Need An Interesting 'new' Trick

[Evie]

Evie had her first day at dog school today and we were told that by the last week (in 6 weeks time) we need to have taught our dog a trick. Now Evie already knows plenty of tricks as most of you already know, so I was wanting some ideas of some super tricks I could teach her to impress everyone

Basically we have 6 weeks.... plenty of time. So.... any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[Dogster]

How about "ashamed"??? Maybe Evie can learn that one??? Or back up??? Or say your prayers??? Roll yourself in a blanket???? Leg weave??? There are TONS, it depends how easy or difficult you want the trick to be. Opening and closing a door/cupboard??? Theses ideas are coming to me...

 

[Evie]

Leg weave could be kinda cool.

My dog school incorporates agility into the end of each session, to the instructor would probably appreciate that trick

Is that taught by luring?

Evie can already close doors, but we havent worked on opening them

 

[Evie]

Oh the other one I was thinking of, which would probably take me 6 weeks to teach, would be something like 'Do you have fleas?' and for Evie to scratch, or 'Are you sleepy' and for her to yawn. I think getting a yawn on command would be awesome, but it could take quite a while, especially if i have to sit around waiting for her to yawn for me to click and treat lol

 

[Dogster]

For leg weave, what I did was yes, luring her with a treat through my legs. Then I used a hand signal (point) then I phased out the hand signal. You also keep adding more weaves to it (1, then 2, then 3 and so on...)

 

[Dogster]

I haven't taught Shivon those 2 tricks in post 4, so I don't know how much time they'll take. But you can try just givving her the command every time she scratches or yawns, and see if it works...

 

[Evie]

But you can try just givving her the command every time she scratches or yawns, and see if it works...

It was an old old old thread and that's where i got all of those ideas from, basically they went about their normal business and for the yawn one, everytime their dog randomly yawned (when it got up or what ever) they clicked and treated. The dog went a week or so being all like 'wtf why am i being treated' and one day it finally clicked

Oh! and the funniest one i've found on here is someone teaching their dog to poke it's tongue out on command!

Sounds easy in theory, but I'm not sure if i'm persistent enough to teach them lol

 

[MissyBC]

Once I was trying to teach Missy to "wink"... but she didn't seem to be catching on even though I was clicking and treating every time she winked one eye. That would be hard to teach, but you COULD try and see if she catches on.

If you do teach/try this one, let me know!

 

[Dogster]

Good luck with it!!!

 

[tigerlily46514]

i still think, one of the MOST impressive tricks to watch,
is,
having the dog "read" cards cues.


dogs actually CAN be taught to recognize some words written down, like "sit" or "rollover".
they can be taught to recognize the actual lettering.

but, a far easier way to teach this,
is,
teach the dog to react/do the cue
to the sight of slight changes in the way you HOLD the card with your hands.

for example, you could train Evie to sit, when you hold the large cue card, with both of your hands on top edge of card.

and you could train Evie to rollover, (or some other trick that Evie already knows)
if you hold out the card with one hand only, and dogs CAN distinguish your right hand from your left hand.

Teach Evie to do a certain cue, like go get her toy bear, if you only have one finger of each hand on front side of card.


and a 4th cue, if you hold the card with one hand on each side of card,
and so on.

you can also easily train Evie to look to your face for cues on what she should do. A wink, a slight nod, head turned to side a bit, chin down, etc.

I once trained my dog to bark if i lift up my eyebrows,
as part of a cardtrick........a move i later regretted....

 

[tigerlily46514]

you can also throw humor into this act,
which ppl ALWAYS love.


like, teach Evie to do opposite of what card says,
then hold up next card that reads "Come on, Evie, do the trick right!" or, "no, i said get the BEAR!" and Evie shakes head no, or "Evie, you messed up that trick!" and then Evie hides her face,
or something along that type of thing.

 

[tigerlily46514]

People watching,
who are unfamiliar with this trick,
will not notice the slight face or hand changes you do to cue Evie, especially if Evie rapidly does her part, they are watching the dog, not you.

you can also use some leg moves, 1 of your knees bent, legs spread apart, your feet crossed, etc. Or hold card out, with other hand on your hip, lots of ways to make it "appear" your dog can READ!! You can even combine multiple cues, like one hand on hip/one knee bent,

or both hands on top of card, your feet apart,

or one hand on each side of card, your head slightly tilted.

and so on.

 

[tigerlily46514]

AND you can probably use tricks Evie already knows well, you are just adding in a new cue for the already-known trick.

 

[tigerlily46514]

Teach Evie to sit and wait, while you turn your back to get out new card, maybe.


and i'd probably teach Evie to hide her face (the shy trick)
for one cue of yours, and have one card ready that reads "oh no, Evie, you messed up that last trick!"
for in case Evie does accidentally mess up a trick!!! THEN it looks like you planned it that way.

anyway, that's my idea of a great crowd-pleaser trick.

 

[Dogster]

That is ONE GREAT TRICK Tigerlily!!!! Wow, I've NEVER thought about that one...
Yet ANOTHER trick to add to my list... :sigh: ....

 

[Evie]

Awesome idea tigerlilly, however i'm a little worried that i won't be able to hold Evie's attention for that long at dog school (even though they should be working with us on the whole attention thing). She's still convinced that all the other dogs are there just for her to play with... so keeping her attention is like mission impossible. And it's really hard to find somewhere with other high value distractions (such as dogs) that I can train her around during the week.

I did start trying to teach her to poke out her tongue yesterday lol. It was funny. She couldnt work out why i was clicking her and she was getting super excited in the long pauses where i was just waiting for her to poke it out again. I kinda cheated a little to speed up the process and used peanut butter on her nose I think by the end of the two sessions we had yesterday that she was starting to get the idea.

Evie's main problem is that she won't usually offer me a behaviour. She will only do it if asked. For example when I'm teaching her to close doors with her nose, I have to ask her to 'touch it' (the door) for every single touch. If i only ask once, and then don't click and treat on the first touch, she looks at me as if to say 'what? I touched it, gimme treat' and then she's just 100% focused on me and won't touch the door again unless i ask. She will sit, lay down, (even bark which she doesnt do very often) and get this really worried look on her face instead of trying the behaviour again. If i wait and wait and wait, she will just lay down and 'shut down' . She stops even trying to work out what it is I want.

Anyway, the bottom line to my rant is that Evie won't offer behaviours unless I ask for them.... ideas?

 

[tigerlily46514]

well, i know there are tons of ppl who want a dog to spontaneously offer behaviors, and can be quite passionate about using that method.

more often than not, i elicit the trick or behavior.
i trained buddy to lick his mouth on cue, by using peanut butter.

dogs need more than one lesson to "get it".
keep at it.

 

[Evie]

Hrm, I might have to start teaching that card trick to Evie regardless lol. I highly doubt it'd be ready to go by the end of dog school butttttttttttttttttttt, it will be fun to do anyway

 

[Evie]

But, so many tricks.... so little time. LOL

I don't think i'm ever going to run out of tricks that i want to teach her....

 

[Evie]

dogs need more than one lesson to "get it".

Oh yeah, i totally get that. It's just like with the door behaviour, we've been working on that for weeks and she still won't offer it to me a second time, even if i don't click the first. She just gives up instead lol. But she does it oh so well when i do ask her to touch it several times. She gets that enthusiastic that she decides her paw works better than her nose (something which I try my best not to click, but sometimes she's too fast and i bugger up)