Calling all dog behaviorists

[MossRoad]

....Finally, I'm curious what interesting things you been able to get your dogs to do over the years. We're trying to teach these two little guys to jingle a bell hung from the door when they want to go out rather than barking at the door and it seems to be working remarkably well so far...while they don't ring it on their own, they do know that when they hear it, they are going out. We'll keep working on it. How about all of you...any great things you've taught your dogs?....
Gary

When I was a kid we had a dog. When he would come inside the house, we would say "Wet Feet!". He'd plop down on the floor and hold his legs up for us to wipe off his paws. Then we'd hand him the rag and tell him "Take it to the laundry" and he'd take it to the laundry room and drop it on the floor in front of the washing machine then meet us in the kitchen for his treat.

If you held up one, two or three fingers he would bark that many times. If you held up four, he would bark until told to stop.

Here's some other commands he would respond to:
sit
sit up (beg)
shake hands
other paw (left handed shake)
lay down
roll over
other way (roll the other way)
dead dog
dead dogs don't wag their tails (he'd stop)
dead dogs don't have their eyes open (he'd close them)
up (he'd stand on his back legs)
where's name?( he'd find any family member in the house)
go see name! (he'd go hang out with that family member and leave you alone for a while)
get the paper (he'd meet the paper boy at the end of the driveway and bring the papter back)
take it to name (he'd take whatever you put in his mouth to who ever you told him)
WARN EM!! and snap your finger and point at someone (he'd show his teeth, growl real low and scare the bajeebers out of that person).

He could also climb ladders, jump over stuff, etc....

Funny thing was, we got him from the pound when he was about 2 years old. The people gave him up because they said he couldn't be trained!

R.I.P. Skippy! Good dog!

 

[DarinRay]

Speaking of training them to do tricks how did you stop the whinning? My 2 will whine when I come home or when people come over. Big babies!

darin

let them play as rough as they want as long as its play.

watch the behavior. A tucked tail is always a give away that someone isnt having fun. My 2 labs play ROUGH, when they bite ate each others fir around there neck and shake it hurts just to watch, but waggy tails and no wimpering means its all in fun.

Also, dont be afraid to get in there. As pack leader there is no better time to assert your dominance than to get in the middle of a rough housing play and become the aggressor yourself. pinning both, chasing them around etc.

Just about anything can be taught with positive reinforcement.

at the top of my list is
-dont jump up on people
-dont run in/out the door while im walking through (they will either go ahead with a comand, or follow behind naturally)
-proper leash behavor

a huge one which is one of the most difficult.
recall. Nothing better than a dog that recalls.

personally ive never saw the point in the "stupid" tricks. play dead, roll over, walk on 2 legs....

you want to show me something, recall your dog off a rabbit/squirrel/cat/duck chase 1.5 seconds into it. or drop a stake trimming on the floor, give a "leave it" command and have the dog ignore it (till you say)

mine dont nuisance bark (or bark much period) nor whine (although i did have a whiner which took some doing to break)

 

[riptides]

When I was a kid we had a dog.

R.I.P. Skippy! Good dog!

Smart dog, smarter owners.

Got two of mine dead stopped on commands during "I see rabbit, I am dog" quest.

Now if I can get them to stop biting through chain link, all will be well. I actually have a portion of a dog pen, with two chain link barriers.

Strong dogs, weak owner.

-Mike Z.

 

[kenmac]

About all I can get mine to do is. He will come when I call him to eat Of, course , I don't have alot of time to spend with him

 

[MossRoad]

Smart dog, smarter owners.

Got two of mine dead stopped on commands during "I see rabbit, I am dog" quest.

Now if I can get them to stop biting through chain link, all will be well. I actually have a portion of a dog pen, with two chain link barriers.

Strong dogs, weak owner.

-Mike Z.

We've had some not-too-smart ones, too! A border collie mix that was as dumb as a box of rocks. Really lovable dog, but about the only tricks she knew was how to wag her tail and drool on your Sunday clothes.

I did have one dog that knew most obediance coommands, plus shake hands and stuff. But his best trick was if you looked at him and yelled "SNEEZE!" he'd wind up a big old sneeze and blow snot all over your shoes. Sometimes he'd sneeze so hard he'd hit his nose on the floor and sneeze a coulple times more. Once he was done sneezing, he'd start barking until you told him to stop. We found out about the sneeze trick when I was trying to teach him to speak (bark on command). He mastered speak! pretty fast, but I found that if you waited an hour or so, walked up to him and told him to speak!, he'd sneeze first, then start barking. Soooo, instead of saying speak! I'd just say sneeze! It was a cool trick, before the days of video cameras. I was going to take him to Letterman for Stupid Pet Tricks, but by then he was too old to travel. He lived a good 14 years with that sneezing thing. Must have had sinus trouble or allergies or something. Best dog I ever had.

R.I.P. Dog. Bless you.

 

[dmccarty]

Speaking of training them to do tricks how did you stop the whinning? My 2 will whine when I come home or when people come over. Big babies!

darin

Try ignoring them when you come home. Kelly is the Uber Whiner. She was that way when I picked her from the litter. She would whine all of the time. Sometimes this was good like when she wanted outside but often just a pain.

One day I came home and ignored her when she created me. Told her to go lay down. After I got done doing what needed to be done I want to her and said hello. She pretty much stopped whining. When she would meet me at the door and whine I would responsed to her by petting her. Thus she learned that whining got her attention. I ignorned the whinning and it went away.



Whish I had done this years ago.

But poor old Kelly is on her last legs. Surprised she has lasted this long but she won't last much longer. I think she was that one extraordinarly dog one might be lucky to get in life. She would recall when chasing deer, dogs, cats, squirrals and the meter reader.

GREAT dog.

Later,
Dan

 

[DarinRay]

Thank you for this information. Now the female is starting to whine. Oh boy! Got to nip this in the butt fast. I will have to try to ingnore them like you mentioned.

We had a heck of a dog that seemed like a timex watch.. Just kept ticking. He was going strong but then slowed some and wasn't much later he left us for the "Rainbow Bridge". Holy crap it's been over 1.5 years and it's still hard talking about it.

Darin

 

[sunspot]

My wife and I have a couple of PBVG's that are brother and sister. When they play/fight, they hip slam each other. Funniest darn thing to see.

PBVG=Petit Basset Griffon Vend馥n

 

[VABlue]

Training retreivers is about the easiest thing you can do in only 20 minutes day! But start now, while they are pups, and you teach them to learn. Just like a kid, they can absorb information easier and quicker when they're young. Not so many bad habits to unlearn!

I recommend reading 'Water Dog' from Richard Wolters. Its easy to read and understand, and will help you get basic obedience into them quickly. That said, ignore his age timelines and advance as quickly as your dogs learn. Getting a well behaved canine citizen is actually pretty easy... If you are willing to put in the little time EACH DAY that it requires.

 

[davitk]

My son plays basketball with "Cosmo", I came outside and they were playing.... don't know who taught whom.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=CbTH34RTevo

The dog does his business on command, "hurry up", runs to the hay field (we never clean up ), before he comes in we tell him to "dance", spins in circles on the door mat to wipe his feet.

We also have a 13 year old Shepherd mix, he still mixes it up regularlly with 2 year old Cosmo; top dog has not yet been estabished.