Yorkie Tricks?

[krissey]

Have you guys and gals trained your babies to do any tricks? And if so, how do you train them? I need to train my baby before it's too late..

[Junebug]

Use LOTS and LOTS of treats!! You can get them to do anything with treats!

If you make your fingers in the shape of a gun, and say "BANG," Otis will fall over and play dead. Let's see...he can wave "HI" with one paw.

If you say "KISS-KISS," he will lick your face.

If you say "GET IN YOUR BAG," he'll jump in the bag.

He knows the basics, SIT, STAY, ROLLOVER, LAY DOWN, GO POOPEE.

All right...enough of the bragging mother!

[krissey]

Wowie zowie! That's some neat tricks. My baby is so hyper though! Do you ever tell Otis to go Poopee and he doesn't need to poop?

[fasteddie]

Amazing tricks Junebug, I gotta yell Yoda what Otis can do to uhh, "inspire" him to learn. Yoda can dance, sorta, though, of course you need to hold a treat in front of him. He can pirouette pretty well when he wants the treat bad enough.

[silvi]

Geez, that is one cool BANG trick. I think you need to videotape it for us. ha ha

[bettyeanne]

Originally Posted by krissey

Have you guys and gals trained your babies to do any tricks? And if so, how do you train them? I need to train my baby before it's too late..

One of Toto's "tricks" is that she will sit up [looks kinda like a little "prarie dog"] and she begins to "talk" [she makes little sounds that we swear sometimes sounds like words!! HONEST!] after she has our attention she pats her little front paws and we call it "pattycake"! She will keep this up until we acknowledge her, either with a treat or just a "Good Girl"! I don't believe that Yorkie's are ever too old to learn ... you just have to be diligent. She just did this one on her own and we gave her a treat and she has just been doing it ever since ... they just crave attention! Like she isn't already the center of our universe!!!

[Junebug]

Originally Posted by krissey

Wowie zowie! That's some neat tricks. My baby is so hyper though! Do you ever tell Otis to go Poopee and he doesn't need to poop?

Sometimes before we go to bed, Mike will say "Go poopee" and Otis will run out to the kitchen to do his business. Sometimes he ignores Mike and rolls onto his back and looks up at him.

Sometimes after we wake up, we'll tell him "Go poopee," and yes, there will be a piece of fresh poop on the pad.

For the most part, he knows what the word means. "Poopie" for us means number one and number two.

[Junebug]

Originally Posted by krissey

My baby is so hyper though!

I actually think hyper dogs are easier to teach than calm dogs! Hyper dogs seem to want to get a reaction out of you, and they respond well to praises and treats.

Otis is on the calm side, and in the beginning, it was really hard to teach him. We went to puppy training school, he didn't do too well because he was the smallest puppy in the class and probably felt intimidtaed. But the classes taught me a lot in terms of how to work with my dog, and even though Otis is now 4, I still use a lot of the methods in training that I learned from the class.

I was fascinated when I saw puppies responding to hand signals! Dogs truly are amazing pets.

I don't remember how old Neesa is, but if she's under 6 months and fully vaccinated, I would recommend "Sirius Puppy Training" for her or any other puppy. Here's the link:SiriusTraining. It's a lot of fun! I'm not sure where you are located, but I'm sure there's more info on the web site.

[Junebug]

Originally Posted by fasteddie

Yoda can dance, sorta, though, of course you need to hold a treat in front of him. He can pirouette pretty well when he wants the treat bad enough.

How cute!! Does he have his rapper's outfit on when he's dancing? hehehe!

What I was taught is you need to assign a word to the action so that the dog can relate the action with the word.

So everytime Yoda does that dancing motion, make sure to say "Dance! Dance! Dance!" then soon he'll be able to do it on command, maybe even without a treat!

[fasteddie]

Yes, we do try to assign a word to each distinct action. Hrmm, Yoda still pees outside and is really good about it in his pee bin, but pooping is another story. He likes to wander about outside, goes from one side of the porch to another, then circles about 3 times, then finally does his duty.

No, Yoda is frail and timid anytime we put on any of his costumes, whether it be Gangsta Pup, SuperYoda, or his Bunny Outfit. He'll just stay and look all pathetic and not want to move at all.

So, with Otis, you don't need to wake up in the middle of the night for him at all? Does he know how to go get water on his own, go pee or poop if he needs to, or eat a midnight snack?

[Junebug]

Originally Posted by fasteddie

So, with Otis, you don't need to wake up in the middle of the night for him at all? Does he know how to go get water on his own, go pee or poop if he needs to, or eat a midnight snack?

Yes, Otis does all of that by himself....that's why Mike built the steps, so Otis can climb up and down the bed by himself, and won't bother us while we're sleeping!! hehehehe...yeah yeah, we're lazy!

[Junebug]

Originally Posted by fasteddie

but pooping is another story. He likes to wander about outside, goes from one side of the porch to another, then circles about 3 times, then finally does his duty.

That sounds like Otis trying to find a spot on the bed to fall asleep! I swear, he takes forever to lie down! He finds a spot, makes a million circles, doesn't like it, goes to the other side, makes another 10 circles, etc.....

Does Yoda poop on the pee pad too, or does he only poop outside?

[MikeM]

Originally Posted by Junebug

That sounds like Otis trying to find a spot on the bed to fall asleep! I swear, he takes forever to lie down! He finds a spot, makes a million circles, doesn't like it, goes to the other side, makes another 10 circles, etc.....

She's speaking the truth. Sometimes I feel like I'm watching the movie Signs with the amount of crop circles Otis is making to get comfortable.

Junebug forgot one other trick: USE THE STAIRS. Honestly, he knows that phrase now, and is starting to use the stairs on command. The trick was easy to teach him. Just don't bring him up on the bed, say the phrase, and then tap on the top of the stairs. Whammo, instant trick learned.

[bettyeanne]

Originally Posted by MikeM

She's speaking the truth. Sometimes I feel like I'm watching the movie Signs with the amount of crop circles Otis is making to get comfortable.

Junebug forgot one other trick: USE THE STAIRS. Honestly, he knows that phrase now, and is starting to use the stairs on command. The trick was easy to teach him. Just don't bring him up on the bed, say the phrase, and then tap on the top of the stairs. Whammo, instant trick learned.

So, Mike, when are you gonna start taking orders for the little stairs??

[Higgin's Mom]

Every night I bring in a footstool from the living room and Higgins knows it's time to pop up into bed. Did it right from the gitgo. He gets up and down during the night if he needs to pee on his pad.

Since we have been home, his housetraining has experienced a setback. MOST of the time he pees on his pad or when we go outside. BUT he poops all over the place and I don't seem to be getting anywhere with him......GET THIS: Last night I walked into my bedroom and there was a poop on the carpet. So I looked right at Higgins and scowled and said "Poop on your pad" in a not very happy tone of voice. Then I went to the bathroom to get some toilet paper to pick up the poopie and put it in the toilet....but when I got back to where the poop was, IT HAD VANISHED! Then I noticed my bedskirt moving.....and who comes marching out from under my bed but Higgins, with, I SWEAR, a smile on his face that said "No more poopie on the carpet, Mommy." I looked under the bed. There were FOUR poopies under there! That little devil has been cleaning/hiding them up for awhile! Now then, a dog who is smart enough to do that OUGHT to be smart enough to do them outside or on the pad to begin with! We are going to have a little talk.......