[dragondog]

:D I've already got down all of the basics I taught my dog how to sit, lay down, high five, settle (go lay on her bed) , how to get food only when I say "get it" , stay, hug, speak, and to jump a bar in my backyard...

*I want to teach her something else, but something useful or really cool anyone have any ideas?:cool:

[N0help4u]

If you have a small dog you could teach it to skateboard
Extreme Dog TEACH YOUR DOG TO DO THIS - Yahoo! Video

Yahoo! Video

I have seen doberman's catch frisbies.

[dragondog]

That would be so cool but in that case catching a frisbee would be pretty hard to teach thanks for the ideas!

[grammadidi]

I would watch your dog and use her natural behaviours as your cue. For instance, when she stretches with her front legs down, say "Boooooowwww! Good girl!" If she fetches, you can do some really cool stuff with coloured items. Everyone says dogs are colour blind, so imagine their surprise when you say "Get the blue toy" and she does! :) Playing dead has a whole new twist if you point your finger like a gun and say "Bang! You're dead!" and the dog flops to the floor, rolls over on her side or back and just stays there until you say "Okay!" You can add pretend resuscitation if she's a good learner.

My best friend, Sam, used to do about 200 'tricks', most of them taught using her 'regular' behaviour and naming it. She would 'look out the window', or check if someone was 'at the door'. If she wanted to beg for forgiveness, she would 'crawl'. She could be a 'poor baby' by limping across the room, and, she could add, subtract, multiply and divide in single digit answers!! :) She also said, "I love you" or would "sing" if asked. We played a mean game of 'find it' with a treat that I would hide while she waited patiently in another room, and I would guide her with either hand signals or words.

Most dogs can be taught to ring a bell, and if she's big enough she can be taught to turn lights off or on. Balance a treat on her nose that she has to leave until you say "okay" (don't make her wait toooo long!), teach her to bring you certain items (your shoes, the paper, your socks, the phone, even). The possibilities are truly endless.

Good luck!

Hugs, Didi

[labman]

There are a number of competitive things you can train your dog to do, advanced obedience, agility, flyball, free form dancing, and for some breeds earthing. Your local kennel club should have classes. For those events, dogs don't have to be purebreds.

Don't be surprised if you don't have much luck with colors. Dogs have a very limited color vision, seeing mostly shades of blue and yellow. They are much better at reading their owners.

[grammadidi]

Sorry, I should have clarified. I am not assuming the dog knows the colour of the toy. I am stating that every time the dog touches the blue toy it is labelled as the blue toy, or the red toy as the red toy. My Berner can "identify" four different colours using 4 identical rings of differing colours. He does it because that shade of toy is always called that colour. My Lab, however, can't differentiate, so for him I use 4 different objects of 4 different colours (ie: a red kong, a blue football, a yellow tennis ball and a green bone). Whenevery he picks up the kong I say, bring me the red toy, etc. He learned quickly in this manner. It fools people.

I liked Labman's suggestions for the competitive events. I have seen an excellent clip of a dog 'dancing' with it's owner, and I think flyball and agility are great bonding tools, as well as excellent forms of exercise!

Hugs, Didi

[Emland]

My friend has taught his dog how to whisper. It is the speak compand, but she does it very softly. It is so funny!

[labman]

....My Berner can "identify" four different colours using 4 identical rings of differing colours. He does it because that shade of toy is always called that colour. My Lab, however, can't differentiate, so for him I use 4 different objects of 4 different colours (ie: a red kong, a blue football, a yellow tennis ball and a green bone). Whenevery he picks up the kong I say, bring me the red toy, etc. He learned quickly in this manner. It fools people.
....

Have you carefully matched the colored objects for luminance and intensity? If you fail to carefully control all the variables, you may be fooling yourself. Yes, you can teach your dog you call the one red, and the other blue. If one is brighter than the other or different in some other way, the dog can learn which is which without being able to tell the color. So, no I don't think you have proven your dog can see colors.

Have you read of Clever Hans? It is a slightly different thing, but illustrates the need for careful controls.
ACP - Hans, Too Clever by Half

[labman]

Getting back to the original topic. Perhaps you could teach her to ''work'' math problems.

[dragondog]

That's cool thank you for all of the ideas I plan of practicing some of them... :]] Oh I forgot to mention some other tricks she knows she can also get the newspaper, and balance the treat on her nose, + the command tricks like I'll say a bunch of other words but she can only get it when I say "get it"

[dragondog]

P.s. I like the whiser trick, that sounds really cool!

[KISS]

The whisper trick: Typically a soft utterance of "whisper" would work and a loud utterance of "speak". Most of the time a treat was involved. Whisper was hard and usually it was the soft command of "Whisper" with me saying softly "woof". "Speak" was a lot easier. That was probably 40 years ago.

[dragondog]

I'm trying to teach her to whisper, so far pretty good but when I tell her to whisper she kind of growls... how can I get her to do it to my ear?

[grammadidi]

I'm trying to teach her to whisper, so far pretty good but when i tell her to whisper she kinda growls...how can i get her to do it to my ear?

Try a dab of peanut butter behind your ear from time to time. :D

[RubyPitbull]

The peanut butter behind the ear does work really well Gramma.

I have taught my dog to "Moo" among other things. I am not a huge proponent of making dogs do things for the amusement of people but I find with a pitbull, it does help people to relax around her.

P.S. Labman, please reread Gramma's posts. She talks about tricking people into thinking that the dogs can differentiate the colors. She doesn't say that the dogs actually can do this. Her techniques are exactly what I do in training my dog to perform special tricks.

[HALL92994]

:D I've already got down all of the basics I taught my dog how to sit, lay down, high five, settle (go lay on her bed) , how to get food only when i say "get it" , stay, hug, speak, and to jump a bar in my backyard...

*I want to teach her something else, but something useful or really cool anyone have any ideas?:cool:

1 trick is to get the paper

[HALL92994]

Play dead

[anna_adams4525]

There is a really cool trick I plan to teach my dog, which is 'throw it in the trash' you get to where you can point to anything and say throw it away, and your dog can pick it up and put it in the trash. You start with the trash can between your feet and give something and say 'drop it!' (after your dog knows this of course)and it will drop it in the trash:)Now you repeat 'drop it in the trash!! good boy/girl'keep repeating this trick from further distances, and with different trash cans in your home so your dog gets the idea!:) hope this helped!

[anna_adams4525]

There is a really cool trick I plan to teach my dog, which is 'throw it in the trash' you get to where you can point to anything and say throw it away, and your dog can pick it up and put it in the trash. You start with the trash can between your feet and give something and say 'drop it!' (after your dog knows this of course)and it will drop it in the trash:)Now you repeat 'drop it in the trash!! good boy/girl'keep repeating this trick from further distances, and with different trash cans in your home so your dog gets the idea!:) hope this helped!

[Catsmine]

There is a really cool trick i plan to teach my dog, which is 'throw it in the trash' you get to where you can point to anything and say throw it away, and your dog can pick it up and put it in the trash. you start out with the trash can between your feet and give something and say 'drop it!' (after your dog knows this of course)and it will drop it in the trash:)Now you repeat 'drop it in the trash!!, good boy/girl'keep repeating this trick from further distances, and with different trash cans in your home so your dog gets the idea!:) hope this helped!!

Please watch the dates when you answer a question. Dragondog's pup is fully adult now; It's been almost three years.