave either of you gasping in the driveway.
By Sunday night, run a quick chain: sit, five, bow. Three tricks back to back, one treat at the end.
That is the moment it stops feeling like training and starts feeling like a conversation.