Dog Tricks

[Happy Panther]

What are some good tricks for which you have trained your dog?

 

We have, sit, shake, down and roll over so far.

[Doyle]

Peanut butter?  Give it a try you never know.

[Happy Panther]

Peanut butter?  Give it a try you never know.

 

Afraid he would bite it off.

[Hawk]

teaching your dog tricks is easy....I teach other dogs to rip apart the house while their owners are at work!

[mr beauxjangles]

About a decade ago, a friend of mine taught her pit-lab mix to "raise the roof" - dog would put both paws in the air and gently bounce/move up and down on her hind legs while my friend made the motion with her hands. Utterly useless but amused people because the dog would respond to anyone that made that hand motion.

[MrHoward]

One mine will do that people get a kick out of is falling over and playing dead when you hold out your hand like a gun and say "bang"

[Happy Panther]

One mine will do that people get a kick out of is falling over and playing dead when you hold out your hand like a gun and say "bang"

 

Nice.

 

How the hell do you train it to do that?

[car5nc]

I have mine doing all sorts of little tricks but my favorite is her catching frisbees...Not a whole lot of traning. She's a Border Collie and just seemed like second nature to her...It's awesome when she get's serious air on some throws.

[MrHoward]

First piece of advice I would have for teaching tricks like this would be get a training clicker.  You can get them online or at Petsmart. It is a small device you hold in your hand with a button that makes a clicking noise.  When you get it, just click it and give your pup a treat right after you click.  Much like Pavlov's dogs and the bell, eventually the click becomes the reward, and this allows you to instantly tell the dog when he/she has done what you want them to do.  This instant confirmation is invaluable in teaching more complex tricks.  You simply break the trick down into parts and using the clicker (mixed with treats every so often) to tell the pup when she's done what you want.  As she gets the hang of a part of the trick, make her do the next step before you click/praise/treat.  Once you get the clicker conditioning down with your dog, the complexity of tricks is just a matter of your dogs intelligence and your patience to work through the steps.

 

As far as shooting the dog, I started with her laying down.  I would grab her and roll her on her side while saying "bang" and click/reward once she was on her side.  After about 2 sessions of this, I didn't have to grab her anymore, so I would tell her down, point my finger and "bang", and reward when she rolled on her side.  Once she had this mastered, I skipped "down" command and went straight to the gun and "bang".  She quickly learned to fall over and lay on her side.  All in all, it took about three or four 10 minute sessions for her to get it down. Sorry for writing a book here, but just build on baby steps, and you'll have your pup doing a neat trick that is a real crowd pleaser.

[Mayor Qumiby]

Damn ...how am I supposed to go after this guy lol. He covered everything I was going suggest and more. What kind of dog do you have Mr.Howard

[MrHoward]

Ha, sorry to steal your thunder....and my gf says I talk too much!  I've got a mutt.  She's a lab boxer mix that will be 2 in December.  I sometimes think she is smarter than some people I know.  I tried to teach her to get me a beer, but she can be a little skittish.  I finally got her to open the fridge, and a jar fell over in the door and scared the snot out of her.  Back to square 1, and I kind of gave up.  Thinking of making another run at it.

[thefuzz]

I think that "down" and stay are very important depending on the breed.

 

 

Also dogs that beg at the dinner table drive me nuts, there was a certain part of the house that my dog would go when I ate, and I would give him a treat if I didn't hear or see him during dinner.

[Shufdog]

My dog comes when I call him, that's all I care about.

[Guest Spider Monkey]

Teaching a dog "tricks" is dumb & unimpressive.

Try obedience, something that is actually useful.