Tricks and treats

[sheila and Misty]

I was wondering if anyone is into having their cairns do tricks ..I have established the basic sit , give paw,otherpaw,lie down,roll over,give kisses, and almost(up nice-the sit on the butt begging position) if anyone does tricks with their furbabies could you share a few new suggestions. ? I'd like something different. My poodle use to dance but dont know that I want to do that with a cairn. can anyone get their pup to sing? I tried with my last one and all that came out was mummum.

[kjwarnold]

Packy does all the usual ones (sit, down, rollover, shake, etc.), plus:

1. He's a champion at sitting up. He can sit there forever.
   
2. Up & Down - He does a down, then when I say, "Up" he goes straight up into sitting up. It's weird how strong his back and stomach muscles are to do this, but he doesn't do a sit or stand in between, he just moves up. Then he goes back down without any stop in the middle. He can do it several times in a row. Must be those 6-pack abs...
   
3. Dance - up on his back legs and twirl around in a circle.
   
4. Bang! - Everybody's favorite. I pretend point a gun at him and say, "Bang!" and he lays down on his side, playing dead.
   

I'd like to hear some other fun tricks that other Cairns do. Packy loves to learn.

[Toby23]

Let's see, Toby does "crawl" where he crawls on his tummy army style, and he also turns off and on a "touch" control lamp. It's one of those ones with a metallic base that doesn't take more then a light tap to off and on.

[Amber and the zoo]

Great ideas! I love the "Bang" one and using your cairn to turn on the light! lol. We are in the process of teaching Ellie "Slooooooooooooow". First we just started with food and slowly took it to her face and she takes it in slow motion. Now we set the food (or toy) across the room and tell her slow. She looks like she is in slow motion--it's hilarious! She does really well unless someone makes a sudden movement or Gracie come anywhere close to the prize! lol

[sheila and Misty]

well thats good !!now I have 4 more I can work on. Not sure if Mistys ready to do anything slow yet. just getteing her to take it nice (her treats) out of our hands instead of snap jawwing. play deads good forgot about that one and maybe she will dance ! crawl and slow sound very difficult to me-nothing normally slow about a cairn. what about singing? I want that soo badly but I dont think it works for all breeds if anyone had any luck please instruct me on motivation to get her to sing. maybe put a run,then a slow motion,then a bang dead together. that would be neat!..then jump up and dance! amd maybe a little song finale.yeh right..maybe could have that going by the end of summer-its a thought tho'... anxious to hear more ideas. thanks for responding!

[Barney's Mom]

I've wanted to teach Barney some new tricks but have no idea HOW!! I have taught him sit, down, wait and stay. Oh, one that no one has mentioned yet that we do is "target". You hold your arm straight out and he has to jump up and touch your fist with his nose. I've tried to teach him to shake but have had no success. I think I might be doing it wrong.

I have also taught him to fetch and retrieve his ball, and he must drop the ball inside my legs as I sit indian style on the floor. He is getting quite good! It's kind of cute how he throws it into the spot sometimes! When he misses, I put the ball back in his mouth and make him get it right! This just bugs him to death, but he does it because he knows I won't throw it until he does!

The "slow" sounds like one Barney NEEDS to learn!!

[kcsdogs]

I am a dud when it comes to tricks........my GSD know like two but she only learned them because one of my dog clients wanted to train some tricks and I had to at least know what I was talking about. My dogs have however trained ME to do some neat "tricks."

1. Bark at her and she will throw the ball on command.

2. If I bring the ball back to her and drop it on her toes she will throw it again (if not bark at her and she will throw the ball on command again)

[Flyboy]

Chewbacca can do sit, laydown, roll over, shake, hi 5, Up(stands up) and choose. To choose you put a treat in one hand and close your fists, then hold both fists out. He has to touch his paw to a hand to choose. If he chooses wrong, you can either ask again and he touches the other hand, or put your hands out of sight and change the treat hand.

If he gets a whif it's not contest, lol.

Also on the UP command. I've found it helpful when walking. Sometimes the leash gets caught around a front leg. I used to bend down and fix it by picking up the leg and moving the leash. One day I was too lazy and just said "UP!" he stood up, raised his paws and I flipped the leash free. It's a lot nicer than bending over.

[hallswel]

Mine all like jumps, tunnel and games alot more than tricks. Although Rebel can sit, down, dance, shake, stay when he wants to but he loves the jumps and frisbee so much more.

[savannahsmom35]

Savannah does sit, stay, down, roll over, shake and leave it but her favorite is spin. She spins around in a circle. If you say spin repeatedly, she spins like a top over and over agian. As soon as she sees a treat, she spins without you even asking. She likes to show off with it.

[Nikki]

we just learned spin too but I used the clicker to help...our trainer said w/ teaching new trick start w/ baby steps like when we were first learning to lie down. the first time if his nose touched the ground he got a click the next time he had to lie all the way down to get a click. use a treat to lure your cairn.. Cairn's will do anything for food!

[jodi0553]

I loved reading this thread and all the creative tricks you guys have come up with! Currey only does sit, down, stay, stand and roll over at this point. I'd love to train more someday. He's horrible at following verbal commands, but lately I've been working almost exclusively with hand commands. I can git his attention with a finger snap and then do a sit, down, over sequence with hand commands only. I'm really working hard on the sit to have near automatic response to the hand command even from a distance, given his propensity to ignore all verbal cues.

A trainer I worked with had a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, and the dog had a number of tricks like lifting feet and turning around and such on cue. Some Jen said she trained just by watching for a given behavior and then associating a word with the bahavior that the dog was already displaying, and eventually the bahavior could be coaxed by the word. The best she had was a combo of all the commands in which she could get the little dog to do an entire strain of the Hokey Pokey! It was fantastic!!!

[Darcy's Folks]

We did tricks class at PetSmart and learned an enormous repetoire! Aside from the basics already mentioned, Darcy can:

- wave bye-bye

- "touchdown", a version of standing only on her hind legs with her front paws stretched up toward the sky.... then by command only she does a "celebration dance" which is the spinning around on hind legs. Very popular during football season!

- spin & twirl on all fours

- "park it", it's like using stay, but even better and much longer and it includes a "home-base" (her sleep pillow) as the area where she "parks it"

- touch with her snout, from any location/distrance, anything we tell her to including people.

- roll over, then crawl "Rambo/army style" in a repeated pattern, over and over.

- she will retrieve 3 different play toys of hers (all vastly different from one another) by their name.

Poor Bailey... we haven't spent as much time training him although he has the basics down very well and he isn't as frantic as Darcy. He's more mellow and willing to please, whereas with Darcy we needed the training to get her attention when she gets rowdy.

Good luck! You've inspired me to want to work more with Bailey on a few new tricks!!!!

[sheila and Misty]

Great tricks! I am going to work on a few more also. now that I'm getting alot of ideas. were going to try them all eventually . I would just love her to crawl real sloooow jump up and dance then sit down and sing her heart out then bow and do a high 5. probably take years to accomplish that. If it doesnt happen she at least knows the basics. But it will be a nice challenge to give it a try. thank you thank you. p.s. what might be comical after a bath suggest spin dry.

[sheila and Misty]

We did tricks class at PetSmart and learned an enormous repetoire! Aside from the basics already mentioned, Darcy can:

- wave bye-bye

-!!!!

[sheila and Misty]

We did tricks class at PetSmart and learned an enormous repetoire! Aside from the basics already mentioned, Darcy can:

- wave bye-bye

-!!!!

OOPS! to quick to click-soo please tell me how did you get Darcy to wave byebye?????? mine watch larry leave for work out our bow window and that would be soo neat.

[SparkyJonesMom]

I'd love to teach Sparky how to wave bye bye, too. Right now he can sit, lay down, roll over, and stay. I've been trying to make him "sit pretty" but he doesn't get it yet. He ends up getting confused and then he's barely able to follow the "sit" command, and we have to stop and let him forget the whole fiasco. I at least want to make him "shake" and "play dead." Hopefully he'll get the hang of things.

[Holly_go_lighlty]

Murphy knows: sit, down, stay, roll over, sit pretty (where he sits on his bum with his paws at his chest), and he knows to play dead when we say "BANG" and point our fingers at him. Then finally we ask him, "Murphy, would you rather be a Florida Gator or dead?" and he falls over. We insert al sorts of ideas in there, but you get the general picture.

Clicker training Rocks!!!!!!

[jimnconnie]

I've been trying to make him "sit pretty" but he doesn't get it yet. He ends up getting confused and then he's barely able to follow the "sit" command, and we have to stop and let him forget the whole fiasco.

Using "sit" in both commands is probably confusing Sparky. You might try using a completely different command, such as "pretty boy", or anything without "sit" in it. I'm sure Sparky will catch on pretty quick! Good Luck--

[SparkyJonesMom]

Good advice! I'll try it next time we work on tricks.

[Tracy A.]

Or maybe sparky understands completely and is just toying with you....... LOL

[sheila and Misty]

I'd love to teach Sparky how to wave bye bye, too. Right now he can sit, lay down, roll over, and stay. I've been trying to make him "sit pretty" but he doesn't get it yet. He ends up getting confused and then he's barely able to follow the "sit" command, and we have to stop and let him forget the whole fiasco. I at least want to make him "shake" and "play dead." Hopefully he'll get the hang of things.

[/quote

Try sit then up nice

[kurtlaynevedder]

I don't know how they taught it but my aunt taught her dog to pray. You have to be holding them though, but she would say pray and it would put its front to paws together and it was hilarious! He really looked like he was praying!

[Vivian]

There are some great ideas here!

Oscar also knows the usual: sit, down, roll over, speak, 'up' (stands on two hind legs), shake, drop it, leave it, among others that aren't really tricks but he picked up on because I say it so much (ie. go back, bring it over).

Needless to say, I was running out of ideas!

I would love to do the "Bang! / Play dead trick". I tried it once a little while ago, made him lay down on his side once he achieved that I said "Bang!". Oscar was startled and stood right up and barked like mad! Perhaps I should have said "Bang" in a softer voice while training him.

[SparkyJonesMom]

I worked with Sparky last night on the "Bang!"/Play dead trick. After a while, he finally got it, and he'd lay on his side and be very still. But then after I gave him a break and tried working with him again an hour later, he decided that what I really wanted him to do was just roll over when I said "Bang!"

I'll just keep working with him. I think I'm also going to use the "Up Nice" command to make him sit on his hind legs.