Want to teach tricks
 

HI All,

As of now, Bindi can only sit, down (sometimes), and stay(sometimes). I'd really love her to learn another trick. i tried to teach her shake. but she just doesnt get it :-/ she picked up the other stuff so fast but she just doesnt get shake (give me a paw). I tried to teach her by putting her in a sit position and then saying shake and picking up her right paw. Then click and treat. All she does is eat the treats lol. All the dogs in her puppy class was able to do it in one day :( also, i cant seem to get her into a down position from just standing. i always have to put her in sit first. any way to get her in down?
what easy tricks have you thought your yorkie and how?
thanks!
~V

I have my 13 week old baby doing kiss (my favorite), sit, lay (down), and stand. I have been working on one a week for 1/2 hour a day seperated through out the day. Next week it's going to be shake. I can't wait for dance!

When my trainer taught us shake, she'd show the dogs a treat first and them cup it in her hand. After a while the dogs starting pawing at her hand to get the treat out. She's click and treat every time they lifted their paws, then every time they touched her hands. Once they get going straight to toughing her hands she started opening her hand and showing her palm. Once she has that down you can move her hand her up like a high 5 and she should still try to touch her palm.

If you look back I explained bang bang and roll over all out once. I don't know how far back in my posts you'd have to go though.

Another member once gave a goo idea to get them to learn kiss. Put a little bit of peanut butter on her cheek and tell her kiss and let her lick it off. I thought that was a great way to teach them, much easier than the way i did it

I don't know if you play catch with Bindi, but we're always playing with her. Before we throw the ball, we can Meeko do a trick. He's so excited to get the ball, he'd do anything for us to throw it. When I'm teaching him a new trick, I usually do that one and it reinforces quickly. If I'm not I just do sit and he like jumps down from a standing position. Maybe if you tried that, Bindi would start laying down from standing position. Now if you know how to get them to sit from a lay down position, I'm all ears lol. Hope i helped some

Here is how I got Layla to do "down" from a standing position. I'd put a treat between my thumb and forefinger and hold it right against the ground in front of her while she's standing. First instinct is for her to go down on her front paws to try to grab the treat. She would sometimes start licking at it, but I still wouldn't give it to her. I'd repeat the "down" command and before long she'd lower her back half too. As soon as that butt touched the floor I'd click and let her have the treat. They understand "sit" means butt on floor, but the tricky part is knowing that down means butt AND chest on floor. So if you can get that chest down first, it goes easier :) Now everytime I tell her "down" she automatically puts her chest down first and then her butt. I hope that helps!

I don't use a clicker but a really hearty "good boy" haha, but here's how I did it. After getting sit and down, work on different combinations of the 2 and use REALLY good treats! (I always used to save the REALLY good treats for potty training, but Scooter thought STAY meant get up and jump for the treat as fast as possible! After much frustration I tried with the really good treats, and he listened! So you might just need the right motivation!)
Anyways, I have hand motions for Scooter too, which I think he responds to much better than the words. For sit the hand (with the treat) goes up to the shoulder. For down it touches the ground. After getting sit and down on their own we'd do different combinations. Sit - down - sit worked well because he'd follow the treat, so he'd sit, then go down, then the treat went up to the shoulder, so he'd sit again! worked wonders. After that just down - sit worked well too. Now we're getting Down - Sit - Up!
I don't know if its the hand motions or the right motivation, or maybe he's just a quick learner, but it's been working for me!

I did a similar thing for 'give kisses' too, But i'd just rub the treat on my nose so he could smell it. Then I'd say 'give kisses' and stick my nose right against his, he'd smell the treat, lick my nose and get the treat! It worked great!