What's your favorite dog trick? (Looking for ideas)

[Jamie_Dog_Trainer]

One of my most favorite trick is to teach a "whisper" command where the dog opens their mouth as if to bark and no sound comes out. It is easiest to teach this after the dog knows how to bark on command. Another fun trick is "salute" where you start out with a peice of tape above one eye (be consistent with which eye) and when the dog goes to paw it off you reward, eventually not using the tape. The paw will go up over the eye with the dog's head looking up into your face in a salute. It is very cute.

Two things I always teach my puppies right off the bat are spin and twirl. Spin is to the right and twirl is to the left. Then there's the old stand by of "shake" or "say hello", then graduate to high fiving and then high ten.

Trick training is some of the most useful training because it takes the formality out of training and therefor releases you and your dog from some of the pressure of obedience training. It is fun and a puppy can learn a lifetime of loving to be trained when you teach tricks first.

 

[wordgirl]

Wow! Thank you, everyone, for your wonderful ideas! I would like to teach "Speak" to him, but have you found your dogs are more likely to bark if you teach them this? I've heard that it really doesn't make them bark more, and that actually it makes it easier to keep them quiet after they know how to bark on command (you can then teach them to be quiet on command). Have you found that to be true?

Jumping tricks - he has springs for back legs.

He can jump a ten-foot long jump, and jump straight up about five or six feet. Last year was his first year in 4-H, so we couldn't do agility, but since he passed his obedience, we can do agility together this year. I have jumps and an A-Frame at home that my Dad built for me and our older dog. I think if he can learn to FOCUS he'll be great at it, since he can jump and runs like a bullet. Contact zones may be somewhat of a problem....

I wonder if I could teach him "Bang" - he's pretty good at popping Down when at home, but he is not very good at STAYing down, especially when away from the house. That was not much fun at 4-H last year....

Finding the remote would be a helpful trick.

He has a good nose - maybe he would be good at tracking, too. FlaRocky - do they have tracking competitions for non-registered dogs? gritsar, I may need to try the Hide the Treat game - if he would do it, maybe it would occupy him for a while!

Has anyone ever tried teaching their dog to go to a target? Boaz kind of gets the idea, but he's not so great at staying ON the target once he gets there. Any tips?

Thank you all, again!

 

[canesisters]

I saw a dog on TV (on NOVA I think) who and learned the names of dozens of objects. They could ask for them one at a time and he would go and get that one. They even put a new one in the pile of toys and asked for that one - the dog went over, looked and looked, and (apparently) decided that since he had been given a new 'name' and there was a new toy then they must go together. It was VERY impressive.
I don't see why you couldn't teach your guy to find 'keys' and 'remote' and anything else. Maybe even the 'open the fridge, and bring me a soda' trick.

 

[zzGypsy]

Quote:
my mom's dog when she was a kid had a huge vocabulary - he learned to limp and hold up a paw as his way of saying "I want something"... they'd go through the list of his words until he'd bark, then that's what he wanted... out, a cookie, a walk, a particular toy, food, fresh water in his dish, a belly rub... it was bull terrier.