New Tricks

forkin14 · Post by **forkin14** » Wed Nov 04, 2009 8:09 pm

So I've been thinking of new tricks to teach Cadence.
So far she can sit, stay, lay down, sit up on her butt, shake, speak, roll over, play dead, drop&take it, she knows "watch me", our recall is getting A LOT better (thanks to this site), and spin around. She's very smart and I love challenging her. She is VERY food motivated so she is always enthused if I have treats. She goes crazy when she sees the red clicker and my little treat pouch on my waist lol

I've seen people teaching their dog to go into a play bow on command and also teaching the dog to crawl, but I'm curious as to what methods are the most successful.
For "crawl", I've tried putting Cadence into a "down" position and putting a treat in front of her nose and moving it inches in front and if she starts to move forward, I click and treat. The problem is, she will only do it if there is a treat there and if I'm on the ground with her.
For "bow" I've tried putting the treat on the ground (still in my hand) and once her body starts to go down and she keeps her butt in the air, I click and treat. The problem is, it seems that RIGHT before I click, her butt goes to the ground, so she just thinks that slowly going into the "down" position is what I want her to do.

Any helpful tips? And any other tricks to teach?
I'm so glad she is very intelligent and willing to learn, it just makes training SO much more fun!

Leigha · Post by **Leigha** » Wed Nov 04, 2009 8:14 pm

We taught crawl the way you're doing it. We always had to use a treat to start off with, and we had to start with ourselves close to him in height (i would sit on the floor) until I could gradually stand up bent over, stand up half bent, then stand up straight and give the command. We've tried to teach Bru to "take a bow" but our puppy class teacher said if they have a really good down (which bruiser does) they have a really hard time doing bow.

I taught bruiser to "shake" and "high five"--high five was really accidental (he just did it randomly) and didn't have the clicker with me when it happened, but he's still doing it.

Leigha · Post by **Leigha** » Wed Nov 04, 2009 8:14 pm

Oh, we also do roll over.

maximoo · Post by **maximoo** » Wed Nov 04, 2009 8:24 pm

How about figure 8's?
There are tons tricks on Youtube.
There is also a book called101 Dog Tricks.

forkin14 · Post by **forkin14** » Wed Nov 04, 2009 9:16 pm

I just ordered that 101 Dog Tricks book online! haha Thanks for suggesting that!!

maximoo · Post by **maximoo** » Wed Nov 04, 2009 11:08 pm

also Dog Tricks for Dummies has some great ideas. you can chk it out at library or buy it used @ amazon for $2.50.

I hope tp teach Max to stack rings on a pole (think fisher price preschool toy) Horace's mum taught Horus how to do it and she gave me instructions to start but I've been very busy with a death in the family & planning a vacation. I hope to start in a wk or two. Horace can also jump thru his mum's arms. very cool & he is deaf. It is on Youtube.

Horace's Mum · Post by **Horace's Mum** » Thu Nov 05, 2009 9:17 am

For both of them I would suggest teaching to nose target a stick. You can get proper sticks, but anything will do. Spend some time getting a really solid nose touch to the very end, not just any part of the stick, and then you can use that to initiate positions or movement without having to bend down or lure. Its a great tool once you have it.

For crawl, then you can ask for a down and use the target stick in front of the nose running along the ground to get the crawling action. Start by clicking just one or 2 tiny steps. Very gradually build it up and once it is consistent then put a command to it (still using the clicker). Then you can slowly start withdrawing the use of the stick. One useful tip is once you have the behaviour solid with the stick, click a few strides and wait for a few more strides before rewarding, so that the click doesn't automatically end the behaviour (but they have to understand the behaviour first)

For bow, same thing, use the target stick to encourage them to drop their head and front legs. DON'T ask for a whole bow to begin with, otherwise you will find it hard to keep them out of a down. Just look for a tiny movement in the right direction. Try to keep the movement so minimal that they never feel the need to down, so they always get it right. You have to be quick with your click, and don't ask them to hold it until they have 100% bow with no temptation to down. Then put the command in. then you can gradually build up the length of the bow, using the same as above and eventually waiting after the click before rewarding. Would be a good idea to use a release sign or word.

There are other ways, but I find the more they work out for themselves the better a behaviour you get, so if you use the stick instead of luring then you will get an independent behaviour quicker. And the target staick can be used for allsorts of fun things, including leg weaving.

If you want to teach jumping through arms, here's how I did it, because I didn't have another person, and because I can't use verbal commands. Again, there are other ways, but this works really well if you train on your own, and it is quick.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYUzqFJEY7U

Have fun!

Noobs · Post by **Noobs** » Thu Nov 05, 2009 9:19 am

I taught Murphy how to jump through my arms thanks to one of Horace's Mum's videos. It took a few weeks to get him to do it anywhere in the house and it's such a cool trick!

I also taught him a funny trick, "Are you sad?" which is I put him in a down position and got him to lower his head to his paws. Problem is once he learned it he got so excited every time I took the clicker out he would slam his chin to the floor before I got a chance to even say "Are you sad?" haha

maximoo · Post by **maximoo** » Thu Nov 05, 2009 8:15 pm

I've seen Victoria teach 'touch' with her hand to get a dog to come out from under the bed. Using it for crawl would seem easy enough. She also taught "Stains" the cupcake loving dog to touch her hand, then slippers in order for Stains to learn how to bring them to owner. In my house sticks would be misplaced frequently, so I think using your hand is a very good choice too. I need to go back to sq 1 with teaching Max some behaviors & tricks too. It's always a work in progress.

mselisabs · Post by **mselisabs** » Fri Nov 06, 2009 9:34 am

"Touch" should be your next trick! More often known as 'targeting' this simple trick actually is a gateway to a LOT of advanced obedience - like freestyle dance, agility, etc. This is great too because it involves a few steps. First she has to touch your hand, then put a toy in your hand and have her touch that, then a toy on the ground, then you can start teaching her to touch anything...

Maybe you should look into rally obedience and agility! That's what we're working up to

Horace's Mum · Post by **Horace's Mum** » Fri Nov 06, 2009 3:39 pm

Teaching to target the hand is very useful, but there are some things that are much easier to teach when your hands are a bit further away - for example teaching bow with a hand means they start to learn the body movement which is one more thing you then have to take out. If you teach the "touch" command then it doesn't matter what you use, it doesn't have to be a special stick, anything will do. I started teaching it using my fire poker!! You can use an umbrella, a spatula, a coke bottle, anything really. It just is useful to be able to put distance between you and the dog at times.

maximoo · Post by **maximoo** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 5:25 pm

I remember another trick someone mentioned. Put kibble in a gumball machine & have dog learn how to get it out. Gumball machines are around $30.

Saylee · Post by **Saylee** » Mon Nov 16, 2009 9:20 pm

We taught our lab "High 5", "Gimme 10", and "Feet".

Feet is to roll her back, stick her fee out so that we can wipe her muddy paws off...

Noobs · Post by **Noobs** » Mon Nov 16, 2009 9:51 pm

Saylee wrote:We taught our lab "High 5", "Gimme 10", and "Feet".

Feet is to roll her back, stick her fee out so that we can wipe her muddy paws off...

Haha, I love that that's called "Feet".

forkin14 · Post by **forkin14** » Tue Nov 17, 2009 8:55 am

haha that's cute, and useful!

Right now we're trying to teach her to "hike" the football using the instructions from the "101 Dog Tricks" book. It's going pretty well but she can't exactly seem to get enough strength to push the ball back far.