Can your dog do a trick that is not on this website?

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Jean Cote

Administrator
Staff member
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Can your dog do a trick that is not on this website?​

If you would like to contribute to the Dog Trick Academy Community and it's members, we would appreciate greatly if you could video tape your dog doing the trick and how you have trained him to do it.

We will create your own lesson page, video and your dog will be featured in the video!


Requirements:
  • Trick must not be listed on the website.
  • Lesson must follow Dog Trick Academy lesson plan.
  • Video must contain training exercises. (Unless you want me to record them)
Contact me personally or respond to this thread if you are interested - or if you want more information.

:)
 

harry

New Member
I have got a barbet dog in my home. He is a little sweet dog. He can perform a trick by jumping from the ring of fire for more than 10 times in a row without break.
 

Jean Cote

Administrator
Staff member
What do you mean by jumping from a ring of fire? He jumps through a hoop that is on fire?
 

katie_almon

New Member
I am new to this site, but I believe my dogs has a few unique tricks!
He can bow, and also shake his head on command.
If either of these are already up, I apoligize!
 

Jean Cote

Administrator
Staff member
Hi Katie! Welcome to the website!

Those two tricks aren't up but my dogs knows them and I will be recording them soon. Thanks for your interest!!! :dogsmile:
 

drivingtenacity

New Member
My Zena does what is quite possibly the most useless trick ever, but it's adorable.
She was frustrated with training one day, and started pawing at the treat I had in my hand. I decided to make the best of it, and modified her pawing, so that instead of just swatting something with her paw, she reaches out, curls her paw around the object, and pulls close to herself, or, if it's a treat, into her mouth.
My husband thinks 'Grab' is pretty pointless, but seeing a Shepherd purposefully use her paw as a hand is cute as hell and always makes me laugh.
Oh, and there's a Ron Paul campaign sign in my yard right now. We all know he won't get the nomination, but we can dream. Right?
 

CollieMan

Experienced Member
My husband thinks 'Grab' is pretty pointless, but seeing a Shepherd purposefully use her paw as a hand is cute as hell and always makes me laugh.
We've had a discussion along this theme on this forum before today. When does a trick become pointless or useful?

Will your dog ever need to grab something in this manner? Possibly not. But, the bonding and focus that would have taken place while teaching it will prove invaluable. That, surely, is the important thing.
 

drivingtenacity

New Member
CollieMan;1740 said:
We've had a discussion along this theme on this forum before today. When does a trick become pointless or useful?

Will your dog ever need to grab something in this manner? Possibly not. But, the bonding and focus that would have taken place while teaching it will prove invaluable. That, surely, is the important thing.
Exactly. We both have a good time with it, and isn't that the whole point of tricks? The way I see it, most tricks aren't very useful, but they entertain, and keep your dog learning and occupied.
 

dakotamom421

New Member
I dont think this is on the site yet but how about back up this is really usefull when I am working with my dog and I want to do something at a distance and move right and left, I do this when I want to place him some where for a trick or when we play ball.
 

yoyopoodle

Well-Known Member
Teaching your dog to read is a pretty simple thing to teach, but really allows them to learn and expand their mind. There is also no known limit for how many written words they can remember (the most I've heard of was about 20, but that was a young dog whose owner was planning on teaching quite a few more).

I'll see about putting together a video that demonstrates how to teach it, but it'll be a while before it's complete.

Another few cute tricks are 'dead dog' or 'possum' - a comedic trick where the dog lies on their back, curling their head towards their tail and letting their front legs stick up in the air.
'Bounce' - remaining in place, but bouncing so that all four feet leave the floor.
'Snuggle' - dog rests their chin on your shoulder/neck. This can be done from front or behind, but works really well if the dog has their front legs on your lap.
'Left/Right Cross' - crossing their front paws with either the left or right one on top.
'Point' - the position of a pointer who has located game... head forward, tail back, one front foot off the ground, intense focus on something.
 

luna may

New Member
How in the world do you teach a dog to read? :dogblink:
It would be really cool, if it turns out right! :msnlaugh:
 

yoyopoodle

Well-Known Member
So far I have only done 'action' words - ones that ask him to perform a specific behavior such as sit, roll, and shake.


luna may;3179 said:
How in the world do you teach a dog to read?
It's actually very easy - not very different than teaching a verbal command or hand signal. Here is a brief lesson:

Learning (for any species) is easiest if the new cue/stimulus/etc is presented just before something familiar... so when you say 'cookie' before you give a treat your dog will perk his ears at the word - if you gave the treat first it would take much longer for them to make the association.

You make your 'flash cards' by printing one word on a sheet of paper - make it big, all capital, and use a simple font. Use a landscape layout to get a nice large size. Put the card in a sheet protector so that it doesn't get smudged or creased, as the dog will take that as part of the word.
The dog needs to use their eyes to look at the word, so they must know the behavior without needing visual cues. The easiest way is to use a verbal command.
Start with a command that isn't the first behavior your dog will offer - this will make additional words easier to add. I start with DOWN, then do SIT second, followed by the dog's favorite between SHAKE/WAVE/ROLL/TURN/SPEAK.

Show your dog the card (remember how they learn - new first, followed by old), holding it still around their eye level against your body, and give the verbal command. As soon as your dog complies, take the card out of sight (behind your back or flat on a table) as you praise and play/treat. If the card stays in sight, it's as if you are saying the dreaded sitsitsitsitsit ;)
After 3-5 repetitions you can hold back the verbal command for a couple of seconds, but if they don't do it, slide it in before they lose interest (don't wait more than about 3 seconds).

Dogs learn the first word pretty fast, but they are not looking at the word - show them anything remotely like the card and they will lie down. Each consecutive word is taught the same way. For the second one they are guessing (if it's not DOWN, it must be SIT!).
The third word marks when they are starting to look at the shape of the words... when learning to read, many dogs have mixed up TUG and TURN considerably more than most other words - so they certainly are looking at the letters.

Here is a video of Charlie shortly after I started teaching him to read. This video is really cool - it shows him responding to a card as I pick it up (SHAKE). I didn't realize that he had seen it, so when I held it out he went through his other words before coming back with his first choice. I'm so glad I had it on film, or I never would have realized what was happening!!!

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K66_viTFJzo[/media]

What I'm saying is 'Yesp!' to mark the correct behavior, not cuing him (it's much easier than trying to hold a clicker, in this situation). The video quality is really bad and I think the sounds are not perfectly in time with the image, but you get the idea.
 

l_l_a

New Member
Yoyo.......All I can say is, OMG!!! I have never seen or heard of this before!!

I always thought that when people did live performances with dogs who can read (for entertainment purposes), that actually they had trained the dogs to respond to very subtle cues like an eyebrow lift means sit, and so on.... I'm sure many people do that, but to teach a dog to actually discriminate the different words on paper, that is truly amazing!!

Do guide dogs or other service dogs learn to 'read" public signs as part of their training? such as signs for the subway or restrooms etc?

you gotta make an instructional video!! (no pressure...!)
 
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