whatevah

It might take a little longer on your shepherds as they are big dogs. It took my flatcoat retreiver (breed similar to golden retreiver) a lot longer than teaching a smaller dog. Just do a few small sessions. I will keep the tricks coming, but am only teaching what I have taught my own dogs. Easier to trouble shoot that way.

Spin Uses - To show off, A doggy Dancing movement Equipment - food treats and or/clicker Method Have your dog in a stand position, off lead. Have a piece of food in your hand, show the dog that you have it there. Put your hand near the dogs nose, so that it follows the treat (this is known as luring), start to move your hand slowly in a semi circle position so that his head follows your hand (his body should then also follow). You move the food slowly towards the dogs hips. As soon as he starts to move give him his reward or click and treat if you are using a clicker. Try this again several times. Start off rewarding small movements, then hold off the reward and try to get bigger movements. This can take a few sessions for big dogs. I have found it easier for little dogs and young dogs to learn. Lot of praise and rewards when he gets it right. Once he has it, you can phase out the food by only rewarding once he has done the full circle, then every second circle or randomly. Some dogs will turn one way better than the other way, for reasons only known to them. Once you having been getting the full circle for a while, give the movement a name, I use SPIN, or you could use TURN or CIRCLE. Problems I found that I had trouble getting my dog to turn and it helped if I had him standing near a corner, and used the corner to help lure him around. ADVANCED You can then try to get him to do circles at your side and behind you. Circles while you heel. I have found that I use my left hand to do an anticlockwise circle (left circle) and my right hand to do a clockwise circle (right circle). With the dog at my side. Some people give the left circle and right circle different names. If you have success with this, please let us know, I like successes. If you are having problems for have found a better way that works for your dog, also let us know. Good Luck! I have taught both my dogs this trick.

KJ that is soooooooooooooooo cute!! If anyone is worried about little puppy's do small tiny catches. They won't hurt. The dog does not need to be leaping right up into the air at this stage. Great to hear about the successes. I am doing simple tricks at the moment, but they will get harder, love hearing about people's successes.

Congrats to Bindi, so far 100% success rate for all those who have tried. Anybody else tried it? Now you can start making it a little bit harder for her. She is learning that the kitchen is a fun place to be.

Congrats to Bindi, she will get better and better. Once she has worked out that she gets the treat, she will try harder. I find that rice crackers are big and easy for them to catch. May take a few more sessions, but you have progress. Way to go!!!

It is most important that you don't let her eat the ones that fall to the ground!!! Why should she try to catch them, if she can eat them when they fall on the ground anyway. I tend to get on my knees to do this trick so I can quickly grab the food/toys that goes to the ground before the dog gets it. This is the most important part of teaching the trick. The dog will try much harder to catch when it doesn't get the reward. It has to earn it. Congrats on getting it to work with the first dog though, you can start telling him to sit and wait before you throw it, and make it harder for him, or try using toys, but only for the 1st dog though.

How did you teach directions? How did you teach stop to the whistle? I have got both dogs sitting on the whistle of one toot, fairly close to me, they will also do it while heeling. Do you then just expand on it? I have heard that there is a herding seminar, would they cover whistle work?

The main thing is that she is trying. It will take several sessions, but once she has she will love this game. Once she catches it, lots of rewards. Keep going with it. Once she has it, you tell her to wait, and you will start to see her get very excited about it. Try and throw it close to her mouth.

Teach Your Dog to Catch Uses - Fun to show friends Two Methods Equipment - Toys/ or Food Treats Prequisites - Dogs need to know sit and possibly wait. Toy Method - This is the method I have used on three dogs that I have trained. Including puppies. Put the dog into a sit, kneel in front of the dog or you can stand. Dog is off lead. Get a soft stuffed toy, you are about 1/2 a foot to a foot away from the dog, throw toy towards dogs mouth. Underarm throw and very softly. As you throw toy dog say catch. Dog will probably miss first few goes which is okay. Keep perservering. If the dog misses the toy, be sure to get to it, before the dog does. He only gets the toy when he catches it himself. Big reward when he catches the toy, such as fetch, or praise, whatever the dog likes. Once the dog gets the hand of it tell him to wait, before throwing the toy. Then start moving further away and try different articles. Don't use a kong or tennis ball to start with as they are too hard for a dog just beginning. This trick may take a few sessions so be patient and keep it fun. If the dog misses the article, don;t tell him off, just keep trying, some dogs take a while to get coordinated. You can even try balancing a tennis ball on your dogs nose and tell him to catch. My dog does this very well. Food Method - Same as above, but use food instead. Good food to use, popcorn, rice crackers, pieces of bread. Food that to easy to see and soft and sort of floats. Rice crackers are good because they float. If at anytime the dog does not catch the food treat, do not let the dog have the treat. Don't tell him off. Just don't let him have the treat, he will try harder for it next time. You could also try this trick before meal time. When you throw the food to the dog, you are trying to actually throw it into his mouth, make it easy for him, until he gets the hang of it.

Does she like toys? You can try rewarding her with a toy or a game of tug.

How did you teach your dog to go left and right to the whistle? I have also taught both dogs to sit to the whistle. I use one toot.

How are people going with this trick? Anybody got any problems? How long did it take for your dog to learn it? Also when I walk my dogs off lead, I only call them when it is an emergency. I let them find me, often I will hide from them. So I am teaching them to look for me, instead of waiting for me to call their name. With the random reward just doing that so, that the dog will still return even though there is not food there. But rewarding with praise/tugs/toys/retreives is good idea.

I didn't include the silent whistle as some handlers don't have much confidence with it, and cannot really hear it well themselves. I also use a gundog whistle as I don't want my dog to go running into the middle of a footy game, when it hears one whistle, that is also the reason why I use four toots. I like the whistle as it can be heard by dogs over long distances. It has saved me many times, when my dog has gone out of the sight at the local school. I have just blown my whistle and he whizzes back. Will teach more complicated tricks in future threads, but wanted to start off with a basic trick that is handy and quick and easy to teach. Future tricks can be teaching the dog to walk backwards, circle, go to your mat, peek abo, shake paws using your foot as a signal, cross paws, head down, targetting, open a bin with a pedal attached and remove a toy, roll over, close doors, walk backwards through your legs, weave in and out of your legs etc.

I am trialling a possible trick forum. The idea is that I am posting a simple trick to start with. I will explain a method I know that works. People can have a go and if they have any problems with this trick, they email in, and somebody else following this thread maybe able to help. If this thread takes off, Troy has offered to post it as a forum, and have each trick as a different thread. Please keep it nice and friendly. :D) First Trick - Calling a dog to a whistle. Benefits - when your dog is way off in the distance, just simply blow your whistle and he/she will come back, save your lungs in calling. Also handy if your dog is about to jump up on someone or give somebody hassles, just simply blow whistle and dog comes. Equipment needed - whistle, treats, (any type of whistle, but not silent whistle) Treats, have to be yummy treats, not boring dry food. Method - Have dog not too far away Blow whistle for four toots, call the dog, as soon as dog arrives click and treat, or just treat, if you don't have a clicker. Repeat this about 4 times. Now just blow the whistle (four toots) and dog should come. Practice with dog further and further away. Then practice with distractions. Then only reward every second time dog comes, then keep the rewards random. Reason why I suggested four toots, is that I do field retrieving, and we use one toot for sit. Try to keep it consistent. Have fun. If this takes off, will post more interesting and involved tricks as we go along.