Hi From Ireland!

siberianjack

Active Member
Hello (: I'm MJ and I'm 16,

I have two dogs: a Siberian Husky Orion(with the nickname 'Bobbi') and a JRT/Corgi Mindy.
Mindy is going to be 14 years old this Tuesday and Orion was is 10 months old(May 7 2014)

Mindy does obedience and canicross. But because of her age she only goes for a run once a week.
Orion is still in training because his joints are just growing but he is already being trained in dog dancing, agility, mushing, canicross, frisbee, obedience and soon tracking.

I train them myself ! (:

As well as these two I will be getting a rescue dog in the near future and a German Shepherd within the next 3 years, as one of my dream jobs is to be a dog trainer.
 

running_dog

Honored Member
Hello (: I'm MJ and I'm 16,

I have two dogs: a Siberian Husky Orion(with the nickname 'Bobbi') and a JRT/Corgi Mindy.
Mindy is going to be 14 years old this Tuesday and Orion was is 10 months old(May 7 2014)

Mindy does obedience and canicross. But because of her age she only goes for a run once a week.
Orion is still in training because his joints are just growing but he is already being trained in dog dancing, agility, mushing, canicross, frisbee, obedience and soon tracking.

I train them myself ! (:

As well as these two I will be getting a rescue dog in the near future and a German Shepherd within the next 3 years, as one of my dream jobs is to be a dog trainer.
Welcome to Dog Trick Academy! It sounds like you are keeping your dogs busy... or maybe they are keeping you busy!

It's great that you are working with Orion to train him so many things, I know a lot of husky owners just seem to give up on them or simply don't understand that they are dogs that deserve to have active sports to engage with not just a walk round the park each day.

How do you train your dogs? And what tricks do they know?
 

siberianjack

Active Member
Welcome to Dog Trick Academy! It sounds like you are keeping your dogs busy... or maybe they are keeping you busy!

It's great that you are working with Orion to train him so many things, I know a lot of husky owners just seem to give up on them or simply don't understand that they are dogs that deserve to have active sports to engage with not just a walk round the park each day.

How do you train your dogs? And what tricks do they know?

Thank you! We keep each other busy (;

And yes, I agree with that, Huskies are super high energy dogs, so I make sure my boy is physically and mentally tired(but happy) at the end of the day.

I train them using positive reinforcement, and clicker training. As for tricks I mix it up between luring and shaping, depending on the complexity of the trick. I reward them with treats, pieces of cheese/chicken or toys/playtime.

Mindy doesn't know as many tricks ar Orion does but she does know how to sit, stay, shake paw, speak, wait for her food, don't touch, jumping over short obstacles(skateboard, short agility posts), jump into my lap, jump through a hoop, and stand on her back two legs.

Orion knows the following(some of those tricks still need a bit of practice though... but he will get them eventually (; ):

1. Sit
2. Lay down
3. Stay
4. Play dead ('Bang')
5. Hike(in mushing, to start running or speed up)
6. Gee(turn right)
7. Haw(turn left)
8. Whoa(stop)
9. Easy(slow down)
10. Wait for your food
11. Don't touch
12. Wait before you cross the road
13. Weave between my legs
14. Touch my leg with opposite paw
15. Touch my leg with the same paw
16. Get a toy from his toy basket(I figured it would stop him from chewing things if he knew all his toys are in a certain place.. it worked)
17. Speak
18. Say 'I Love You'
19. Say 'Hello'
20. Say 'Oh la la' (this one is really funny and I'll have to record it some day haha=
21. Jump over short agility obstacles(I want to keep them short for now while he's still young)
22. Jump through a hoop
23. Push the skateboard
24. Ring a bell with his paw
25. Ring a bell with his nose(I have a bell hanging by the back door so if he needs to go out, he rings it instead of stratching at the door)
26. Pull the skateboard with a small weight on it
27. Hug my leg
28. Hop up(puts his front paws on my arm)
29. Peek-a-boo(look under my arm after putting paws on it)
30. Jump up onto the bed/couch
31. Turn/circle
32. Put his front paws onto a certain height(a table, a wall etc)
33. Catch treat/toy
34. Protect me(when someone is trying to attack me he will start mouthing their arms. It's controlled though)
35. Walk around me
36. Hop up to me(put his front paws on my chest)
37. Give me a kiss
38. Hop up and give me a kiss
39. Hide and Seek (I hide, he looks for me)
40. Watch me
41. Target things with his paw
42. Drop it
43. Line Out(mushing)

I may have missed a few small ones ^^;

Here is a video of him performing some of these tricks:

 

running_dog

Honored Member
Brilliant! That's a great list of tricks! His play dead is great, and his paw targeting is really precise... you'll be able to build that into some really great moves. I'd love to see videos of the vocal tricks, Zac says hello sometimes but he will only say hello when he's greeting us when we have just come home, he won't perform when I ask him to. I suppose I don't tend to say "hello" randomly when I'm not greeting someone so maybe I shouldn't expect it of Zac!

Do you have to work a lot on Orion's recall? I know recall with huskies can be a struggle at times. I can see you have a lovely relationship with him, does that hold strong when there are distractions? I have real down falls with Zac when there is prey around.

I love that you have and are planning on getting more non-border collie types of dog to train. People who are really interested in training seem to be magnetically attracted to the border collies and somehow that seems to make people assume that only border collies can do tricks.
 

Dragonkingdogtrainer13

Well-Known Member
Hello (: I'm MJ and I'm 16,

I have two dogs: a Siberian Husky Orion(with the nickname 'Bobbi') and a JRT/Corgi Mindy.
Mindy is going to be 14 years old this Tuesday and Orion was is 10 months old(May 7 2014)

Mindy does obedience and canicross. But because of her age she only goes for a run once a week.
Orion is still in training because his joints are just growing but he is already being trained in dog dancing, agility, mushing, canicross, frisbee, obedience and soon tracking.

I train them myself ! (:

As well as these two I will be getting a rescue dog in the near future and a German Shepherd within the next 3 years, as one of my dream jobs is to be a dog trainer.
Welcome!
 

siberianjack

Active Member
^Thank you!!! :D

Brilliant! That's a great list of tricks! His play dead is great, and his paw targeting is really precise... you'll be able to build that into some really great moves. I'd love to see videos of the vocal tricks, Zac says hello sometimes but he will only say hello when he's greeting us when we have just come home, he won't perform when I ask him to. I suppose I don't tend to say "hello" randomly when I'm not greeting someone so maybe I shouldn't expect it of Zac!

Do you have to work a lot on Orion's recall? I know recall with huskies can be a struggle at times. I can see you have a lovely relationship with him, does that hold strong when there are distractions? I have real down falls with Zac when there is prey around.

I love that you have and are planning on getting more non-border collie types of dog to train. People who are really interested in training seem to be magnetically attracted to the border collies and somehow that seems to make people assume that only border collies can do tricks.

Thanks! (: I have a list of tricks that I will try teaching him and one of them will be to ring the door bell and switch off the lights with his paw. I will try to get some of his Hellos and Oh La Las recorded soon (:

I do! When he's on his 10 metre leash(I tend to let the leash down, that way it's easier to catch him just in case) he comes back when called perfectly, sits and waits, he'll observe what is happening but won't go after. But the minute he's completely off leash, it's a chase game, he'll go off about 20 meteres and tease me to get me to try to chase him, won't come back unless another person or dog approaches me. It happened a few times lol but luckily I got him back each time.

We do have a good relationship, and it depends on the distraction. We'd be having a training session or a walk and everything is fine until he sees another dog, that is when I have to hold him until the dog is completely out of sight. Humans aren't so bad if they're not super close, and he tends to ignore flying prey when he's paying attention to me(not so sure abbout mice/rats/rabbits though, as he hasn't seen those yet lol) I once let him say hello to a donkey across a wall and it was all good, he sniffed him and seemed to stay away just fine but a while later was very eager to jump to him.

Yeah, I've seen many trick videos on youtube are Collies and so many agility courses are also full of Border Collies with the occasional terrier.. so it can be quite hard to find videos of certain breeds if you want to see how they co-operate for example. A German Shepherd, Utonagan and a Saint Bernard are definitely on my list of dogs to get haha, I can definitely see myself having many many dogs in the future. lol
 

running_dog

Honored Member
I will try to get some of his Hellos and Oh La Las recorded soon (:
Looking forward to that :)

I do! When he's on his 10 metre leash(I tend to let the leash down, that way it's easier to catch him just in case) he comes back when called perfectly, sits and waits, he'll observe what is happening but won't go after. But the minute he's completely off leash, it's a chase game, he'll go off about 20 meteres and tease me to get me to try to chase him, won't come back unless another person or dog approaches me. It happened a few times lol but luckily I got him back each time.

We do have a good relationship, and it depends on the distraction. We'd be having a training session or a walk and everything is fine until he sees another dog, that is when I have to hold him until the dog is completely out of sight. Humans aren't so bad if they're not super close, and he tends to ignore flying prey when he's paying attention to me(not so sure abbout mice/rats/rabbits though, as he hasn't seen those yet lol) I once let him say hello to a donkey across a wall and it was all good, he sniffed him and seemed to stay away just fine but a while later was very eager to jump to him.
Interesting. I know a gorgeous husky that is never off leash in public because she is hunting obsessed. Even on leash she catches mice, voles and birds regularly, sometimes the first her owners know of it is when they hear her chomping. So I'd say your dog is not that keen or you've been keeping his focus, it is impossible for him not to have been aware of mice and voles in his vicinity.

Have you read Control Unleashed by Leslie Mcdevitt? I found lots of useful concepts in there and reinforced a number of ideas I had been thinking about Zac's recall for a long time. If you can order it through a library and have a look at it you might find it really useful. One thing she said was to drop a some treats when you let the dog off leash then walk off and so the dog eats them then has to catch you up (and you drop more treats as it gets to you) this keeps your dog reorienting to you rather than orienting to the environment.

You say you hold Orion when there are other dog's in sight. What do you actually do with him when you are holding him? Are you very rewarding to Orion when there are other dogs there or are you just being an anchor until the dog is gone?

Yeah, I've seen many trick videos on youtube are Collies and so many agility courses are also full of Border Collies with the occasional terrier.. so it can be quite hard to find videos of certain breeds if you want to see how they co-operate for example. A German Shepherd, Utonagan and a Saint Bernard are definitely on my list of dogs to get haha, I can definitely see myself having many many dogs in the future. lol
There are differences between breeds and it is good to remember that although I do believe that the biggest obstacle to training dogs is our own belief of what is possible. Gus (my Mum's border collie/labrador) lights up instantly when I train him but I have to work so hard to get that light in Zac (my lurcher) because he is quite a serious dog but the enthusiasm IS there if I keep on digging for it!

My canine wish list includes a saluki, lots more lurchers, a doberman or GSD, and a deaf dog. That said, oddly enough the dogs that I see and instantly love are rarely the breeds I think I like, there's some quality shines through in some dogs whatever shape they are. For instance there is a staffie/chihuahua type dog I keep meeting and I would take her home any day and anything more unlike my breed wish list is hard to imagine :rolleyes:.
 

siberianjack

Active Member
it is impossible for him not to have been aware of mice and voles in his vicinity.

Oh no, what I mean is he hasn't seen any wild mice or rabbits yet, because there aren't any in our area, they do appear once in a blue moon but so far whenever I've been out with him we've never encountered one. They're more common on the beaches here, there's actually a beach about 25km out which is a small local wild rabbit reserve, as they live around it and are running freely there.

Have you read Control Unleashed by Leslie Mcdevitt? I found lots of useful concepts in there and reinforced a number of ideas I had been thinking about Zac's recall for a long time. If you can order it through a library and have a look at it you might find it really useful. One thing she said was to drop a some treats when you let the dog off leash then walk off and so the dog eats them then has to catch you up (and you drop more treats as it gets to you) this keeps your dog reorienting to you rather than orienting to the environment.

You say you hold Orion when there are other dog's in sight. What do you actually do with him when you are holding him? Are you very rewarding to Orion when there are other dogs there or are you just being an anchor until the dog is gone?
I haven't, but I am looking for more training books to read, so I will definitely order it off ebay and have a read of it! The treat dropping sounds pretty useful, I've been doing a similar thing where I would keep treats in a small bag in my pocket and I would take one out and hold it out so that he would stay following me, but this sounds like it would work better with the dog having to catch up for more treats, so I will try that!

When he's focused on other dogs, I use the same mushing command I use when we run, 'On By', which tells him to keep running and forget the distraction. So whenever we are passing other dogs I would say that and it works most of the time. When we're out in the field having a training session, the field is in the middle of a small park, so people always walk their dogs there. He's on his long leash, I'm not holding it, he sees a dog, and the minute I see him turn his head to the other dogs I say 'On By', and praise if he looks anywhere away from the dog, double praise if he goes back to doing what we were doing. Then I call him over to me, give him a treat, have him sit and wait, and when the dog is gone, I release the command and let him go again. Sometimes he'd be very eager to go to certain dogs, so he'd start pulling me, and what I do then is lead him away from the dog, and walk a few metres back, at first he'll pull a little more but a few seconds he'll be walking with me and when he does it nicely without pulling I turn back around and bring the other dog in sight, it takes a couple of tries but he eventually gets it and moves on. I've found that's what works best for him, but would love to hear some ideas on maybe better techniques if you know any.


My definite dog at one point in my life is a Kooikerhondje. Really hard to get this dog here, so I'll have to wait until I move somewhere else probably!
 

running_dog

Honored Member
I haven't, but I am looking for more training books to read, so I will definitely order it off ebay and have a read of it! The treat dropping sounds pretty useful, I've been doing a similar thing where I would keep treats in a small bag in my pocket and I would take one out and hold it out so that he would stay following me, but this sounds like it would work better with the dog having to catch up for more treats, so I will try that!
I did the treat following thing too but the treat dropping teaches the dog to refocus onto you. They sort of sound similar but what they teach the dog is quite different. Both are useful.

He's on his long leash, I'm not holding it, he sees a dog, and the minute I see him turn his head to the other dogs I say 'On By', and praise if he looks anywhere away from the dog, double praise if he goes back to doing what we were doing. Then I call him over to me, give him a treat, have him sit and wait, and when the dog is gone, I release the command and let him go again. Sometimes he'd be very eager to go to certain dogs, so he'd start pulling me, and what I do then is lead him away from the dog, and walk a few metres back, at first he'll pull a little more but a few seconds he'll be walking with me and when he does it nicely without pulling I turn back around and bring the other dog in sight, it takes a couple of tries but he eventually gets it and moves on. I've found that's what works best for him, but would love to hear some ideas on maybe better techniques if you know any.
Sounds like you are doing great with 'On By'.

I haven't managed to get that level of responsiveness from Zac in the past so I've taken a different approach and attempted to become very very rewarding in the presence of distractions. I found that what I was doing in the past was becoming very unrewarding when there were distractions - because I was watching them myself and working out angles or trying to be nice to passing dog walkers etc. I've learned to focus in almost completely on Zac and reward rapidly so that the constant stream of food pulls his attention back onto me. In the earlier stages I think of it as conditioning rather than reward. Over time you can reduce the rate of rewards - now Zac will often hang around waiting for a reward because he has seen a distraction or if I send him off to the distraction he'll look back at me and say "must I?" - depending on the distraction of course! Some of them I still have almost no control but that's just because I haven't been able to work through them properly yet. For me if Zac gives me attention in the presence of distractions I know that has cost him a lot so I reward him highly. I've found that overall Zac has become much more focussed, willing to work and responsive since I started to use this approach. Sometimes we work without food rewards and it is still effective.

I don't know whether this rapid rate of reward would be effective with Orion, the rate of reward you are using sounds much less than I would be using if Zac is even a little distracted but it kind of depends what you are trying to achieve and what your vision/philosophy of training is.

My definite dog at one point in my life is a Kooikerhondje. Really hard to get this dog here, so I'll have to wait until I move somewhere else probably!
A saluki is my all time wish dog! I have to wait because I can't afford 2 dogs at the moment but the bigger obstacle is that my family think my dog and my mum's dog are enough.
 

MaryK

Honored Member
Sorry very belated Welcome:) Very impressed with your doggies trick list. My girl Leaf does a lot of tricks too but Blossom is still very young, and is a real chatterbox with the attention span at times of a Goldfish, so her's is still a work in progress.
 
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