Favourite tricks?

[Leanne]

I’ve always thought of ‘tricks’ as being things that are novelty.. my trainer however insists that tricks are anything that your dog does on command, such as sit etc.

I’ve taught quite a few ‘tricks’ but I like to have one that I’m working on and a few that I’m reinforcing... so thought I would ask what everyone else has taught? (Mainly so I can steal it obvs!)

We so far have:

Sit
Down
Wait
Shut the door (why I taught that I’ve no idea because it drives me nuts now ?)
Roll over (will do but weirdly always bites my ankle before he does it)
Twist
Be sneaky/army crawl (work in progress)
Find it (work in progress, can find certain things)
Hold it (work in progress)
Off (hahaha such a work in progress)
Leave

I don’t want to teach paw because I don’t want it to become a offered behaviour.

Anyone got anything else? Ideally with pictures ?

 

[Jacqui-S]

Bang.....play dead basically on using the word BANG or using a not PC plastic gun.
Can supply video evidence later.

PS funny but gun aitocorrects to GIN.

 

[snowbunny]

Your trainer is right, anything we put on cue can be classified the same way. Even things we teach "just for fun" can have useful applications.

Other than the normal stuff, I have:
Nose target my hand or another object
Spin and turn (twirl to the left and to the right)
Middle
Leg weaves
Front feet on
Four feet on
Working on backing up onto a platform
Working on tic-tacs
Jumping cleanly over something
Jumping assisted over something (like a log, where they put their feet on it as they go over)
Wrap around an object in both directions
Stop at a distance
Front feet on me

I'm sure there are loads more!

 

[HAH]

Great ideas, thanks for the thread @Leanne.

We're works in progress on a lot, but beyond the regular we have:
Find it (normally Mr Fox, but increasingly other things)
Nose target hand
Nose target chest with fist bump cue (mainly for getting in the right position to be lifted out of the car, but increasingly useful for other stuff!)
Front feet up
Front feet on me
Give left paw
Give right paw
Sit up (from down)
Back up (work in progress)
Surfing (he's just got a new longboard)

 

[Beanwood]

Interesting, apart from gundog stuff I don't really have that much. I guess it's either gundog stuff with all of them or behavioural stuff with Casper, currently working on "Look and Dismiss" and some stuff from absolute dogs, "hand down lead and turn" when in a fix...

Knock on door - run to bed (work in progress... )
jump on, jump over...
Stop at a distance
Directions at a distance
Play dead
Dying fly
Go to bed
Placeboard targetting
Go to target pole and stop
Hand touch
Target touch

 

[Beanwood]

YOUR DOG HAS HIS OWN SURFBOARD???

 

[Leanne]

Ok what is dying fly?

Also WHY HAVE I NEVER SEEN A VIDEO OF SURFING DOG?

I forgot we also do touch!

 

[Leanne]

@snowbunny is middle where they go in between your legs? I was trying to train that and had no success at all! He just kept biting my thighs ?

 

[Xena Dog Princess]

I really want to teach "bang bang dead" but...how?

My favourite trick is "take a bow". I'm intermittently working on a commando crawl but it's tough going.

 

[HAH]

I'm sorry, that was an untruth - Kipper doesn't surf (yet...). I have hopes of getting into stand up paddle-boarding, and One Day he might join me on that, but not for a while.
I just really love this photo of him sitting proudly in front of 'his' new board

 

[Leanne]

I am ridiculously disappointed. Put that dog on a surfboard now ?

 

[snowbunny]

@snowbunny is middle where they go in between your legs? I was trying to train that and had no success at all! He just kept biting my thighs ?

Yep, that's the one. My lot all love it, even Ginny

 

[Selina27]

I was trying to train that and had no success at all!

I've only just started doing this with Cassie, she's 2. It was a useful thing to do in the cool of the house in the recent hot weather. She's loving it --- she's got her own take on it mind you, instead of coming right through she scoots backwards as fast she can so she can do it again! As so often I get halfway through something and laughter takes over! It's something that I find does translate quite well to the outside world, lately I've been doing it with the blackberries she loves to find.

Then there's cross paw, which was the October challenge, it took ages and required hard work and concentration which frustrated her but by going back to it every now and again she's got it.

 

[Joy]

The trick Molly seems to enjoy most is picking up objects in the order I choose and putting them in a box or basket.

 

[Atemas]

Go round
Middle
Two on (front paws on box)
Cop cop (middle with front paws on my feet)
Touch
Stay
Go dead (DH uses the word ‘go’, I say ‘play’!)
This way
Heel (left side), Side (right side) - move between two when asked
Clam - get ‘em
Under
Stop
Ok Go (Premack)
Stop (whistle and voice)
Circle (spinning on box)
Weave (through legs)
On your bed or on the mat

 

[Ashley]

We've done a Tricks Dog Course, and there are 101 tricks that qualify for a title. My favourites from the class are:
Middle (from the back, through legs poke head up to look at me)
Crawl
Sit Pretty (my favourite)
Wave

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

Shut the door (why I taught that I’ve no idea because it drives me nuts now ?)

There's always at least one trick that you think, "Now why did I do THAT?"

Brogan's party trick - learned by necessity to pass his service dog exam - was picking pretty much anything up. He could pick up a coin. It was impressive. But the thing that everyone liked - and he loved doing all the way into old age - was "Get your leash". For some reason, we'd go through airport security and the personnel would give me the third degree until Brogan picked up his on leash and handed it to me. Then we'd get, "What a cool dog!".

"Back up" also comes in handy more than you would think, especially if you ever take your dog on public transportation. It also looks impressive, even if it's really easy to teach.

I'm currently teaching Carbon 'under' in preparation for our train journey. It's also really good for taking your dog to pubs/restaurants. 'Under' the table and you've got a good companion for an evening out.

My favourite thing to do, though, is a simple down stay... but in public. I love taking Carbon out to the main square, plunking him down and then walking away. Yes, it's a showy offy thing to do, but I love the positive attention he gets plus it's helping impulse control for all other things too as he has to ignore dogs, kids, bikes, etc. while doing his down stay. And he's such a people dog that I honestly think he loves being the 'star' of the square, for just a little bit every day.

 

[Charlie]

@Beanwood what is Dying fly and "look and Dismiss" please? x

 

[Beanwood]

@Charlie, the dying fly is Casper's trick...basically, when we go Bang! He rolls on his back and waggles his legs in the air, so we called it the "dying fly". Benson rolls over (rather melodramatically...) then goes "dead".

"Look and Dismiss" is more along the lines of rewarding the dog (Casper...) for first looking at the trigger then looking away. I used to reward for looking back at me, but he often now looks at the trigger and sniffs the ground. Rightly or wrongly, when he does this I tend to throw a few treats on the floor to encourage this. I feel Casper doesn't need to look back at me, and I actually prefer it if he adopts a more natural behaviour which would be sniffing, moving away, or looking at me.

 

[Charlie]

Apart from all the usual cues, I have taught Charlie to:-

Empty my washing machine which is OK if you don't mind drool on your clean clothes He gives them to me one by one which is so cute
Get my keys
Get the post
He can get some of his toys by name
I am teaching him to put his toys in a box

Hattie is far too cool for such trivia x