Hello,
I have been doing training sessions with my lab Kobi for ages now and it seems to have turned into a bit of a routine, he has got so good and telling what I'm about to say that he gets into position before the words come out of my mouth! So I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for some new tricks I can teach him? He loves training but I think I am a little unimaginative, he does, sit, shake paws, lie down, stay, come, and bow (puts his head down on the floor), I have tried roll over but he hates it so any other suggestions would be great,

Sarah

What about more obedience stuff like send aways, scent, distance control etc?

I could try him with sniffing stuff out, he is quite quick on the uptake. How do you start with stuff like that? If I couldget a good retrieve out of him I'be happy, he definately has the chase and pick up instinct, he's not so hot on the bringing back though!

Sarah

It's a bit grim I'm afraid - we use our socks (eugh!) as Roxy's obsessed with them so she'll happily seek them for hours on end.

We take off our socks let her sniff the 'item', tell her to stay and in the beginning we started off with a really easy find - i.e.somewhere she can see as soon as she comes into the room. We've now worked up to hiding them anywhere we can think of and use 'find it' as the command. She's getting really good, but she methodically checks all the last places we put it first so we have to put them in new places each time.

You can teach the twist - turn on the spot
Crawl
Beg - My two know this and only do it upon command and not when they are getting a treat otherwise ;)
Speak
To go through your legs & figure of 8
The finish command (go round the back of you after a recall to sit at your side)
Roll over
A down on a recall

The list is endless :)

Ah the speak command, that brings me onto another question, how do you teach this to a dog that hardly ever barks? Kobi will bark every now and again at another dog (fairly rarely) but never any other time, I would like to teach him to bark on command but don't know how to go about it, anyone got any ideas?

And I will try the sock retrieve, Kobi is much more grim than socks though, Ihave found him with a pair of my undies before now- ick, aren't dogs great?!

Sarah

Hide and seek is a great favourite with our dog - he searches for his tuggy which can be hidden in evermore difficult places once they have got the hang of the game.

We also put a treat in one hand, hold out both closed fists in front of him when he is sitting and he puts his paw on the one with the treat in.

Another one is to teach him the name of various toys, starting off with one and gradually building up. Once he has learnt the name of two different toys you can ask him to show you the ball, tuggy, duck etc and he puts his paw on the toy in question. Harley can do up to four different ones and then he gets carried away and will indicate all four at the speed of light as soon as you say "show me" and he doesn't give us the opportunity to finish the sentence. :D

I'm told that teaching them to hold is good if they chase but don't pick up and bring back. That's what my Cavalier girl used to do, there's a couple of threads here about teaching to retrieve in 4 weeks, which includes a very helpful 7 point teaching plan from someone. If I can teach a Cavalier to retrieve, I'm sure your boy can learn!! :-D

I've taught my lot a whole host of tricks. I use the clicker so they're always easy and work things out for themselves. they know roll over, bang (play dead) wave, crawl, beg, bed, etc. I taught one of them things like how to fetch a tissue, use a skateboard and put a mini-basket ball in a hoop.

I have videos here:

Basketball trick
Skateboard
Tissue

Funny this subject should come up- I bought a new book a few weeks ago about teaching tricks, usually I don't go in for the *party* tricks I thought they were unnecessary but after a quick flick at the book I changed my mind- they're good for the mental stimulation, an outlet for excess energy and putting people at ease round the dogs by getting them to do something funny.  The book goes through your basics and polite pawing, high five, wave, bow, belly up, spin, are you scared, brave dog, kiss me, speak, fetch your lead-phone,paper,keysetc, put things away, throw it in the bin, say your prayers etc etc- there are loads of tricks to teach in this book :-)

Stacey x

So which book did you buy Stacey?

'Everything you need to know about Dog Training' from David & Charles by Gerilyn J.Bielakiewicz.  They seem to have a range of books on allsorts from wine to pregnancy etc it is good though, all the positive reward based system etc.  Like I said I wouldn't usually go for something like (I have books on GSD Genetics etc etc but no tricks books) that but when I saw it WHS I bought it :-)

Stacey x

theres another good trick book by Mary Ray called "Dog Tricks: Fun and Games for Your Clever Canine" which is quite good.

I have a beagle x parsons, pippa (the one in the videos), who is a right coiled spring. She has so much energy and I do obedience, agility and have just started doing a bit of working trials with her. When I go to training classes I come back and my other dogs are generally tired from having to 'think'. But not Pippa. Pippa is straight out into the garden doing laps and is full of it! One thing I have learnt from her is she needs mental stimulation MORE than physical stimulation. So I try and teach her new things from time to time, even if they are silly crowd pleaser type tricks.