Any Dog Dancers, or Canine Freestyle (Heelwork and Frisbee) Wannabees?

k9player

k9player

Experienced Member
From looking at a few video clips, I am guessing a few people on this web-site do some dog dancing. I see it as something of a natural progression from trick training.

I love doing dog tricks, teaching them and getting my girl to perform, but she does have something of a mind of her own, and gets bored easily. I would really like to be able to put together a dog dancing routine, but I am not sure if I will ever manage to pull it off.

Maintaining focus on a task that she doesn't find exciting, or in the face of distraction (and sooooo many things are wonderfully distracting) is difficult for my little girl. She has improved but we still have a long way to go. Then again I am not very co-ordinated and don't move very well myself (and the dancing is a team effort).


We may never be a Dog Dancing team, but I suspect we could do some interesting things with a frisbee freestyle routine, as she loooovves frisbees.


So who else out there is interested in or doing dog dancing or frisbee freestyle stuff, tell us (or better still show us) what you can do...
 
tx_cowgirl

tx_cowgirl

Honored Member
Staff member
Well, I definitely wouldn't call myself a dog-dancer in training, but...I do like working into a routine of sorts...kinda. I like the idea of freestyle, as I think it is an excellent way to improve your dog's concentration, body awareness, and skill. However, I don't really try to do anything to music...(someday maybe, lol).
I like to teach my dogs a very wide variety of tricks, and get them to perform them in succession(like the freestyle routines). I do it simply because it's fun, it's good for them, and...well, it looks cool. Lol. The dogs enjoy it and so do I. With Mud and Zeke, it's a matter of giving them something to do. Z is desperate for JOBS, and the "freestyle" gives him something to do, something to work towards, something to focus on.
Something you can try if you want...
When I work on performing different tricks in succession, I treat the situation as if they temporarily forgot the second/third/fourth trick that I have asked them to do. For instance, if I tell Mud, "Sit, Down," and she only gets the sit, then I lure her into the down. Once in the standing position again, I ask for the sit and lure her into the down with the command. Once the "Sit, Down" is good, I add another sit. With the third command being more than what she is used to, you'll get a reaction like, "Wait, wait, I can't process that thought that fast. What do I do again???" So, I simply ask for the "Sit, Down" and then lure back into the sit with the command. She knows the command, but putting it together with the other two takes a little refresher. That's a simple example.
So let's try something a little more advanced, or intermediate really.
When I taught the command "Spin," I of course taught her to spin once. Once she had one spin perfectly, I asked for more. And of course, I got the "Wait, slow down a minute" reaction. So, after one command and one spin, I went right into luring her into another, and giving the command. The trick is being fluid with it. You can't wait five seconds after the first spin, then lure into the second. If you have to lure the first trick, that's okay. At first it will be slow, but as she gets better at performing the trick, she will speed it up on her own.
Get the idea? Anyway, this is just what I do with Mud. I use the same method with each new trick that I add, and she eventually begins to "think faster" and process each command quicker so that she can perform them in succession. When I introduce a new trick, I always do it in the same place...my living room, which is actually pretty distracting. The TV is left on, Nick is running around, and Tanner(my cat, who is VERY distracting) is nosing about. (Rusty and Z tend to be pretty...um..."helpful," and like to join in, so they go outside.) Anyway, so she's adjusted quite well to focusing in a moderately distracting environment. I slowly increase the distractions, and eventually I go to a completely different place. For her, going to a field near my house that has almost no distractions is different. I'm sure you already know most of this stuff...I seem to recall a few pics and posts of yours that I've seen, and if I remember right you're pretty advanced in my book! :doghappy: So please forgive me if this is all completely useless information. xD Feel free to tell me I'm a complete idiot if this meant nothing to you. Lol. But anywho...this has proved to be good for my mutts. =)
 
k9player

k9player

Experienced Member
I do the same sort of thing. One of my sequences is dance (stand on hind legs), bow, roll-over. Another is sit, beg, drop, shy... my most recent is backup, turn, back (through my legs), and up (jump up on back). The main problem I have with sequences if I have to take care to mix it up a bit (or maybe give it a separate name)
 
ginauk84

ginauk84

New Member
Yes I work Cas in Advanced Canine Freestyle and Rum in Novice Heelwork to Music.

Cas has always been really good and work for the pleasure of working so I have never had issues with her maintaining focus for a routine - our longest was about 8 minutes and she maintained focus throughout with no treats or toys.

However Rum is different, he is quite nervous of the ring as he was scared when sitting under a speaker and it gave out loud feedback - in fact it has scared him of a lot of things since then. So a 3 minute routine is a struggle with him, I will sometimes do a training round and take a toy in the ring to make it lots of fun, then I will progress to leaving his ball outside the ring and he can get it when he finishes. I have started to do this at home, have his toy on the side and not work him with anything and tell him to go get his ball when he has worked well.

I am not a dancer at all, never have been so how we do it I don't know!!
 
szecsuani

szecsuani

Experienced Member
If everything goes well, Pami and I will enter our first dog dancing contest in May! Yay!

Pami is working for food only. She never plays, soI had a hard job to get her to do tricks without food. She can still get confused by distractions, I'll work more with that.

I am the worst dancer on the face of earth, but as I could see, dog dancing doesn't need to be a real dance by owner. Just a few moves, that can easily be learnt. Maybe I can do it too:msnblushing:
 
A

amanda85

Guest
my dog know how to catch frisbee and jump over my back..but it was a separated action..:msniwonder:

if only we manage to put both the act together, then it would be a frisbee freestyle for us..:msnblushing:
 
szecsuani

szecsuani

Experienced Member
Although I'm not Gina, I found one of her videos:
[MEDIA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvWZLnbxP0k[/MEDIA]

And I think you should watch these:
[MEDIA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtsKIId9Cys[/MEDIA]

[MEDIA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaRqfDOxewk[/MEDIA]
 
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