If you have a pet mouse, or other small rodent, have you ever considered teaching it tricks? Dogs are not the only animals that can learn how to do tricks. With a little bit of patience and a lot of treats, you can teach your mouse, rat or hamster to do tricks as well.

If you are interested in teaching your mouse tricks, you need to be patient and consistent. You will need to work with your mouse daily, for about 30 minutes. Mice are small animals, and they have a small attention span. Longer than 30 minutes, your mouse is going to quit paying attention.

If your mouse isn’t used to attention and being handled, start out by just holding your mouse daily, and hand feeding it a small piece of food so that it gets used to taking food from your fingers. After your mouse gets used to that, you’re ready to start with a simple trick.

Probably the easiest trick to teach your mouse is to stand up and beg on command. Hold a piece of food or a treat in front of your mouse and then raise it (the food, not the mouse) above its head. Your mouse will follow the treat and stand up. As your mouse stands up, say a simple word like “up”. When he is fully standing, repeat the word and give the mouse the treat. Repeat the process over and over, waiting a little longer each time before giving the treat. Pretty soon your mouse will stand up and hold the pose, waiting for a treat, whenever he hears the command word.

Just like with teaching a dog or a cat, you need to be consistent with the command word. If you use “up” the first time you have your mouse stand, use “up” each time in training so that the mouse associates “up” with standing for a treat.

Once you've taught your mouse one trick, you can use the same method to teach it other tricks. Use different command words for each trick.