Ask Me Help Desk - Fun Tricks

Fun Tricks

Does anyone know any easy dog tricks other then the normal, sit, stay, speak,down etc...

High five?

Thanks but that's just like shake hands and he knows how to do that, right now I'M in the process of teaching him to wave, but Id like to teach him a few new tricks, because it keeps him focused.

Lol. Somehow, we got my dog to do a backflip. It only happened a couple times by accident but I had a treat for her and I walked behind her and she flipped backwards trying to get it. I was worried she was going to hurt herself. Or how about "dance?" so the dog stands on it's hind legs and kind of walks in a circle.

Sounds awesome, but how would I go about it?

Trying to remember how we taught our dog. I think we held a treat up until she was reaching for it and kind of moved it in a circle and once she did it we would give her the treat

Thanks

I have a dog that's not at all interested in learning tricks, so I googled some sites for you:

Dog Tricks
101 Best Dog Tricks - The Fun Times Guide to Dogs

Thanks froggy

How about hide and seek? I guess it's more of a game than a trick. I take Niki's treats, or little tiny balls of cheese, and I make her stay. I go around the house and hide them, and come back and say, go find them! She will search everywhere! She loves that game.

How about getting Rex to sit and stay, while you put a treat on the bridge of his nose, or on his head, and make him stay until you say... get it!

You could try and teach Rex to put his toys away in a box. You can do this by getting him to pick up his toy, and leading him to the box, where a treat is waiting.

Those are just a few I can think of at the moment, that Niki likes to do.

Here's a really good site for you too, and you can also talk with other dog owners there.

- Dog Tricks Academy Lounge

Oh I forgot about that one! The one with putting a treat on the dog's nose is a good one and letting him flip it into his mouth. Hide and seek sounds fun and so does the one where you have him put his toys away. All good ideas here

Quote:

Originally Posted by starbuck8

How about hide and seek? I guess it's more of a game than a trick. I take Niki's treats, or little tiny balls of cheese, and I make her stay. I go around the house and hide them, and come back and say, go find em! She will search everywhere! She loves that game.

How about getting Rex to sit and stay, while you put a treat on the bridge of his nose, or on his head, and make him stay until you say......get it!

You could try and teach Rex to put his toys away in a box. You can do this by getting him to pick up his toy, and leading him to the box, where a treat is waiting.

Those are just a few I can think of at the moment, that Niki likes to do.

Here's a really good site for you too, and you can also talk with other dog owners there.

- Dog Tricks Academy Lounge

Thanks, I love playing Hide and Seek with him but I tell him to sit and stay in one part of the house and run to another, when I'm done hiding I tell him to come find me, and when he does I give him tons of praise.

And I wish I could put the treat on his nose, but I tried it and it seemed to make him really anxious so I comprimised, we put the treat on his paw while in the down/stay position and say don't touch it yet... OK, its really cute.
Thanks for the suggestions.

Great question, rex! I like all of the suggestions, too. I've been pondering the question too, and I think the answer is just to get creative. See what works and then step it up.

Some extra tricks I've taught my pup, which are very easy and also cute, are to give kisses, give a hug, and jump straight up. Another thing we're working on is to turn "right" or "left", especially when walking down the street or turning a corner. I've also been teaching him to go to people by name, like "go to john" or "go to george". You can also teach rex to get his toys by naming each of them. If that works, you can teach him to bring you all kinds of useful things. I think many of the best tricks are practical, too.

We have friends with a large fenced in yard, and their dog gets up on his hind legs and rings their doorbell when he wants to come inside. Some dogs will ring a bell when they want to go out. Walking backwards is also a rare trick. If you want to get even fancier, youtube.com has some dogs doing very cool things.

I think the best way to teach a dog to respond to all kinds of words is to talk to it all the time. It's incredible how many words they will recognize.

I also wanted to thank you for posting one of the neat things you taught rex a while back: dig! I thought this was a fantastic idea. I was on vacation all last month, and whenever our pup would start digging in the sand, as you suggested, I would give the command. I was thinking about you! Good luck, and let us know what has worked for you!

Thanks linnealand, I think I'd like to teach him to get his toys by name, it sounds like fun. And he used to ring the doorbell, it wasn'T something we taught him but one day he jumped up to get in and his paw hit the doorbell, of course it would be easier to hear the doorbell than him whining. So he learned soon enough that if he rang the doorbell we would come running, I'm gald you taught your dog to dig. I found it really worked wonders with rex, I knew I had to do something because of his breed digging is instinct. And I didn'T want to take it out of him so when I heard you could curb a dogs behaviour I thought it was a great idea. It also works with barking dogs or dogs that jump up.

My dog likes to play a game with me.

It's called, "I just threw up somewhere in your apartment...now go find it."

Sneezy, that's a disgusting game. Still, it's less disgusting than the game my puppy played this morning. I call it "finding someone else's vomit and sneaking a taste of it."

Rex, your husky is a clever one! I heard an interview with a guy who used to train animals at sea world, and he said that you can teach a pet to do anything! The most important thing is that it's fun. Learning new tricks is a great way to keep things from getting boring, and your dog can gain great confidence from knowing that it has learned something new and fun. Also, the best lessons are often really short, like even a minute or two. There's a dog named skidboot who is famous for how well trained he was. Look him up! It sounds like you're always reading and researching everything you can about dogs. Good for you!

Quote:

Originally Posted by linnealand

I heard an interview with a guy who used to train animals at sea world, and he said that you can teach a pet to do anything! the most important thing is that it's fun.

All I can say to that is "Hah!". My Trink is a well-behaved, but badly trained, dog. She doesn't misbehave, but she also doesn't do anything on command. The problem is that last bit... if you try and work with her, she gets anxious and nothing is fun!

Quote:

Originally Posted by ISneezeFunny

my dog likes to play a game with me.

it's called, "I just threw up somewhere in your apartment...now go find it."

Thank you very much Sneezy McSneezerston! Here I am, happily munching away on my morning cereal, and I come to your post! :eek: Good morning, enjoy your breakie! :p What the heck are you feeding the Lilster?

Quote:

Originally Posted by froggy7

All I can say to that is "Hah!". My Trink is a well-behaved, but badly trained, dog. She doesn't misbehave, but she also doesn't do anything on command. The problem is that last bit... if you try and work with her, she gets anxious and nothing is fun!

Okay, the quote was something like "you can teach an animal to do anything that its muscles will do," but the point is that you *can* teach your pet to do whatever you want to teach it to do that doesn't include flying or grinding stone. It's true! Of course, some animals are smarter than others, but basic tricks won't be beyond any of their grasp. There is no doubt in my mind that you can teach your dog to do tricks!

I got my puppy when he was 59 days old. The next day I taught him to sit. The day after that, I taught him to lie down. I had never trained a dog before, and I couldn't believe how easy it was. First of all, I used "the puppy whisperer" by paul owens and terence cranendonk as my teaching manual. By the way, I recommend it to everyone! It's a complete and nonviolent training book that all puppy owners should pick up.

As rewards, I use lots of praise and some little treats like turkey or cheese for all of the behaviors that I want my pup to repeat. Teaching a dog to sit is extremely easy. Take a very valuable treat. While your dog is calm and standing, you stand in front of her. Take the treat and pull it towards her (above her), saying sit. Chances are, your dog will put its bottom to the ground and sit just because she's trying to keep the treat in her sight. As soon as this happens, you give the treat right away, and give LOTS of praise. Then do it a couple of extra times, and then have a play session. There shouldn't be anything that creates anxiety in her, as this should just look like a tiny game that ends in turkey. Then repeat the process later, and then the next day and so on. Eventually, you can lose the treats and the hand signals, just saying "sit." I'm pretty sure you will be able to find demonstrations of this on YouTube.

You can also use commands, treats and praise for the times when she does something on her own and you like it, like when she goes to lie down. The secret is to treat and say the word the *second* the action happens, not after she's already been in position for awhile. I also taught our niece's 2 puppies to sit etc. in no time with these methods. You'll see! If you want your dog to learn these things, all you have to do is learn the very simple process. All tricks come from the same process.

If a dog is stressed, tired, etc. hold off on the lesson. Go at a pace that she can handle. Let her build confidence. And then tell us how it goes!

Okay, here's a video with a pretty good demonstration of how to begin. Check it out:

YouTube - Train Your Dog to Sit