Hi everyone,

As most of you know, for the sake of mine and Toby's sanity, I am attempting to spend more time training with him.  However, I'm now running out of ideas in what to train him in!!

He can do the following:

Sit, wait, stay, paw, lay, come.

I've been teaching him roll today and he gets it so incredibly quickly that I need more training tricks to help keep things varied for him.

Any ideas, with a rough idea of how I should be going about teaching them, would be most gratefully appreciated.

Thanks, Sharon

Well fi his a good and quick learner....Ironing, washing, stacking the dishwasher :D .... Well if you have to press a button to turn the dishwasher on your could teach that!!!

beg
Crawl
Bark
fetch your slippers!

How about taking him to an agility club if you don't already.  Exercise for body and brain at the same time!

Stand

I'm sure this topic has been discussed many times before, why don't you try doing a search?  I'm sure lots of idea's will pop up :)

LOL ice queen!!  Washing - I wish!

I've tried 'beg' with him, but he just stands up to get the treat out of my hands, how do you make them 'sit back' on their legs?  Is that the right kind of beg?

With stand, he only does that for a treat too, basically standing so he can reach it!

Crawl is an interesting one - how do you teach that?  I haven't got to crawl beside him on the floor have i?!

I taught my dog to "beg" by starting off near an armchair. I first taught her to put both paws up on the armchair seat while she was sitting down - this was getting her into the "begging" position. Then I started getting her to sit away from the chair and giving her the command.

Thanks cutewolf, I'll try that.

For the crawl get him in the down, the drag the treat under his nose across the floor.  However if you want the crawl around while also rolling over then you can!! :D

Wow, that would make me feel sick just watching it :D

Hi Sharon,

The best tricks book I have yet seen is 'Tricks for Dummies'. You can get it in Amazon. It has tricks but it also has all sorts of other 'good manners' behaviours that you can teach your dog.

The book is brilliant, all reward-based and it has step by step instructions. Very readable indeed.

At the moment I am getting my pup to 'touch' the stick, so that I can teach all sorts of other behaviours.

I am also starting to teach her to 'go get' an item. I am just clicking for her going towards the item and jackpotting if she actually grabs the item. This is just the beginning of teaching her to 'fetch'. She does this very naturally (she's a great retriever), but I want to put it on cue, to ensure she doesn't go fetch unless asked to do so. If she does, then she doesn't get clicked and given a bit of ham, which in her eyes is more of a punishment than the joy of going to get the toy. She is picking this up very fast now and is now waiting from my signal to go towards the object.

Good luck,
Patty

Hi keeley, for the stand that is exactly what you want. Start off with him sitting and move the treat from his nose horizontally away from him until he lifts is bum off the floor (not so he moves his feet forward) and when is bum is in the air add 'stand' you can also do this from the lie position, move it diagonally into the air from his nose and once bum in air add the command. It wont take long for him to click that 'stand' means just that.

Hi Keeley

You've come a long way in a couple of days!!!! Wow, I am sooo impressed.  I have to say I'm not very inventive when it comes to training tricks etc., but you could start hiding things and getting him to find them in the garden!  Somebody will be along later probably with better ideas.  I'm afraid I'm boring old trainer.  I never really have to think about it now!

Best wishes
Annie

There is also the 'bow'.

I taught mine this by having him stand infront of me, placing my arm under his middle (so he cant lay) moving the treat from his nose and to the ground, he should then start to go down (seeing as he knows this command already) and once he looks like he is kneeling on his arms give him the treat. After he looks like he knows what you want from him, add the command 'bow' (or in my case 'thankyou' cos he got confused with 'bow' and 'down').

Yeh, I forgot about that one.  I taught Bazil that using clicker.  Well, I suppose that's one trick that I've taught mine. 

Annie

Mine also go on their mat!  Clicker training is best to do this. Anton loves it even though when he's been naughty he's now told to go on his mat, but after a few seconds he comes grinning as if to say I've been a good boy now will you let me off and you just can't dismiss those big brown eyes :d

Keeley, you could teach Toby to clear up his toys if he has a toy box? Or 'sing' along to Coronation Street, my old JR used to do this!! Or once you have mastered the beg, teach him walk on his hind legs (although I should think this would be done very slowly and not for very long.) If he has a plastic dinner bowl, you could teach him to bring it to you when he wants feeding! Teach him to bring the remotes (I hadn't thought of that one before, I will make a note!!!) Or to close the door behind you, if you are not bothered by dog's in your fridge, he could even go and you a beer in the evening!!!

Any news about your cat yet?

Hi Natalie, thanks for the ideas.  No, nothing on the cat front.  I'm putting posters in peoples doors tonight, so we'll see what that brings, but I have to say I'm losing hope :(

She will turn up, cat's always go for their little wonders, normally they come back. I suppose it depends if that woman up the road is giving her better food than you!! ;) :D :D

Our cat went missing for 6 MONTHS before she was found!!

Zoe, your cat definatly found that woman giving the better food ;)

LOL yer i guess, but once we found her she stayed with us untill a heathy 18 years old :) so we cant have been that bad :p

Wow, six months!!  I just want to see her beautiful big eyes again - I can even cope with all her hairs over the sofa.  I just want her back.

what about teaching a spin left and right, im doing this with my pup as an extra help for agility later on, we are also working on 'find it' when we hide her toy, shes 20 weeks now, and pretty blimmin bright! but then she is a bc! ;-)

Ours as missing for exactly a year before we found him, we ggot him back, kept him in for 2 weeks, new collar and tag, then on the 16 day he slipped out the door in the heatwave and we havent seen or heard anything since! Cats, who's have 'em!
THere is also, walk backwards
Weave through legs in a finger of eight
Balance on back legs  (if he's over a year)
Paw over eyes (like he is embarrassed or shy.
My springer's favourite game involves targeting things, targetting the end of a stick, a mat, a cone, my hand, etc. It can be really useful to teach other things too.

My girly plays dead - basically half a roll over.  She's a natural - sleeps on her back most of the time anyway :) I also taught her to stand on back legs, and we are working on the beg - sitting with paws in the air.  She keeps trying to stand up though!  I'm teaching the beg by having her sit, thens lowly raising the treat above her nose so he has to rear up a little to get it - it seems to be working.  Warn you though, I haven't figured out the part where I get her to do it without a treat!

What else... my dobe shuts doors, and he's learning to open them.  For the door shut, I used his hi-5 (hi 5! there's another one :) ) and got him doing it wherever my hand was, then I moved my hand in fromt of a slightly open door, and when he was pushing the door shut with my hand there (caution: this may hurt!!) I gradually moved my hand away, millimetre by millimetre, till he was shutting the door by himself.  You could also teach it by having him target your palm with his nose, then using the same method to push the door closed - our doors are knackered anyway, so his claws aren't a worry!
for the open door, I have a small rubber ball (the little studded ones, it used to be a dumbell..) with string tied to it.  I started off by click/treating him for any contact with it, then building up his actions till he was putting his mouth round it, then c/t for putting his mouth round with a slight pull, even accidental - building it up from there to a strong pull backwards.  All this I did holding the string, now I'm working on him doing the same thing with the ball hanging from a door handle.  He's a bit unsure about grabbing it and pulling in that situation but he's getting there,
He also spins left and right, steps backwards (we're working on forwards), bows, almost begs and hi-5s.  Opi (rott X) rolls over, plays dead (well, almost), stands up, almost begs, speaks (almost whispers - speaking with no noise, I started that one when she went to bark but wasn't sure if she should!), and she's just starting to bow.

Next on the list is searching (I'd love Remy to be a detection dog one day, if only for something for him to do!), fetching and spinning left and right for Opi.  I'm toying with the idea of switching the light on for Remy - I saw it on Cell Dogs on the Animal Planet channel, one of the prisons on there trains service dogs from rescue centres, and they train them to flick the light on and off.  very cool :) and handy!!

I taught one of mine to "find it" when he was a puppy and used it to teach his contacts and now he also fetches things for me by name bless him. He has even been known to pick up washing that I have dropped and bring it to the machine aaahhh!! His best trick is dead dog. I point my fingers at him like a gun and say "bang", he then falls on the ground and rolls on to his side barking (his dying speech) and lies very still and.... HOLDS HIS BREATH!! It's all very dramatic as he is a bit of a show off but how he learned to hold his breath I don't know. I got him to do it for the vet the other day when she was examining him so that she could listen to his heart and she was stunned. I have no idea why he does it or what I am doing to make him  do it (if anything at all).

Edited: forgot to add, my 5 month pup does left and right, wait, sit, down. I taught him five at Thames in about 3 attempts and he now also waves which only took one attempt. The advantage of clicker training! As soon as I pick up the clicker he does his entire repertoire to try and get the reward, this included giving me a paw which as my hand wasn't there was turned into a wave, cute eh?

You could teach him some really useful stuff, like they do for dogs for the disabled. Getting the clothes out of the tumble dryer, picking up your keys etc when you drop them. I used to know a guy who taught dogs for the disabled, and he taught one of his dogs (shepherd) the following:

He would lie on the floor (trainer) and start sneezing). This was the dogs cue to open a cupboard, bring him a box of tissues, and then get a blanket and cover him over with it. It was so great to watch!

Kat
Albert - if you ever read anything on this board you will recognise yourself and Misha!!

Hi China, He will actually pick up things that I can't reach, the remote for the TV, my shoes or my keys. I don't need him to do it but he likes to be doing "stuff" and he loves carrying things. If I lie on the sofa and say Brrr and pretend to shiver he will come and lie on top of me and lick my face bless him. He will fetch his and the others leads, the post in the morning and the free paper out of the letter box. I let him help me bring in the shopping and he is only too pleased to bring me his biscuits! I've lost track of the number of times I have misplaced something and he has helped me find it. I think he missed his calling and he could have been a very good assistance dog or a search and rescue dog. he is people mad and loves to play hide and seek with my friends children cos it's such a great game. :-D A couple of times I have sent him for his lead and it has been stuck, he comes back and whines and runs out of the room and keeps doing this until I finally get up and see what is wrong then he shows me why he can't bring his lead. He has such an ability to figure things out that he makes other collies look stupid by comparison. I took him in the lorry with me one day and cos he was sitting on the passenger seat I couldn't see out of my mirror so I told him to move. The third time this happened he refused to budge so I said to him "I can't see out of my mirror, you've got to move". he looked at the mirror and then at me and then leaned back against the seat again checking with me and the mirror. I could see and he got to stay where he was... smartarse.. :-D

Im so proud.

Our SBT will do sit, roll, 5, 10, jump, speak, fetch etc.  Also training her to find things.    Over last few days we have realised she knows difference between (fetch your toy" and "fetch your bone".   Found it out by mistake,.........said fetch you bone  (bone was in amongst toys) she came back with bone.     Replaced bone, tried again........same result.  replaced bone, "tectch your toy".she came back with a toy.

Now, we hide the bone, but leave toys out.   Can either say "fetch the bone" and she'll hunt it out, or "fetch your toy" and she will bring one. 

Ok, we havent got her to differciate between to "ball" or "blanket" or "tiger" yet.but hey, well impressed !

That's brilliant colliemad!

Our new GSD pup is called Indiana Jones, (Indy for short, or Mr Jones!!) and I've taught him to come to me when I whistle the Indiana Jones film theme - it's so funny!