what about tricks?

[Carolina]

Well.. I read everyday about the sit, down and stay :D ..

and for a change, I wanted to ask you guys and gals..

what tricks have you tought your furbabies, and which tricks have they come up with without your training?

Carolina :D

[myandromeda]

I'm not sure if you'd call this a trick, but we've taught our boys "Break!" When they are playing with eachother, and we want them to stop, we say break. They stop playing, but eventually i'd like to teach them to sit after "breaking." :)

[RottnKid1]

I'm afraid I've slacked somewhat on the tricks.:( I've taught them sit pretty, dance, balance (on rear legs) and wave.

[delila]

We taught ours: sit, down, stay, put your head down, wait, go in the kitchen, "where's your belly", be nice (when playing or taking a treat), "who's here?"(at which point they check the doors :) ), stand up, speak, "go over there"(works great after they sit on you), other than that we are still working on a few.

They know me & jeremiah(my boyfriend) by name, so if I say "(put any of my 3 dogs names here), where is jer?", their reaction to this is either #1 - They go to Jer, or #2 - if Jer is not home they will sit at the door or the gate in the yard.

[Circe]

Zeus learned one completely by accident. When he was 10 months old, he hurt his hip. He got so excited when my Dad came over that he ran to the door, slipped on the tile and crashed. The trip to the vet eased everyone's mind, but didn't help our hearts when we saw him limping. So, everyone massaged his hip and back leg at every opportunity. He recovered very quickly, but now whenever he wants attention and loving, he presents his butt. He'll back into you and try to sit on you. We all know and laugh, but it sure surprises new people.

[Roscoe's dad]

Tricks are for circus dogs, :D Rotties don't lower themselves to amusing their owners for little tidbits. Ok I was just kidding. :D The best I could do was left paw and right paw. Oh and lay down and play dead. As far as what she learned on her own, she once bit into an unopened beer and got a beer bath! I would not recomend anything that would put undo stress on their joints.

[mscez]

My boy jumps up onto a straight back chair. (He learned that all on his own!) The first few times he did it I thought it was by accident--but now, whoop, up on the chair he goes.
(As if he was going to sit down and have a chat with me!)

[mscez]

Oh yeah, and I nearly forgot, we do this routine when he's getting treats where I have him in a down. I reach over with a treat, place it on his paw, or between his paws, and say "wait". (I also have this hand signal that's a flat-hand, palm-down slight wave from one side to the other, that I make at the same time.)

That's his signal that he's supposed to intently stare at my face (the lips in particular), until I say "OK" which is his release to get the treat. As we've learned this, I get softer and softer with my voice, so that sometimes I don't even make a sound, just silently mouth "OK" and he's allowed to take the morsel then.

[RSQRottweiler]

I don't know if this counts as a trick, but Sebastian figured it out entirely on his own:

When he was about six months old I got him one of those heavy rope rings from PetsMart. After a while it had twisted into a figure 8. One night, while I was at my computer, Sebastian decided that he wanted to play ball, but he also wanted to bring me the rope toy. He couldn't fit both toys in his mouth at the same time. I watched him look at the ball, then the rope toy. He picked up the ball and put it on top of the small loop formed by the figure-8. Then he carefully picked up the rope toy, balancing the ball at the end of it, and carried both toys to me. :D

As far as "taught" tricks, he will shake/gimme "5." He also lays down when I "shoot" him with my finger and crawls on his belly. We're working on learning to ring the doorbell by the back door, but it's not quite there yet. My other Rottie, Gretchen, knows:
Gimme 5
Cover (she puts her paw over her nose, like she's embarassed)
Speak
Bang!/play dead
Crawl
Gimme kisses (her favorite, I think) :)

Audrey

[Ollie and Max]

I had lots of fun teaching Ollie allsorts of tricks. he picks things up very quickly. he knows shake, hi 5, play dead, crawl, find dad, bring my shoes, "where's the cats?' (breaks up the cat fights), hold (you can tell him to hold dad and he will go over to dad and hold VERY gently onto his arm and bring him over to me) of course i wouldn't recommend that particular trick unless youknow and trust your dog and is not to be done to strangers as it can freak them out. i just invented things to teach him and had lots of fun teaching him

[Bear'sDad]

We've had lots-o-fun learning new tricks. Ally (or new rescue) hasn't quite gotten anything but "shake", but Bear has a repetoire:

"Roll over", "Speak", and "Shake" are all self-expanatory.

"Still": He will wait with anything on his nose (including ice!) waiting for "OK".

"Wisper": He quietly growls (sometimes it's almost inaudible).

"I Love You": He speaks (moderate volume) three times (the hand singnal for this is sign language for "I Love You").

"Under the bridge" He runs right at you and sqeezes through your legs.

"Please": He'll sit on his hind legs with his paws in the air.

"Dance": For this one Bear acts as if he's chasing his tail (but he's docked).

"Bang, you're dead!": He jumps and falls like a ragdoll, then rolls over with all four paws in the air (VERY dramatic, the ham).

We're still working on: "Go to the fridge and get your Dad a beer".:D

[SelkeysCompanion]

I didn't realy put alot of time into tricks,but Selkey does do a couple.
She just learned 'WAVE'(always with left paw?)
'SHAKE',a while ago.
These ones I did when she was young: 'SPEAK','BIG BARK','LITTLE BARK','GRRRRRR'(growel)&'SHHHH'.She can do them just with a hand signal.She does everything better with hand signals .

[RottnKid1]

I forgot, until I saw it mentioned, that they've also been trained to wave and shake with right and left feet. I've also taught some of them to crawl. Geez, there's probably more that I don't remember, too.

I don't know if this is considered a trick, but Gunner will open doors! Gotta watch that boy closely! Oh, and Boss will play dead. See, I told you I'd forget!

[MrsBoats]

I've been slacking on the tricks department...we've been working hard on real training lately. Maybe this winter, we'll come up with some new tricks.

Sam does:

• Right and left paw
• Bang/play dead (That one always cracks people up)
• Crawl
• Roll Over
• Speak/What's your name

I've got one funny story about Sam and his tricks. Sam and I were down visiting Mr. Boats at the Coast Guard boathouse one night and the rest of the guys there wanted to see some tricks. Well, Mr. Boats was trying to get Sam to Play Dead. So Mr. Boats makes a gun out of his fingers and says 'BANG'!! Well, Sam didn't fall over, he just sat there and let the loudest fart. I mean there was no pause, Sam didn't miss a beat! It looked like we trained him to fart on command!!! OMG, that was one of the funnest things I had ever seen. I though the rest of Mr. Boats' co-workers were going to wet themselves they were laughing so hard. They still talk about the fart command and that happened months ago. LOL

[Burnsway]

My 2 older mixes are to old so I don't ask much of them anymore but my Rott mix is a different story.


Lets see what has Psyche learned...

Ok we have down, then we also have a long down, I say long down but she sees the command as just long. Sit, Shake, kiss...the kiss command means just a touch of the nose on my cheek not a lick...that command is kisssssies done with a shriek..:D She can go and retrieve her toys by name and her food and water dishes, and will retrieve whatever we are playing with till my arm feels broke from throwing so much...lol. She also has been taught to be givin somthing and told to bring it to certain family members. Leave it, come, left turn, right turn(not 100% success on these 4). Quiet which is getting better but not quit their and chill out!. We have worked on heel some and walk nice. She pees and poops on command if she is not empty....roflmao. We have started with catching tid pit foods in air but I limit this new trick due to young hips but will do it in sit position. Give, which is going great, she actually finds things she knows belongs to me and brings them so she can give and get a treat...

She knows off as when she is on me or something she knows is a no no...If she is too excited this command goes in one ear out the other... She has learned how to open my computer drawers and if towel is on fridge can open fridge but we are hoping after removing towel she forgets this one....STUPID ME TEACHING THIS ONE....:o We have tought up, for getting up on something and over for jumping over somthing...up is good...over is well if I feel like it. She knows pull...when playing tug she knows if I say pull hard I want more effort. I think the only other thing which is somewhat new is I will point to something and say go get...when she finally realizes what thing I was pointing to I say bring and she will bring with a drop or 2 sometimes being it is a hard to get item......:D My pup is only 8 months old and is a true blessing and has A lot of training ability and very smart I may add but also very reactive and hyper so we are working on doing some of her great things during distractions a little better. Also being young these things are all in the first stages and she still must get a snack or somesort of reward. My Psyche never works free.... (Told ya shes smart...lol)


And with this said if I didn't think it be to cruel on a pup, with me living 2 stories up I would train her to pull a cart of groceries up for me......:D