Tricks in Progress

[QuickSilver]

Sooooo, if it's okay to take this thread off Johnny for a moment...

I've actually found it hard to teach Thor to Speak consistently. I think it's probably confusing for dogs because they are reprimanded for barking all the time, and they can't quite believe that now that's what you are looking for.

To teach Thor, I first had to find his big motivator, which turned out to be... wet paws. Like a lot of yorkies, he goes crazy after a bath, and barks quite a bit, so I would dunk his feet, and then reward him every time he barked.

He still is not totally clear on the concept - if he's not super-excited, he'll only bark maybe every three times I cue him, and when he's super-excited, he doesn't always wait for my cue. Also, as someone else mentioned, it generally encouraged him to bark a lot more, just in case I wanted to stop working, or sleeping, or going to the bathroom, and pay attention to him instead.

I've basically just accepted it will take a long time. I work on it on and off with him, and he makes incremental progress. He also Whispers, which is unbearably cute.

[Britster]

Originally Posted by capt_noonie

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!

Oh wow! Well I'm glad he's doing it -- it just would not be the same without Johnny (or as sexy!)

Originally Posted by QuickSilver

Sooooo, if it's okay to take this thread off Johnny for a moment...

I've actually found it hard to teach Thor to Speak consistently. I think it's probably confusing for dogs because they are reprimanded for barking all the time, and they can't quite believe that now that's what you are looking for.

To teach Thor, I first had to find his big motivator, which turned out to be... wet paws. Like a lot of yorkies, he goes crazy after a bath, and barks quite a bit, so I would dunk his feet, and then reward him every time he barked.

He still is not totally clear on the concept - if he's not super-excited, he'll only bark maybe every three times I cue him, and when he's super-excited, he doesn't always wait for my cue. Also, as someone else mentioned, it generally encouraged him to bark a lot more, just in case I wanted to stop working, or sleeping, or going to the bathroom, and pay attention to him instead.

I've basically just accepted it will take a long time. I work on it on and off with him, and he makes incremental progress. He also Whispers, which is unbearably cute.

I agree with the "Speak!" Jackson looks at me as if I'm nuts. I'm usually telling him to be quiet, ya know? ha. He's not a terrible barker to begin with but when he does, I'm usually telling him no. I almost don't WANT to teach him Speak for fear of him barking more, ha. The only thing I've found where Jackson barks during play/excitedness is when I throw him his ball (not a tennis ball, like one of those kids rubber basketball sized balls, whatever they're called, lol) so I guess I could use that to my advantage.

Whisper is adorable! When are we going to see some videos of Thor?

[capt_noonie]

Speak was one of the first tricks we taught Uni, and it was not hard at all. All you do is hold a treat and we use the hand signal of our hand out like you're going to high five someone, but with fingers spread and say speak. If we don't ask her to speak, she doesn't get to. She does anyway, but if she is barking at something random, we go and acknowledge it, and then she'll stop.

We also taught growl with speak. When she wanted to continue to bark, we would point at her, and look at her all squinty eyed and "mad" and say no, she would get frustrated and growl, then we'd say "good growl" and treat. So many times now when she wants to bark, she'll growl instead. Growl was a bit harder to teach.

[Maximo]

I want to hear Thor whisper and I want to see him army crawl!

Originally Posted by capt_noonie

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

Where is this video? I have to see it!!

Maximo walks on his hind legs, arms waving in the air, and ears down when I come home from an outing. He doesn't even look like a Yorkie when he does it.

I'm happy to report Maxman has finally mastered "shake hands." He also has made "down' a little fancier by kicking out his arms as he goes down. Who was it who wrote on this thread that one of her dogs starts going through all the moves as soon as the treats come out? That is what my guy is doing now. I say, "Wanna train?" and he starts doing everything. What a nut.

[Maximo]

Originally Posted by Britster

I agree with the "Speak!" Jackson looks at me as if I'm nuts. I'm usually telling him to be quiet, ya know? ha. He's not a terrible barker to begin with but when he does, I'm usually telling him no. I almost don't WANT to teach him Speak for fear of him barking more, ha.

I don't have a lot of hope that Maximo will ever learn speak. In fact, I think the fastest way to shut him up is to tell him to speak. He gives me that same look of "Huh? Are you crazy?."

[Britster]

Originally Posted by Maximo

I want to hear Thor whisper and I want to see him army crawl!

Where is this video? I have to see it!!

Maximo walks on his hind legs, arms waving in the air, and ears down when I come home from an outing. He doesn't even look like a Yorkie when he does it.

I'm happy to report Maxman has finally mastered "shake hands." He also has made "down' a little fancier by kicking out his arms as he goes down. Who was it who wrote on this thread that one of her dogs starts going through all the moves as soon as the treats come out? That is what my guy is doing now. I say, "Wanna train?" and he starts doing everything. What a nut.

Originally Posted by Maximo

I don't have a lot of hope that Maximo will ever learn speak. In fact, I think the fastest way to shut him up is to tell him to speak. He gives me that same look of "Huh? Are you crazy?."

LOL, I think it was me. Jackson runs through all of his tricks sometimes when I'm trying to teach him a new one. He just wants that treat soooo bad.

And believe it or not, yesterday after posting about Speak, I got Jackson to do it! I said "speak" about 5x and he barked after each one. I used the ball that he really likes and when he would bark at it, I'd say "speak" and treat him. Maybe he caught on finally ....

[capt_noonie]

Originally Posted by Maximo

I want to hear Thor whisper and I want to see him army crawl!

Where is this video? I have to see it!!

Maximo walks on his hind legs, arms waving in the air, and ears down when I come home from an outing. He doesn't even look like a Yorkie when he does it.

I'm happy to report Maxman has finally mastered "shake hands." He also has made "down' a little fancier by kicking out his arms as he goes down. Who was it who wrote on this thread that one of her dogs starts going through all the moves as soon as the treats come out? That is what my guy is doing now. I say, "Wanna train?" and he starts doing everything. What a nut.

Here's the vid. Please don't pay any attention to our annoying baby voices. That's how we talk to Uni so she can understand.

YouTube - yorkie Uni does jack sparrow run and...

This has been the funniest angle to record her doing this, but I will try to do another angle soon where you see her arms flailing more.

[friscomom]

Love it, jack sparrow - can you get her to do that with the speak-with-ball-in-mouth at the same time?

I thought of introducing the speak/shush thing to Frisco today since the house was quiet, to present the concept I'd turn it on and say woof, turn it off, say shhhhh. His head cocked encouragingly, but whenever I said woof, he'd go check the door and window to see who was coming! Confusion!

plan b...

[friscomom]

Love it, jack sparrow - can you get her to do that with the speak-with-ball-in-mouth at the same time?

I thought of introducing the speak/shush thing to Frisco today since the house was quiet, to present the concept I'd turn it on and say woof, turn it off, say shhhhh. His head cocked encouragingly, but whenever I said woof, he'd go check the door and window to see who was coming! Confusion!

plan b...

[capt_noonie]

Originally Posted by friscomom

Love it, jack sparrow - can you get her to do that with the speak-with-ball-in-mouth at the same time?

I thought of introducing the speak/shush thing to Frisco today since the house was quiet, to present the concept I'd turn it on and say woof, turn it off, say shhhhh. His head cocked encouragingly, but whenever I said woof, he'd go check the door and window to see who was coming! Confusion!

plan b...

LOL the speak with the ball in her mouth only happens once in a long while. We'll have her get the ball and say speak, but most of the time she will just drop the ball, then speak. I'm glad we got it on vid that one time.

[Maximo]

Faints on bad rum breath! Uni is such a cool Yorkie! I love the look on her face! Great video!!

Originally Posted by capt_noonie

Here's the vid. Please don't pay any attention to our annoying baby voices. That's how we talk to Uni so she can understand.

YouTube - yorkie Uni does jack sparrow run and faints on bad rum breath

This has been the funniest angle to record her doing this, but I will try to do another angle soon where you see her arms flailing more.

[Maximo]

Originally Posted by Britster

And believe it or not, yesterday after posting about Speak, I got Jackson to do it! I said "speak" about 5x and he barked after each one. I used the ball that he really likes and when he would bark at it, I'd say "speak" and treat him. Maybe he caught on finally ....

As you have said before, things just click when you least expect it. Way to go Jackson!

I'm starting to think that a dog's aptitude to learn tricks increases with each trick learned.

[QuickSilver]

HA! That's hilarious. Uni's quite the looker, too! I didn't realize she had her full tail.

[capt_noonie]

Originally Posted by QuickSilver

HA! That's hilarious. Uni's quite the looker, too! I didn't realize she had her full tail.

Thanks, but Uni doesn't have a full tail. She does have a nice length docked tail, about 3 inches or so, but I'm growing out her hair.

[noisinka]

LOL @ faints on bad rum breath. Uni is sooooo cute and smart! Good job!

Sandy just learned 2 new tricks last week - bang and crawl. I'm still thinking what trick should come next. Haha.