Once again we are participating in the Trick or Treat Giveaway Hop. (Official rules are in the widget footer!)
Stuff I have to tell you…The Trick or Treat Giveaway Hop is sponsored by CleverPet, The Honest Kitchen, Planet Dog, and Health Extension. The opinions and ideas in this post are my own and are uninfluenced by any other person or business. The individual sponsors are responsible for their giveaway prizes including shipping.
You guys might remember that we had high expectations last year to try and teach Delilah how to turn on a light. Yes, you can check out that video here,
no, we never finished learning it.
This year, I just can’t seem to get my blogging life together, and I once again had high expectations to teach a really cool trick. Turns out my expectations far exceed my time and abilities, so that really cool trick will once again wait. Who knows, maybe I’ll start trying to train that trick right now, instead of waiting until a week before the post is due. Then I can wow you with it next year. 🙂
So because I really suck at trick training, I’m going to show you how to teach your dog to stand up on two legs.
Obviously, I am referring to the two back legs, and since Sampson has no strength in those, our demonstrator dog will be Delilah. Also, this should be fairly easy because Delilah ALWAYS dances backwards on her two back legs when I am giving her her dinner.
Some of you might be wondering (like Hubby is) why you’d want to teach your dog to stand on their back legs, especially if you have a dog like Delilah, who already stands up and peers into the sink, and takes food off the stove. Truthfully, I think this trick is best suited for smaller dogs, but if you want to do freestyle dance with your dog, it’s not a bad trick to learn.
The key is to know your dog, and know their strengths. Delilah’s back legs are very strong, and she’s only up on them a few minutes, so I feel comfortable teaching this to her. Besides, who am I kidding? We both know damn well that I won’t keep up with training this. Hey, at least I’m honest. 🙂
Now, Delilah is both a joy and a curse to work with. She’s a Labrador, so she is highly motivated by treats, which means she will do her best to learn what you are asking. BUT her desire for food, can often times become a distractor, because she can’t always focus on what you want, because she is too focused on the treat.
Pay attention here, because I’m going to tell you something REALLY important.
Ready?
Here goes…
The key to teaching a trick to your dog, is to find the lowest food value your dog will work for. Click To TweetDelilah WILL work for a banana chip, which is probably her most favorite treat on earth, but the fact I have a banana chip in my hand, causes her to lose her mind and she can’t focus on what I want her to do. She will also work for a green bean, or a chick pea which has far less value to her, therefore her focus will be more on the task at hand, rather than on the treat.
Make sense?
Good!
Then let’s see how we do it.
Step one – find the lowest value treat your dog will work for.
Step two – sit your dog in front of you.
Sit Ubu, sit. Good dog.
Step three – take your treat, show it to your dog and slowly bring the treat up just above your dog’s head.
Heads Up, Not 7-Up
Step four- slowly begin raising the treat. As your dog begins raising themselves encourage and continue raising the treat.
Dancing Bear
Step five- when your dog has gotten as high as you want them to, praise them and give them the treat.
All the way up! Good girl!
When we put it all together, it looks something like this.
And just because you’ve hung in here, this is Delilah jumping backwards as I bring her her dinner. As you can see, she’s so excited, she can’t take her eyes off the bowl.
I’d like to thank all the Sponsors, and all the bloggers who participated in this blog hop, and especially Jodi Chick from Kol’s Notes and Jessica Shipman from Beagles & Bargains. Without all of them, none of this would be possible.
All of the participating blogs have an individual widget, so not only can you learn tricks from each of these blogs, you can also enter to win at every one of them. That’s pretty awesome too!
Additionally, please make sure you are following us all on the Instagram, as there will be a special Social Media prize where you can win a $100 gift card to PetSmart.
Now go, go learn tricks, enter to win and seriously, have fun with your pets!
Join Kol’s Notes and Beagles & Bargains
PLUS
for 10 days of awesome dog tricks, fabulous dog treats, and OVER $850 worth of fun and prizes!
GRAND PRIZE:
$300 Gift Card to PetSmart
SECOND PRIZE:
CleverPet Hub
$299 VALUE – SPONSORED BY CLEVERPET
THIRD PRIZE:
Golden Milk, Eggnog, Pumpkin Spice Latte,
Cuddles, and Smooches
$68 VALUE – SPONSORED BY THE HONEST KITCHEN
FOURTH PRIZE:
Halloween Trick Ball, Halloween Treat Ball,
and Maple Leaf Nook
$50 VALUE – SPONSORED BY PLANET DOG
FIFTH PRIZE:
Duck & Yogurt Bully Puffs, Chicken & Cheddar Bully Puffs,
Lamb & Peanut Butter Bully Puffs, Bacon & Liver Bully Puffs,
and Bacon Chips (1 Bag Each)
$40 VALUE – SPONSORED BY HEALTH EXTENSION
PLUS follow all bloggers on Instagram for a chance to win a SPECIAL SOCIAL MEDIA PRIZE:
$100 Gift Card to PetSmart
WHERE TO ENTER:
by Kol’s Notes
Learn to Calmly Ride in Elevators
by Beagles & Bargains
Learn to Not Freak Out When a Doorbell Rings
by A Dog Walks into a Bar
by ChiPets
by Dog Mom Days
by Fetch for Me, Human
Learn “Beg”, “Which Hand”, and Indoor Exercise Trick Sets
by Fidose of Reality
Learn to Stand on Your Hind Legs
by Heart Like A Dog
by It’s Dog or Nothing
by Life With Beagle
Learn to Pick It Up or Take It
by My Dog Likes
Learn to Crawl Through a Tight Tunnel
by My GBGV Life
Learn to Shake Paws (for Dogs Who Don’t Like Their Paws Touched!)
by Sarcastic Dog
by Spencer the Goldendoodle
by Tails from the Road
by Talent Hounds
by Tenacious Little Terrier
by The Broke Dog
by The Daily Pip
by Wag ‘n Woof Pets
Visit each blog for more chances to win!
Follow #TrickorTreatDogs!
2017 Trick or Treat Hop – HLAD
Well done, D. That is good work for such a big doggie. Also, popping backwards for dinner is exhausting and hilarious, if not very useful since you’re getting the dinner anyway. Mom taught me to sit up and beg early on. She read somewhere that it’s good for my core.
Love and licks,
Cupcake
Except when she hits the bowl.;-)
My dog does not know this trick.
We wanted to do this since Madison will often stand and walk on her back paws, but for trick training, she refused. It is a tough one, so nice work.
Great job! Luke does the exact same thing for his dinner! I’m sure I could teach him this trick, I’m just not sure if it would be good for his knees or not. Maybe it would strengthen his back legs which could be good though?
And don’t feel bad, I tried the light switch trick with Luke too, and we never finished it either. 🙂
Great post, Jodi. I’m looking forward to the publication of your training manual. 🙂
My dog doesn’t know this trick. We’ve tried to teach her tricks but for whatever reason she never picked any up.
my dog doesn’t know this trick!
You know that really does make perfect sense to offer your dog the lowest food value for training. I never thought of it that way but I have definitely noticed that treats distract my dog from what I am trying to teach her. I am pretty proud that I just recently taught her how to give me hugs, she is tiny and will lay her head on my shoulder when I pick her up and ask for a hug. I think it is more impressive to see than read though.
I would LOVE to see that!
This is really great! One that I’m keeping bookmarked for when we have a pup!
My dog does not know this trick.
My dog will sit up on his back legs so getting him to stand on his back legs shouldn’t be too difficult.
You have to love a lab and their love of food. lol. I love your trick and will try it with my lab mix!
My dogs don’t know this trick yet
Cooper has done this before but we didnt teach it to him. I think its unintentional lol
My dog knows This! We taught her at a very early age.
I haven’t taught this trick to my dogs, but one of my boys – Seiji – does stand by the back door when he really, REALLY needs out. He used to jump at the door, but now knows better than that.
Yes TWYLA dogs this very well but I used a different method. I went to the pet store and let her sniff around by the toys to see which one she liked and of course she picked one that squeaks. Then I just held it up above her and squeezed it and she just stood up on her hine legs!!
Really cool ideas here. I think Elsa is too smart for her own good and will need to start working on engaging her brain more often. Thanks for sharing and stop being so hard on yourself. Life is busy and full. No need to add to the mix by beating yourself up for doing or not doing something with the blog. 😍
My dog does not know this trick.
Yes, he know how to do this. We taught him about the same way.
Petals the Pug knows no tricks. She is a wild child. Ugh
my dog does not know how to stand but it looks pretty easy to teach a dog to do this trick
Love this trick! We’ve been building balance first, but we are getting close to teaching this
My dog used to know this trick but I quit doing it some time ago. He is a larger breed and it is just too tough on him as a senior.
My dog kind of picked this up on his own. But he will do a lot for a small treat!
My cat liked dog does this one all the time
My dogs do know this trick.
This will be easy for my lab puppy who is currently jumping up on EVERYTHING 😛
My dog can’t do this on command.
I taught my dog the trick the same way
My dogs don’t know this trick.
We don’t do this trick with our 2 little dogs…
Roxy’s 90 lbs and would be eye level with me so we don’t play this trick
My dogs back legs aren’t on the strong side but this is a really cute trick.
No my dog does not know this trick. This would be great to learn.
I’ve never tried to train this. Thanks!
I taught my dogs to do this in the same exact way!! 🙂
No, my pup, Don, does not know this trick.
My dog can’t do this on command.
My dog does know this. She pretty much started doing it on her own, and I just encouraged her with my voice and sometimes a treat, and put a word to it.