Here are a couple of ideas for you

1) Yawn on command - really fun and easy to teach --

2) Playing the "shell game" - you have three "shells", but a treat under one mix them up and teach the dog to put a paw on the right one. Sounds simple 'cause they can actually smell the treat, but getting them to slow down and think the process through and actually select one by placing their paw on it is a bit of a challenge.

We also did this same trick by teaching her to pick a hand - we would let her watch us put a treat in one hand, put our hands behind our back and mix swap hands back and forth. We would have her sit down and sniff both hands and place her paw on the hand she wanted. If she picked the correct hand, she got the treat, if she didn't, then we tried again. Really neat trick.

3) There is a thing that our boxer does that is really cool. For lack of a better name for the trick we call it - "Eating like a RedNeck". She will open and close her mouth rapidly mimicking someone eating with their mouth open. It started by her watching us eat - we noticed that when she got excited she would open and close her mouth as we ate -- thus the idea. It was a simple matter to praise/reward her whenever she did it. We then taught her the verbal command and hand signal - finger on side of cheek.

How do you teach them to yawn, lol!?

1. Yawn on command.
How do you teach this? :confused:

2. Pick a shell and choose the correct hand.
He already knows these tricks.

3. Eat like a redneck. :yelrotflm:yelrotflm:yelrotflm:yelrotflm
I couldn't stop laughing when I read this one. Oh please! please! please! Could you post a video of your boxer? I know everyone would lve to see this.


Thanks for the tips chattiesmom!

My camera sux and I need to get a new one, but that won't be happening anytime soon. Brit can answer you, she's got great gadgets.

btw, what kind of food lure or treat are you using for the trick training? If it's not a high value, he won't really respond, however, if it's TOO high, all they will focus on is the treat and their brain will turn off. :rolleyes:

Teaching a dog to Yawn on command is easy, Easy EASY. It takes some time, but not much effort. To begin, start praising the heck out of him each time you see him yawn. Tell him GOOD yawn and point to your cheek -- you are actually teaching the verbal and hand signal at the same time. That's all there is to it -- you just catch him yawning and praise him. DO NOT ask him to yawn until you have "caught him in the act" enough so that he associates the word/hand signal with the action. To hurry the trick along a bit you can gently push the area where his mouth ends. This encourages them to open their mouth and many times to yawn.

You can also teach sneeze using the same basic idea, in fact, look for things that are a bit unusual that your dog does naturally and then take them a step further by teaching him to do those things on command.

I will try my hardest to take some videos of Boo doing the redneck thing. She is almost 14 years old and she has become selectively deaf - she hears what she wants to hear :D .

I'm using both kibble and lamb roll. The kibble is of higher value to Maximo than it would be for most dogs, but the lamb roll is even better -- perhaps it is too much. What do you use with Uni?

Maximo also responds very well to praise and happy dance celebrations. I practiced with him outside today with distractions and he did very well with quiet, sit, stay, and come. Although he was on a short leash, this was a major accomplishment considering a man he dislikes was to the left and a Husky was to the right of us, both within close range.

Oh good job Max!!! I used to do the happy dance thing too. When Uni would get something for the first time, i cheered so loud I freaked her out, and then she wouldn't do it again for a long time. :rolleyes: So now I just do petting and praise. As for the food lure, I use her kibble. have been ever since she was a baby. Trick training during mealtime, and she did not even know what a treat was until she was way over 1 yr old.

lol, yep, I've learned not to be too excited.... cuz then he just becomes unfocused so I just give him a few "Yes! good boy!"s every he does a trick.

Sooo food motivated
 

Bentley is soo food motivated, (I swear I could use dirt!:eek:) that I can't get him to focus on a trick. We have been working on roll over for weeks... he is not even trying, I move the food around beside his shoulder and as soon as it is part way over his back, he turns his head the other way, "oh mom , I can reach it..."
He does sit, stay, down, wave, dance (with such exuberance, it is dangerous for everyone around him lol:rolleyes:), and thats about it
I tried using a toy, he doesn't care, I got a new toy, he loved it, so I tryed keeping it only for training purposes. No, didn't work either...
Suggestions?

maybe when you move the treat over his shoulder move it reeeeeeeaaaaallllllyyyyyy slllllloooowww. if you see him start to turn the other way, move it back closer to him so he doesn't try to go to the other side. Also I have noticed that Uni will only turn one direction, so maybe try the other side?

Two stumbling blocks for Maximo:

1) He leads with his nose, never his paws, so we are having difficulty with lures for paw tricks. He wants to sniff, not paw my hand.

2) His butt is glued to the floor. He is obsessed with "sit" :rolleyes: (unless I say "come"). When I hold the treat over his head to try to get him to go up, Maximo wiggles his butt on the floor and stiffens his front legs as if to say, "I'm sitting nicely, give me the treat!"

I need to do my homework and watch the videos, read the books.

Does Maximo know how to shake hands?

Maybe if you do the guess which hand trick. Have him see you put a treat in one hand and make fists with both hands, and have him tell you which hand has the treat. I'm sure then he will use his paw. If he STILL uses his nose, you can modify it into a new trick. Uni does "tap" which she taps her nose on whatever I ask, be it my hand, or if she wants me to feed her faster she will tap her bowl that i am holding.

Hmm.... does he know shake? Have you ever tried to gently just take his paw and say 'shake' and shake his paw? Jackson for some reason took forever to learn shake. It took me physically grabbing his paw gently and saying the word shake for a little over a week every night and finally he just caught on.

He did "shake" for 2 days and quit. I now have to pick up his paw and shake it. We'll keep trying -- maybe the new kibble will motivate him.

I played the game and yep, Maximo used his nose. The only thing he seems to want to use his paws for is ripping hair out of his topknot. *sigh* I still need to watch some training videos on the web.

Does he ever hide his toys or dig in the couch or blankets? You could hide a treat under a blanket or pillow and say "go find" and have him dig with his paws. then once he gets used to using paws more he could do the shake and other stuff?

Maximo learned "down" this afternoon! This evening he was doing it on command without treats. :bananna:

(Since I have to refrain from doing the happy dance, I had to borrow Uni's dancing banana)

Good idea! I'll try that tomorrow.

Oh yea! Good job Maxie!!!

YAY!!!! :thumbup::thumbup:

This is very good advice captain noonie! :cool:

Small update:

I decided to turn Jackson's "back up" into a "moonwalk." LOL. Basically, he's got to stay in a sit and back up at the same time. I wanted him to be in a "bow" position and then back up, but it wasn't quite working out and he's just finally getting "take a bow" so I didn't want to confuse him.

Anyways, I'll get a video soon, he looks really cute. He only scoots about 3x though so I wanna get him moonwalking longer! ;)

That sounds so funny! Can't wait to see video. Any chance you could get him to wear a little Michael Jackson fedora when he does it? heeheehee (like the one MJ wore when he first performed the moonwalk on tv)

LOL, omg, I was sooo looking for doggie MJ clothes but couldn't find ANY! I wanted a red Thriller jacket for him for Halloween but couldn't find any!

ooooooooo, can't wait for the moonwalk vid!!!!

I'm so impressed with everyone's trick list!

I enjoy teaching Thor simple tricks, but after spending MONTHS AND MONTHS on Roll Over and Bang!, I don't think I have it in me to teach another advanced one.

I would love for Thor to have a "signature trick". He does two things really well that I have never put on cue: he "army crawls" all the time when he's excited, and he's really good at standing on his hind legs like a little person. He knows he's adorable when he does that one, so he always busts it out when he's begging for food from strangers.

Any thoughts on how to build on these and make them unique? One other thing I've thought is maybe "Sing". When he's disgruntled, he makes a long series of bizarre noises that are pretty hilarious.

I'm so glad you've joined us in this thread! I've missed your training insight around here. :D

The standing on hind legs thing is so cute! That's how I taught Jackson "dance." He would do it by himself and eventually I just started moving my hands up and down and telling him to "dance" and he taught himself that trick, really. Maybe every time Thor displays this behavior, just say the cue and add a hand signal. I tried this method with teaching Jackson to take a bow and I think it helped him catch on faster. He often did the bow position by himself while stretching, etc, and whenever I'd catch him doing it I'd say "take a bow!"

As for making it unique, maybe when he's on his hind legs, get him to do a little twirl or a spin while standing by luring him with some food.

Singing would be adorable. It's funny (I think I've stated it in this thread before) that Jackson seems to take sooo much longer to learn simple, easy tricks and he still won't "speak" on command.

Uni runs on her back legs and resembles a drunken sailor, so we call it the "Jack Sparrow run". :D

lol, I've seen your video, that is hystericallll when she faints from his bad breath, LOL!

Not to go TOTALLY o/t, but what is up with Johnny Depp possibly not being in the next Pirates?

I've been updating the Johnny thread every now and then but no one seems to care except me, and Marissa101 has been MIA in quite some time. :(

Anyway, no, he's is in fact in part 4. They announced it a while back at the D23 expo (in the Johnny thread about what happened there), but he was hesitant about it after one of the Disney heads was let go a few months ago. I used to know (former customer) the brother of one of the main writers of the POTC movies, and he told me a long time ago they had already signed on to write part 4, and at that time they already knew Johnny was a yes, Gore (the director) a no, Orlando and Keira also no. Don't see how they could seeing as how the story ended in part 3. And Geoffrey Rush (Barbossa) will be back as well.

Sorry for the long blurb, you know what happens if you ask me a question about Johnny!