Teaching Your Dog To "count".

[karleee]

Hi guys, counting is a pretty simple trick.

1. teach your dog to "speak".
1a. Get your dog excited.....a favourite toy,treats ect, until he/she barks.
1b. Reward, and repeat step 1a.
1c.Add a vocal cue. Continue until your dog learns to bark on cue. (just one bark at a time)
1d. try to get your dog to learn it as a physical cue (such as mouthing the word, a small body gesture ect)
1e. Now teach your dog to stop on command with another body gesture (I shift my weight slighty).

2 .Once your dog has learnt to bark on cue from a body gesture,and stop on a body gesture (I lip the word "speak") say,for example "fido,whats 1+2?" give your cue,and AS SOON as fido reaches the required number, give your stop cue. Reward.

The key to this trick is, Your dog has no actual idea how to do maths!!! fido just barks on cue until the number you want (this is why we use small physical gestures that people watching barley notice,or don't recognize as a cue) And people actually think your dog can count! It's a real crowd pleaser :3

 

[boltandjenny]

Bolt can count by tapping his paw

 

[karleee]

cute!

 

[CJSophie]

I have a few questions. My dog is very small and a jack Russell terroir, small cues are quite difficult with her because she is constantly moving. I have decided, for my small visual cue, to cross my arms to begin barking, then put my arms at my side for her to stop.

We just started learning this "count" trick a week ago so we are still in the process of learning g to speak on visual command. This is where I have issues. To teach her the visual cue, when do I click? Do I click when she starts barking when I cross my arms? Do I click when I put my arms down? I'm not sure if I am teaching and clicking at the right movements to ensure she knows when to start/stop speaking.

Also, right now I still have to say "speak" with my visual cue to get her to bark. However, she doesn't do consistent barks at this point. I sometimes have to continue to say "speak" so that she will bark more than a few times. I'm sure this is still tied to the small visual cue as well but I need to know what to do so that I don't confus her and so it doesn't take longer than necessary. She picks up on tricks fairly quickly but I feel as if I am doing this all wrong because my progress sounds nothing like what I've read online.