The Dog Tricks Thread

Hey,

Is anyone else interested in teaching tricks to their dogs? What tricks do your dogs know?

I’m going to get serious about teach my almost-a-year Springer Spaniel tricks. She is smart as a whip and lives to please. We’ve done a number of formal training classes, but the fees are adding up and trick training on my own seems like the best idea for now.

So far Maizy knows:

  • Sit, Down, Stand, Stay, Come
  • Shake
  • High-five
  • Wave
  • Spin left, spin right
  • Started weaving through legs
  • Leave it (she is the QUEEN of leave it)
  • Balancing things on her nose
  • Roll-over (when she feels so inclined)
  • Bark on Command
  • Jump Up

I am going to work on jumping through a hoop and backing up next. What tricks do you find to be the most “crowd pleasing”? What tricks do you find to be the easiest? Hardest? Basically, let’s talk tricks!

[QUOTE=Preposterous Ponies!;8085830]
Hey,

Is anyone else interested in teaching tricks to their dogs? What tricks do your dogs know?

I’m going to get serious about teach my almost-a-year Springer Spaniel tricks. She is smart as a whip and lives to please. We’ve done a number of formal training classes, but the fees are adding up and trick training on my own seems like the best idea for now.

So far Maizy knows:

  • Sit, Down, Stand, Stay, Come
  • Shake
  • High-five
  • Wave
  • Spin left, spin right
  • Started weaving through legs
  • Leave it (she is the QUEEN of leave it)
  • Balancing things on her nose
  • Roll-over (when she feels so inclined)
  • Bark on Command
  • Jump Up

I am going to work on jumping through a hoop and backing up next. What tricks do you find to be the most “crowd pleasing”? What tricks do you find to be the easiest? Hardest? Basically, let’s talk tricks![/QUOTE]

In response to “I love you” my older dog responds with 3 “barks” that sound like he’s saying it back. It’s cute.

That sounds like you two have a lot of fun together! I enjoy trick training with my critters too, though a lot of what we do tends to be commands for various useful behaviors, not hard core tricks like what you’re doing.

Taiko knows voice and hand signals for:
-sit/down/come/stay/stand/up
-leave it
-shake (with her left paw)
high 5 (with right paw)
-speak (bark)
-monku (long ooooOOOOooo sound)
-pray (down with paw over nose)
-back up
-roll over
-play dead
-take a bow
-answers “Who’s the best dog?” with a raised paw
-understands “go downstairs”, “go outside” and “inside”
-find it
-dance (up on hind legs, turns in a circle)
-knows “rope”, “chewy”, “squeaker”, “bone”, “leash”, and “Kong” and will bring you the item you ask for
-clean up (picking up scattered toys and putting them in the toy crate
-knows names and will go to the specific person or cat if you ask “Where is ____?” (currently 12 different names)

The cats know their names, come, sit, “paws” (sit and put their front paws in your hand) and use the toilet, so I figure they’re doing pretty good. :slight_smile:

Kinead is solid on:
-sit/stand/down/shake/high 5/speak
-take a bow
-tigger (vertical jumps in one place)

and is about 50/50 on:
-come
-stay
-leave it
-drop it

He’s pretty paw oriented and active, so the moving tricks are easier for him than the stationary ones, and he’s one of the most food oriented dogs I’ve ever handled, which really helps! I don’t think he’ll do as well with learning names for things as Taiko does, but we’re going to do more dog sport activities with him anyway, as he’s brilliant with those.

Love your jumping through a hoop idea - are you using a regular size hula hoop or something different?

I’ve got to stop reading threads like this–they’re exposing me as the ultimate slacker dog owner! :smiley:

Saw the title and thought “Cool! Both the pups know Shake Hands, High Five, Play Dead When a “Gun” is Fired at You, and Psycho Dog (bark on command).”

You guys are great! And I’m getting inspired to up my game by stealing some of your tricks! :yes:

[QUOTE=EKLay;8086043]

Love your jumping through a hoop idea - are you using a regular size hula hoop or something different?[/QUOTE]

Yup, just a plain old hula hoop from the dollar store! Of course my springer, who has never been afraid of anything in her life, has decided that it is going to kill her so we have to overcome that first! :lol:

Ha! But does your dog know how to take each toy out of the crate and scatter them everywhere in the house, including in the water bowl and under the couches? :lol:

That’s awesome. :slight_smile: There’s a dollar store on my way home and it’s snowing today, so we have a new indoor trick to work on! Thanks for the tip! :encouragement:

[QUOTE=PlanB;8086118]
Ha! But does your dog know how to take each toy out of the crate and scatter them everywhere in the house, including in the water bowl and under the couches? :lol:[/QUOTE]

lol - Kinead and the male cat share that particular duty. :smiley:

Here is Maizy doing “Leave It” with a large pizza! They screwed up our order so we had an extra (disgusting!) pizza, so we decided to test the dog:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10203275753929015&l=8799687133840949615

Note, she did not actually get to eat very much! We put it up on the counter after and she proceeded to spend the next half hour sitting by “her” pizza and crying. :lol:

ETA: Oh and for halloween she learned to carry a basket (she was little Red Riding Hood) and for Christmas she learned to carry a present.

She also retrieves and what not.

If you’re on Facebook, check out the pinned post on the Cloud K9 Spark Team. They have a bunch of tricks from novice to more advanced. Free unless you want the certificate for each level, and most have video tutorial.
I’ve done a bunch with my dog Maya.

This is still our claim to fame though:
https://youtu.be/rkZSJV6v6Qs

Love it!

I taught one wolfhound to turn on a light switch with her nose. I kind of regretted it, as she would turn on the light whenever she was excited, and I never taught her how to turn them off. Makes for a light switch with lots of nose prints.

You could teach a smaller dog with the dog getting on a piece of furniture, and maybe using paw rather than nose.

Yes, check out what some of the service dogs are taught, some of that would be very crowd pleasing.

I taught my other dogs to speak when I ask them to “say please” but was afraid my mouthy show dog would bark in the ring so I taught him to whisper instead…no reward if he barks. This was part of the training video…he’s so quiet now that you really have to watch carefully to see if his cheeks puff out. :slight_smile:

https://youtu.be/wvLd21my3VM

My heeler knows the basics- down, sit, stay, wait, leave it, drop it, come
For fun tricks-
High 5 (she hits my hand with her left paw)
Shake (places right paw in my hand)
Pick up- places her toys in the basket
Roll over
Play dead

My border collie would bow on command- and I taught him the ASL command for “introduce” as the cue, so that when I introduced him, he would bow :slight_smile:
Such fun!

I LOVE the tigger command :slight_smile: Might have to steal that one!

I’m working on getting my bi black sheltie his TDI certification. He has his CGC but the TDI has a lot more to it. He adores kids and I would love to get him into a children’s reading program. I did quite a bit of obedience training with him And he knows a lot of silly tricks :

Sit, down, stay. He does a sit stay, a stand stay and a down stay. I can go out of sight and he will stay until I tell him ‘Okay’ or ‘Come’.
Come around (to return to heel position).
Heel (off or on leash) He has awesome heel skills. I can left, right, about face, change speeds and he stays in heel position.
Leave it
Bring it
Pick it up
Shake
Say Woof
Whisper
Turn Around - I say turn around, and then after he does, I say ‘Other way’ and he switches.
Jump (the infamous Tigger kind).
Crawl
Give Kisses
He also will jump through a hula hoop and weave through my legs.

The breed rescue had a costume contest at their picnic. I dressed him up in swim trunks and swim goggles, and taught him to jump on a surfboard when I said ‘Hang 10 dude’. Yes he is very tolerant LOL.

I do lots of puzzle toys with him too. He gets most meals in a puzzle and I rotate them around.

He is a very smart boy and I started doing the tricks with him because he needs a job. Tried agility but that wasn’t really his thing. He loves doing the silly tricks though.

There is a book out there for 101 dog tricks, some of them are really cute.

[QUOTE=Preposterous Ponies!;8085830]
What tricks do you find to be the most “crowd pleasing”? What tricks do you find to be the easiest? Hardest? Basically, let’s talk tricks![/QUOTE]

Crowd pleasers: shake hands, high five, and one not your on your list" bow. Bow is pretty darn easy to teach with a lure.

Shame gets a lot of Awww’s
Hug
Where’s your tail/ears/nose?

Inspiration from the master, Silvia Trkman

My little pom was such a smarty pants! Considering I started training her when I was in kindergarten, I think she did really well with what she got. :lol:

-sit
-shake
-other (switch paws, dogs ARE usually left or right handed, er, pawed :wink: )
-sit pretty
-lay down
-push ups (up, down)
-jump through hoops
-over (jump through/over anything-arms, legs, objects)
-back up
-leave it
-get
-stay (poor girl, my favorite thing in first grade. I’d tell her to lay down/stay and I’d just leave. 20 minutes later I’d come back and she was in the same spot!)

Never did get roll over. She’d lay down and flop on her side but hated rolling over completely.

My current dogs are lucky slackers! Aside from obedience stuff (sit, stay, down, etc), they only know some basic tricks - roll over, shake, kiss, speak (boydog only, girldog will not bark on command - just any other time!) and sit up. When I got them I just wasn’t into training more and then they had some health issues, so their best trick is being OMG Cute!

My cocker mix that I had out of college was super smart. And I had the time. So she learned about 45 commands! I think my favorite was “chaining” behaviors. So “Go to bed” meant that she would go into the bedroom, push the door closed, pull the chain to turn out the light, and burrow under the covers:yes:

I do therapy visits with my mini aussie. She knows sit, down, stand, stay, and come with both verbal commands and hand signals. For tricks she knows, shake, high five, sit up, say your prayers(puts front paws on my arm and tucks her head down between her legs), go to sleep (lays out flat on her side), jumps threw hula hoop, leave it, and bows.

My older boy is the most trainable and despite being a general curmudgeon he loves to perform (possibly the poodle in him). In addition to the basics he knows “walk to mommy” on his hind legs, bow and head-down, and is the king of leave it.
My other poodle mix leaps into my arms, twirls in a circle on hind legs and has almost mastered jumping through my arms.
The weimaraner has been neglected in the trick department but will stand between my legs when I tell him to come close. He will also allow the little Schnoodle to launch off his back from the floor into my arms.

The Labrador, Lord love her, isn’t the quickest turtle in the race. It took almost a month to teach her to lie down without flopping on her back. She knows the basics now and her ‘beg’ is the best of all of them. She also knows ‘nudge’ but does it too much!

This thread is inspiring me to get out the training treats when I get home :slight_smile: