Hi, All!

If you have a dog and have taught it tricks. What are some of the ways that you've been successful in doing that, please?

Tricks like catching treats that are tossed to them, "speaking", sitting, lying down, rolling over, playing dead, shaking "hands", playing the game of fetch, etc.

By the way, one of the dogs for whom I house and dog sit, although she's seen examples of other dogs doing it, just will never catch treats in her mouth. I don't know why that is...

She's an English Setter.

Thanks!

Repetition is key. A good friend who happens to be a dog trainer will not name a trick until the dog knows what it is doing. So for shake a paw, you would start by touching the top of their shoulder and running your hand down the leg until you reach the paw, and than shake.

Let the paw go, and treat. Do this until the dog is comfortable with you doing this. They will quickly learn that this action ends with a treat. They will volunteer their paw.

Next comes the name. While you do this, or when they volunteer the paw, you say "shake a paw", say things like "good shake a paw" and treat. They then know the command and the name.

What about a trick, although I'm not really sure that it's a trick, with catching a treat? I've tried and tried to get the English Setter to do it, but it just never works.

Ha ha. Ya some don't catch on to that one. The only thing I have done is continue to throw it at their face. Sounds mean, but I just kind of do a high lob towards them. They usually have the food in a lock down stare, so they are watching it go in slow motion above their heads, and they don't want to loose it. It took Lady three months to catch on to that one.

No command they know would associate with that particular action. Sooner or later they just go for it. That's when you praise and say "good catch"

My dog and I did dog shows together. Which was harder cause I wasn't aloud to use treats.

But some things I remember:


For sit, you have to start them out while on a leash, and every time I you say sit pull the leash up which makes them react to sit, after doing this for a while, sit will come natural. Never say sit down though, it will confuse the dog, and won't know what to do sit, or lay down

For laying down, for my dog patting the floor while still on leash worked for me.

To catch, I would start with something bigger then a treat. Spending hours in the backyard just throwing the ball around, he sooner or later got the hint to catch it in his mouth. And after that He can catch something as small as a treat.

For staying, and coming, I also trained him on a leash. After the sit is trained, enforce stay, every time they get up pull the leash up, with them knowing they have to sit. And after like 30 seconds and they don't move praise them. And repeat staying longer.

I never used treats, I always said good boy and pet him. But I'm sure using treats would make them catch on faster. Lol

Hi, Jlesnik33!

What kind of dog do you have, please? Although, you've written in the past tense. Is the dog still around?

Thanks!

Ha ha. Ya some don't catch on to that one. The only thing I have done is continue to throw it at their face. Sounds mean, but I just kind of do a high lob towards them. They usually have the food in a lock down stare, so they are watching it go in slow motion above their heads, and they don't want to loose it. It took Lady three months to catch on to that one.

No command they know would associate with that particular action. Sooner or later they just go for it. That's when you praise and say "good catch"

I'll keep trying with her, then!

Thanks!

My dog actually past away a few weeks ago :(

But he was a boxer.

Hehe... getting them to catch a treat... that's a difficult one!

Both of mine are really good at catching toys, one more so than the other, but treats... forget it.
If it's smaller than a tennis ball they just wait for it to hit the ground or occasionally they will snap at it mid-air but 99% of the time they miss!