Tuesday evening Delilah and I headed to our tricks class. What I really love about this class is there is no pressure. If you don’t do your homework, you don’t get in trouble. 🙂
Tuesday night we began learning Sit Pretty (some people refer to this as Beg,) Over, Target (or Touch) and Balancing a treat on the nose.
Delilah has the basics of Touch, and Over is a given for her, since that’s what I say to her in Agility Class.
Ariane (our instructor) said some of the bigger dogs have a problem with Sit Pretty because of their size, it requires some good strength in their back legs (and a bit of balance too.)
I’ve seen her sit pretty, (I actually thinks it looks the way those trained bears sit from the circus) but I’ve never known how to teach it.
You hold the treat over their head and raise your hand up and back, hoping they will lift their front feet off the floor. You reward and treat even if they only come up a little. Don’t worry you will eventually work them so they get farther and farther off the floor.
Does it work?
The proof (as they say) is in the photo.
Sit pretty my love. Yes Mama, as long as you give me that banana chip.
I knew balancing a treat on the nose was going to be a challenge. We’ve tried this trick at home. Sampson can balance the treat and when he is given the okay, can catch it in his mouth.
When we tried this with Delilah you have to move your hand very quickly or it will get caught in a snap.
She. Just. Can’t. Wait.
With a little instruction from Ariane, I worked it this way. I held a treat in my left hand with it directly in front of her nose. I used my right hand to place a treat and told her to leave it.
Leave it.
In this photo my left hand had dropped slightly and truthfully it sounded more like, leave it, leave it, leave it, leave it. Whatever, it was definitely easier at home!
Anyhoo, when I showed the trick to Hubby, she actually sat there with the banana chip on her nose for a good 5 to 10 seconds, that may not sound like a lot to you, but believe me, that was amazing for her.
At this point I’m not letting her flip the treat and catch it, I’m actually removing it from her nose and giving her the treat from my left hand.
So ladies and gentlemen (is there a gentlemen that reads this blog?) without further ado…
I’m so freaking proud of her!!
I told you she shines in the classroom.
Do you find it easier to train the tricks by having someone show you (like me) or can you figure this stuff out on your own?
Don’t forget to order your calendars!!!
And so you should be 😀
Woo hoo well done!
I actually had Blueberry’s water therapist show me how to do “sit pretty”. It’s supposed to strengthen her muscles back there. She got it right away with him and with me she’ll actually wrap her paws around my hand to balance herself just because she’s a little weak back there for that kind of thing. The real trick is me not falling over when she grabs hold of my hand! It’s quite the scene to see both of us teetering during “sitting pretty”!
I am proud of her too – just look at that “leave it”! Pat pat pat – hugs!
That is so cool! Fozzie’s on his way to sitting pretty, though it is certainly not easy–balancing on the pilates ball helped him get there. The treat on nose trick, I don’t know if I could ever get my crew to try. Fozzie and Lamar are so nervous about trying new things that are really different from what they’ve done before, and Star is so impatient–but your instructions are great, maybe we’ll be able to do it!
I have to admit, I’m not that good at teaching a dog tricks, so I always appreciate when someone shows me how easy it can be! I’m going to try it with Todd, because I think it’s one he needs to know! 🙂
I hope you’re having a good week!
I also like to have someone show me. It seems with each dog our trainer who is wonderful, has new insights on how to train some tricks. New ways that we had not thought of before.
Delilah is doing beautifuly, what a girl.
Bert
We call Sit Pretty “Be a meerkat.” Poodles look adorable as meerkats. We’ll have to introduce the chips with your instructions.
Cute, good job both of you! 10 seconds is awesome, especially after only one lesson. Delilah has an inner super-dog after all!
I’ve never taken a tricks class so all the tricks I have taught my dog I have either figured out on my own or used the help of books and internet videos. Some are a lot easier to figure out than others, obviously. But once you get started I am sure you’ll think of lots of creative things you can do with her now that you have the knowledge!
Way to go Delilah!
I’ve sort of topped out on teaching Silas tricks, because he’s a very asymmetrical dog. Very deep chested. He struggles to roll over even when he wants to, and he’s bad at balancing on his back legs. You’ve inspired me to try again with Sit Pretty. My problem is always that he stands up to get the treat, instead of staying down in the back. That probably means I’m holding it too high.
I love that you are sharing all of your tricks with us, and how to do them! I may just have to try some of them with Cali! I like how Bob photobombed her too (is that Bob?? I don’t know if you have more than one cat!)
trick classes are so much fun – and that nose-balance trick looks very neat. I hope you’ll be entering her in Tena’s (successjustclicks.com) leave it photo competition 🙂
What a fun trick! Its great that you are sharing some of the training tips too!
Delilah is a genius! I’m still trying to get Cupcake to roll over. She will turn her head upside down like the exorcist, but her body turns to stone and will not roll. Ugh.
Oh that’s an awesome trick!! Maybe I should practice that too?
I didn’t realize we could order the calendars yet – oops – I’m off to look further at how we do it – woohoo!!
Wags to all,
Your pal Snoopy 🙂
Good job you two!
Our Golden could do treat on nose. He would sit for a long time with treat or sock on nose…teehee. Chessies won’t do it. I can get Storm to do it a bit, but not Thunder. Freighter is too fidgety.