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

[wordgirl]

Hello,

I have a 1.5-year old lab and he is both extremely energetic and extremely smart. He picks up things quite fast, which can be both good and bad sometimes! To give him something to do, I'd like to teach him a few more tricks. He knows Shake really well, and "Touch" relatively well, and I've been working on "Target" (go stand on a target). He kind of does a "beg" but he's not great at balancing on his back legs. He also knows several basic commands. But I would like some other more "for fun" commands to teach him and give him something to do with his head and all that energy. What are your favorites?

Thanks!

wordgirl and Boaz (my buddy)

 

[punk-a-doodle]

I don't really teach tricks (we just do basic obedience with her and games) to my dog, but I do teach tricks to one of our cats. Right now, she will jump through hoops, tug at my sleeve as if getting my attention, sit, stay, stand, jump, "high-five", rub against you on command, and some other things. She is just a very smart cat who gets into things if not kept busy and occupied, so they are really for her benefit and not ours. If she keeps learning new ones though, might take her to a retirement home or something for a fun little 'show', but she won't be pettable is the only problem. She's super sweet with us and family, but she doesn't like strangers petting her.

The one command I'm really glad we taught the dog is 'stay on the trail'. We have a lot of rattle snakes and stuff out this way, so I like her to stay on the cleared off paths for hikes. We also have wilderness protection areas, and I don't want her trampling plants down. I was very glad we taught her this one when we passed by and found an aggitated baby rattler right to the trail side.

Your dog is adorable! Look at that happy jumping face.

 

[zzGypsy]

my favorite trick ever with one of my dogs was "Bang"... make a gun finger shape, point at her and say "bang" and she'd flop right over on her side dead. except that she'd lay there wagging and looking at you like "that was a really GOOD dead wasn't it? eh? eh? wasn't it?" could never get her to lay quiet with her eyes shut...

second best was flat tire: once the dog was in down position, take hold of her tail and crank it up and down as if running up the jack under your car... the back end comes up half an inch each crank, but if you stopped before the back end was all the way up, it'd sag back down slowly to the ground. if you got her back end cranked all the way up, it'd stay up. they you'd say "vrooom!" and off she'd dash!

we had "shake" and "no your other paw", rolling over both ways, "ssssss" which would get two of my dogs to crawl on their bellies like snakes... and super slow walking... in heel position but keeping exact pace with me so if I slowed waaaaay down she'd walk right with me in slow motion steps.

plus "find your frog" for her favorite squeeky toy. wish I could have taught her "find my keys"!

"slime the cat" was pretty good... had a hound and a cat that like to play together, usually ending up with the hound mouthing the cat's head until he looked like Bill The Cat... they were doing it anyway so we put a command to it.

one of my friend's dogs fetches beer or soda (your choice) out of the frige.

I'm thinking I need to teach the next one to turn on and off light switches.

and I might teach one of the border collies to play the shell game with kibble (you know, a treat under one cup and two empty cups, I mix them around, dog puts her paw on the one with the treat).

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

The only really useful thing my dogs know is "Back up". Given that they prefer to be under my feet, this one comes in handy.

 

[gritsar]

This "trick" is a little more complicated and only works with our older GSD, Jax.

We let Jax smell a "cookie" (aka treat), then hide it somewhere in the house and tell Jax to seek. Jax goes along every cabinet, drawer, cubby hole until he finds it. We've hidden cookies on vehicles in the past and had Jax do it the way a police K9 does. Jax seems to enjoy the seek more than the cookie.

Our younger GSD refuses to learn this. Kane's all about the cookie and doesn't understand why he should work for it.

 

[anderson8505]

My favorite trick... pretending that I am going outside, waiting for my crazier every day chocolate lab to go out the door, then shutting the door behind him.

That dog arrived here 2 1/2 years ago underweight and recovering from heartworm treatment, a rescue from another state. Now? He's pushing 100 lbs and has more energy than I can deal with.

I prefer chickens!

I will keep an eye on this thread for the right trick for my "Hunter Baby"

 

[dainerra]

I would look into rally or agility. There are lots of videos on how to make your own agility equipment. Then you can enter competitions in your area if you wish.

You can buy rally signs and practice at home. They are relatively inexpensive as well.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

At this point in time..

"Quiet."

Can you teach it to my puppy??

No, but seriously, why not train him to walk another dog? Or to pick up their own toys?

 

[FlaRocky]

Teach to speak, then wisper. Wisper my dog just moves her mouth, very little sound.

Get a tracking title on your guy. He will have loads of fun. Meet great people. They have different levels of tracking degrees.

Or you can teach him sent discrimination. Where he can pick your glove out of a pile, or other objects.

Pick up a book on sent and tracking training. Good exercise for both and will create an even tighter bond.

PM me if you have any questions about it. I used to train search and rescue K-9 and police work dogs. Labs, GSD, Bloodhounds, and my favorite girl a Weimaraner.

Maye

 

[Wisher1000]

I like "Bang" as well! Funny, that's exactly what we call it! The other I love is "Jump." Teach him to jump over something on command and then back over on command. It is real easy to teach an active dog (looks like yours is!) I would have my dog jump over a stick at various heights (start very low and work your way up.) Then over my foot/leg as I stuck it out in front of me. He would jump through a Hula-Hoop or my arms in a circle. People thought it was VERY clever but is is super easy to teach. I would show him the treat in my left hand and hold the stick about three inches off the floor in my right. He would step over the stick to get the treat and I would say "JUMP!" just as he went over it. Do that over and over until he waits for the stick to be in position so he can jump it and get a treat. Raise it a couple of inches at a time making sure that he "gets it" before the next height increase until you get to about (his) collar high (your dog may be able to jump even higher, but mine was a Dachsund and I was afraid it would hurt his back.) Then ask for the jump back in the opposite direction before you give the treat. Once he knows that the jump gets him the treat, he will jump over anything. I use tiny, 1/4 inch square pieces of cheese for the training treats and he would do anything for the bits of cheese.