Before I get to showing and telling you what Delilah and I learned at Tricks Class last night, I’d like to ask a favor of you.
There is a young boy in Kentucky who is dying of Cystic Fibrosis, his dying wish is to make the Guinness Book of Records for receiving the most Christmas cards.
Can you spare a card and a stamp to help make a dying child’s wish come true?
Dalton Dingus HC 62 Box 1249 Salyersville, KY 41465.You can send it to the above address. My card is going out in today’s mail.
The last night of tricks class.
Boy am I glad I told our instructor that I’m a blogger, now as she walks around the classroom observing us, she happily picks up my camera and snaps some pictures.
The first trick we learned is back-up.
You train this by standing in front of your dog with a treat in each hand, place a hand on either side of their face, then slowly walk towards them. If they sit down or don’t back up, try again. If you get a tiny step backwards, praise and treat.
Most dogs can be trained to back up using this method.
Ariane tried it with Delilah as the model.
Aren’t I cute?
She ended up having to put her hands behind her back and work with one hand, two treats is just one more than Delilah can handle.
What worked best for her was when I put a treat in front of her nose and pushed it towards her. Sometimes she sits down and I just lure her up again and start over.
She has stepped back in this photo, I can tell because I’m smiling.
Another way you can train this trick is by creating a sort of tunnel for your dog by using one wall and some chairs, you want it big enough for your dog to fit, but not large enough for them to turn around.
I think I’ll try this in my hallway.
Dance, Stand or in Delilah’s case….Hop.
Take your treat and hold it up high, your goal is to get your dog up on their hind legs, where they can either just hold a stand, or take a couple of steps or hops.
If you’ve trained your Target or Touch command and your dog is comfortable with it, you can use this. I like the treat because I want her to learn the verbal cue I will be using which will probably be hop.
Give me the damn treat!
You want to make sure your dog is not touching your body with their paws…that’s cheating.
Weave
The last trick we learned was Weave, as in between your legs. You know it and probably some of you showoffs dedicated trainers have already taught this to your dog.
This is the trick where you walk and your dog weaves in and out of your walking legs.
Finally, the last night of class, the last trick turns out to be the one I wanted most to learn. This trick will come in handy when we take our Freestyle class next year.
To teach this trick you start with your dog in a heel. It doesn’t matter which side as long as you remember to lead with the opposite leg.
Delilah’s on my left, I step forward with my right foot and place my right hand behind my right leg, luring her through.
KEY COMPONENT: toss the treat away from you, this lets your dog know they are to go completely through your legs.
I step forward with my left leg and lure her back, again tossing the treat.
No-one said teaching it looks pretty, BUT note, I have no shirt that imitates stomach flesh this time!
We practiced this a lot and by the time we had finished I would have to say we probably took about six to eight steps before I made a mistake and had to start over.
Now THAT looks better.
We learned a lot of different tricks. I know that I won’t be working on training all of them, but there are a couple I’d really like to focus on.
What kind of tricks do you do with your dog? Have you ever taken a tricks class? Would you?
What a lovely idea. A card will go in the post to Dalton today.
Delilah is doing splendidly – you’ll soon have to put it all to music and post that video 😉
Gizmo had one card left sitting on the desk…it’s in the mailnow
I love your descriptions of how to train those tricks and I think Gizmo & I can work on the first two…Sadly I don’t think I’m coordinated enough to work that weave trick 🙁 But you’re doing great!
I would LOVE it if there was a tricks class close to me. I’ve never even heard of such a thing here.
My card will go out first thing tomorrow – thanks for posting that!
I am going to cheat and just use what you’ve learned and try to teach Linus and Blueberry some things over my two week vacation!
As always we learn new stuff from you. WE are going to work on our weave today. And yes…..our card is on the way too.
bert
It looks like Delilah has so much fun at her tricks class! Cali loves learning new things, after all the kittens are gone, I’m going to focus on teaching my old dog some new tricks 🙂 I will definitely send a card off to Dalton!
A card is going from us to Kentucky. I hope he gets his wish, so sad. Your pictures are great and inspiring me to do some work with my guys. I will show them Delilah as inspiration.
Hey Sampson, Hey Delilah, Jetty here. Hi Miss Jodi.
Tricks for treats? Sign me up! Nope, we’re casual couch potatoes… We really need some classes… I think I need to attend Scooby Doo Academy again.
Excuse me a moment… MMMMOOOMMMM…. when can I enroll in classes again????
aww, Delilah’s so cute – Gwynn does his ‘try every trick’ thing too, when the treat is too exciting. I taught him a Dance type thing, and bow… and “Bang”, which is his cue to roll over. Trick classes are so much fun 🙂
So much fun! I used to weave when Mom first rescued me. She said I was trying to kill her. I don’t think she’ll try that with me. I went to obedience school to STOP weaving. I do know dancing, though. Mom learned that holding the treat toward the back of my head makes me twirl!
Check me out here —> http://cupcakepetrillo.wordpress.com/2012/10/22/happy-dance/
I can’t wait to see what you learn at Freestyle class! Yay!
Love and licks,
Cupcake
I am so jealous you got to attend a tricks class and will be starting freestyle in the New Year. Tricks are my favourite and I’ve never actually been able to find a class that focuses solely on them. We’ve had to just struggle through on our own. I can’t wait to hear all about your experiences with freestyle as well. Maybe I’ll be able to learn vicariously through your blog!
Congratulations on all your success!
Those are really fun tricks! You are a star 🙂
I have taught backup just using a wall on one side. We did not make a tunnel. It worked very well.
Our Golden used to do the jump trick. I never formally trained it, he just did it. He also used to walk on back legs. I called it “dancing bear”….lol.
That class sounds like a lot of fun. I wonder if there are any around here? The place we normally take our classes focuses on the ACK events and not as many tricks, (although backup was one we learned in a class there).
You did a great job with Delilah and her tricks!
Thanks for the info about the little boy. I have a couple of cards with me and will write one up for him right now.
I love your trick posts – it’s so great to see people working with their dogs. I started working on the weave with Bella a while ago but in her case, I had to teach her first to just stand between my legs since she would bolt at the prospect previously. That actually took quite some time but now she ‘peek-a-boo’s like a real pro. Next step, is the movement – thanks for the tips on how it’s done. 🙂
We just put our card in the mail!!!!!!
Delilah is so clever!! I’ve not tried a tricks class, but I can do a couple of little tricks, but mainly just when I feel like it – Tee Hee 🙂
Love the Christmas card idea, we’ll send one too 🙂
Wags to all
Your pal Snoopy 🙂