What Quirky, Cute & Funny Things Does Your Dog Do?

[Baileys mum]

I was just thinking about this today, I have 3 dogs that are very intelligent , have all had basic training & are fairly obedient.

But of course they all have their individual personalities & over time have discovered that each one of them can do something quirky & funny that I haven't formally trained them to do.

First of all I have my Old girl Jessie, (13 yo Aussie terrier x) Anyway one day when she was about 1, she decided to crawl along the length of the room on her tummy when we where playing with her, (she looks so funny doing it ) Anyway we started to call this behaviour "The Belly crawl" & even to this day, If we say to her "Jessie Do the Belly Crawl" she will start doing it.

Next we have my beautiful heart dog Bailey (3 yo Aussie terrier ) He has a thing for singing & also trying to talk.

I usually sit him on my lap & start singing to him (He has a few favourite songs ) & he will sit there & howl the whole song along with me ( I guess he really loves my singing ) & then after the singing is over I will say in a High pitch voice "I Love You " & I would swear that he says it right back in a doggy voice. It just sounds exactly like it.

Then Finally I have my sweet little girl Brandy (2 yo Aussie terrier) She has a fantastic knack of remembering words, especially the names of her toys. She has a mountain of toys, but she probably has about 8 that are her favourites. Anyway if say one of her toys is a monkey, we will start calling it that from the minute she gets it, if it's an elephant, we will tell her that's what it is, & if it's a frisbee, that's what we call & so on.

Anyway She may be just sitting there & my OH or I might say to her, "Brandy can you get the Monkey" & she will look at us then she will trot over to the pile of toys, dig through the pile until she's found the monkey & then bring it to us. We will then ask for the frisbee, & she will repeat the action, until she has found it. Even if we deliberately hide the toy at the bottom of the pile, she will still dig it out & bring it too us.

She's 6 weeks pregnant at the moment & feeling a bit sorry for herself , so I decided to buy her a new toy yesterday, A Lion soft toy. Anyway we started calling it a lion fron the minute she got it, & now she already knows what it is . She's just so bright. But's its not like we did any heavy formal training for her to learn this,we just started calling the toys by name, & she just remembered it by herself. :D

So that's our 3 dogs, there's so many other things that they do that I could tell you all about, but then this post would go on forever, but these are the things that specifically stand out for me.

None of these behaviours where formally taught to them, they where just little things that they picked up by themselves, that we have encouraged them to keep doing, which gives us some lovely enjoyment & entertainment. ;)

So my question to you all, is what Quirky, cute & funny thing does your dog do, that you haven't really trained them to do.?

Nicole

[Guest belgian.blue]

Never taught Ivy to do this but she is an extremely smart girl. I'm amazing how darn quick she picks things up!

She has soft toys, shoe laces etc sprawled about the house, she never kills her toys. Now whenever I say to her 'get a toy' her ears perk up, she looks at me and quickly prances off to bring me a toy.

The shoe laces are her fav!

[~*Shell*~]

How about something I tried to formally teach but that turned into something else?

Ruthless asked me to get a shot of Zero's gorgeous new collar and leash that she made - me thinking that I was so awesome decided to try and teach Zero to hold the leash and sit down so I could take a photo of it. I teach with a clicker and Zero has problems with his back end so sometimes it hurts when he sits down so instead he backs up instead of sitting. When I was teaching him, I accidently clicked when he was backing up instead of sitting - he's a smart dog and it only takes 1 click for him to get something usually.

Instead of teaching him to hold the leash and sit, I taught him to back up and throw the leash over his shoulder. Whoops!!

One of the things that Zero does that I didn't teach is saying hello - we encouraged him to wooo when we walk through the gate so now he really says hello to us. He will say hi to me, run around the back and get a toy for me to throw for him. He'll go and get it twice and then tries to get me to throw it a third time but if I throw it a third time, he won't get it. It's his quirky little thing.

[Shaar]

I was trying to teach Prada my Mini Poodle to roll over... that turned into play dead because every time she tried to roll over she got 'stuck' on her back with her legs splayed open

Brody my other Mini can open our baby gate He has figured out that if he jumps on the pedal hard enough it unlatches. We had to tighten the gate so much that WE have to stomp on it really hard just to get it open!

Cyrus the Crested.. well... we won't talk about him To his credit he's only 5 months old

[HugUrPup]

My pug can impersonate a pig

[Kirislin]

Puck is my funny quirky boy. He wears PJ's at night from now on till it warms up again. When I take them off him in the morning I first take his back legs out and then I say Head down so I can slip it over his head, but instead of him putting his head down, he's evolved it into a bow and stretch. He does it every time.

He loves his collar. It's a big cumbersome one so sometimes I take it off him to give him a rest, but he hates being without it. If I put it on a chair he will grab it and bring it to me so I will put it back on him. Sometimes he just carries it around so no one else can get it. He's been known to take it to bed with him to keep it safe and if Tag comes close while he's carrying it he will growl.

[tdierikx]

I don't know where Trouble (Labrador) learned to sit up and beg, but she does it so well...

My girls also know that when I say "kitchen" they are to go in there, and I shut the door - this is a good thing for when I leave for work, or if people come to the door and I don't want Zeddy scaring them with her "I'm a big vicious dog" act...

T.

[Burkes]

My lab has somehow always known to go and get the lead and bring to it me when it is time to go for a walk. Now that I have a foster dog, he has also worked out that we need two leads.

One night, it may have been a random coincidence, I told Dusty we would go for a walk. He trotted off and got the lead and brought it back. Then I was looking out the window and said 'oooh, it looks cold outside'. Off trots Dusty and comes back with my beanie. So smart.

All my dogs also know the difference between work shoes and walking shoes. When work shoes go on they go back to bed but when walking shoes are out it is all systems go.

[Dame Aussie]

Mosley sits in front of me and if I touch his muzzle he will give me his paw

Lili loves getting kisses and it's got to the point that if we make a "Mwa mwa mwa" kissing noise she will sit down put her head down and close her eyes till we give her a kiss, it's hilarious

If they run out of water Mosley brings me the bowl and started doing it at around 12 weeks and if we say "Where is it?" to Lili she will find a ball, toy...anything that we can play fetch with.

[Dame Aussie]

Puck is my funny quirky boy. He wears PJ's at night from now on till it warms up again. When I take them off him in the morning I first take his back legs out and then I say Head down so I can slip it over his head, but instead of him putting his head down, he's evolved it into a bow and stretch. He does it every time.

He loves his collar. It's a big cumbersome one so sometimes I take it off him to give him a rest, but he hates being without it. If I put it on a chair he will grab it and bring it to me so I will put it back on him. Sometimes he just carries it around so no one else can get it. He's been known to take it to bed with him to keep it safe and if Tag comes close while he's carrying it he will growl.

That's so cute Kirislin

[mutt lover]

Like Bailey's mum I had an Aussie terrier X when I was a teenager who used to sit up and beg, shake hands and loved the water sooo much she'd climb up the ladder and get in the above ground pool we had and would swim around then climb back up ladder and get out, We had an old inner tube and I put a board on top of it and sheba jumped in and got on top and floated across the pool like she was surfing, Must of had really good balance she never fell off. She also used to yawn and it used to sound like she was saying "NO" and she always did it at the appropriate time also, One day my mum and I were sitting in the kitchen and Sheba was sitting next to me on the corner bench seat and mum banged the table with her hand and said "Sheba get out of my house". Well Sheba looked back at her and yawned and said "NO" like she understood exactly what mum had just said an animal trainer would of loved to get her she's been the only really smart dog I've ever had and when they were making the Benji series in Aust I took her to a Benji look alike competition which she won and they wanted to buy her as she was the spitting image with the same white mark on side of face also, As if I was going to sell them my dog.

Another dog I had Ruffy was supposed to be a terrier x but grew up to look like a sheep so must of had poodle in him same sort of coat, he had a black plastic squeaky rat wouldn't have any other toy, anyway a friend of my mum's was over one day and sitting on couch having a cuppa and ruffy went and put his rat on her lap and she didn't notice at first but when she looked down and saw it she thought it was real and jumped up and screamed and I'm sure ruffy thought it was pretty funny too, then one day I sold a horse rug I no longer needed and he'd been putting it on the rug for me to throw and somehow I'd missed it and realized after girl had gone with rug cause he was running around frantically looking for it that it must of been rolled up in rug, Sure enough an hour later the phone rang and I had to get my dad to drive me an hour to go get his rat we felt so bad and after that he never let it out of his sight even took it to bed and never chewed it up but would never play with anything else.

My old girl lady who is around 16-17 bounces up and down on her front legs when it's dinner time looks like a kangaroo, and will come and bark at me if I'm on computer to tell me it's dinner time & tries to sit up & beg but without me holding her front paws or she loses balance and falls over.

[voloclydes]

well leo's fave trick he taugh him self was

while i am on the puter he will nuzzle under my elbow with the same sort of nuzzle you would expect from a puppy...in a litter. he then gets under your elbow and sort of bumps it... as he is large it flips your hand into his armpit for a scratch and a pat. only too me tho... very spesh.

he will do it mutliple times.....

so dumbmatians eat ya hearts out.... not so bad for a breed that has reputation for being not so smart!

i taught him the word for paws now i can ask him to do anything with them... if i direct... although he does try to be very tactle with them almost like hands..... which i have not taught him.

[~JoLu~]

Jonty has always had a thing for standing between my legs

So I turned it into "under" and he will run between my legs - this is pretty much is only trick. Works best when I have heels on, can go bad when he forgets to put his head down ;) Don't know if it has much use - maybe I can teach him dancing

Also my step-sons trys it and as he is only ten Jonty just looks at him thinking "I ain't getting under there"

Lu is a little smarty pants. Her fav. at the moment is naming toys. She has a (Sherman?) Sheep but we have named it Shaun. So I ask her to find Shaun, she goes off and comes back with the poor toy by the neck (was by the ears but the fell off). She also knows "inside toy" and "outside toy" and gets told to take them inside/outside if she brings them into the wrong area (like she did last night with an outside toy she bought in full of ants).

I'm sure there is a fancy behaviour/training name for this, but all I am doing is rewarding / encouraging behaviour I like If anyone knows, can they enlighten me??? If I understood it better maybe I'll get even more from my doggies

[Kirty]

Our old family dog used to attack the cat when the phone rang! No idea how that started! ROFL!!

[mr.mister]

Our old BC, Tobie, learned to go to bed.

His bed was in the garage, and when we were getting ready to go to bed we would always call him with us into the garage and tell him it was bedtime, cause we like to talk to our animals.

Anyway, it only took a couple of weeks and we'd be in the loungeroom and tell him 'bedtime', and he'd wag his tail and trot quietly to the door, where he'd wait for us to open it and then he'd go sit on his bed so we could clip him to his chain and say goodnight!

I swear, he must have been a bit sick of us by the end of the day and just wanted to go to bed so he could have some time to himself!

He seemed really excited to go to bed? Maybe that was his 'special time'

[mr.mister]

Our old family dog used to attack the cat when the phone rang! No idea how that started! ROFL!!

wth kirty?

and from then on every time the phone rang the cat would inadvertantly pee itself or something?

[Kirty]

It was the funniest thing. The phone would ring, the dog would leap up and chase the cat, the poor cat would be going WTF just happened? LOL! She did it for years and years, then eventually forgot about it. LOL! I just can't work out how it would have started? Perhaps someone jumped up to get the phone, frightened the cat and the dog chased it? Not sure, but god it was funny! LOL!

[ozjen]

I was just thinking about this today, I have 3 dogs that are very intelligent , have all had basic training & are fairly obedient.

But of course they all have their individual personalities & over time have discovered that each one of them can do something quirky & funny that I haven't formally trained them to do.

First of all I have my Old girl Jessie, (13 yo Aussie terrier x) Anyway one day when she was about 1, she decided to crawl along the length of the room on her tummy when we where playing with her, (she looks so funny doing it ) Anyway we started to call this behaviour "The Belly crawl" & even to this day, If we say to her "Jessie Do the Belly Crawl" she will start doing it.

Next we have my beautiful heart dog Bailey (3 yo Aussie terrier ) He has a thing for singing & also trying to talk.

I usually sit him on my lap & start singing to him (He has a few favourite songs ) & he will sit there & howl the whole song along with me ( I guess he really loves my singing ) & then after the singing is over I will say in a High pitch voice "I Love You " & I would swear that he says it right back in a doggy voice. It just sounds exactly like it.

Then Finally I have my sweet little girl Brandy (2 yo Aussie terrier) She has a fantastic knack of remembering words, especially the names of her toys. She has a mountain of toys, but she probably has about 8 that are her favourites. Anyway if say one of her toys is a monkey, we will start calling it that from the minute she gets it, if it's an elephant, we will tell her that's what it is, & if it's a frisbee, that's what we call & so on.

Anyway She may be just sitting there & my OH or I might say to her, "Brandy can you get the Monkey" & she will look at us then she will trot over to the pile of toys, dig through the pile until she's found the monkey & then bring it to us. We will then ask for the frisbee, & she will repeat the action, until she has found it. Even if we deliberately hide the toy at the bottom of the pile, she will still dig it out & bring it too us.

She's 6 weeks pregnant at the moment & feeling a bit sorry for herself , so I decided to buy her a new toy yesterday, A Lion soft toy. Anyway we started calling it a lion fron the minute she got it, & now she already knows what it is . She's just so bright. But's its not like we did any heavy formal training for her to learn this,we just started calling the toys by name, & she just remembered it by herself.

So that's our 3 dogs, there's so many other things that they do that I could tell you all about, but then this post would go on forever, but these are the things that specifically stand out for me.

None of these behaviours where formally taught to them, they where just little things that they picked up by themselves, that we have encouraged them to keep doing, which gives us some lovely enjoyment & entertainment.

So my question to you all, is what Quirky, cute & funny thing does your dog do, that you haven't really trained them to do.? ;)

Nicole

My Aussie is trained to find the carkeys, which is really helpful given how often I loose them, only trouble is one day I caught her hiding them. I was in another rooom when I heard the tinkle of the keys and poked my head out in time to see her taking them of the table then across to her toy box where she dropped them in and then walked away. Didn't let on I'd seen her and a few minutes later I came out and asked her to find my keys, well no searching needed she went straight to the toybox got the keys and waited for her reward.

Another time I had just got a Manners Minder (training remote food dispenser) and was trying it out. It was a hot day so instead of going for our walk I thought she could get exercised in the A/C house by placing the target at one end of the house and the MM at the other. She had to touch the target and then I would dispense a treat and she would have to walk a fair distance to get it. Well she did this a few times and then gave me that look that said I know there is an easier way mum, so this time after targeting she did not go across to the MM to get the treat just looked to make sure it was there and then turned and targeted again. Ok I though lets see if this was just a fluke, so I paid up again at the MM and she then walked across and got the 2 treats. She continued doing this double target for double treats a couple of times each time looking across to check that I paid up for the first target before doing the 2nd target and then gave me that look again. This time when she went to the target she picked it up took it over to the MM and then targeted it. Yep, I paid up but then put the MM away as I decided she was just way to smart for me and it's scary just how well she can think things out.

I bought her a skateboard with the intention of teaching her how to use it but as soon as I put it in front of her she was on it and scooting across the room, I'm sure she's been here before, I hate to say it but my dog is smarter than me.

[Dame Aussie]

Our old family dog used to attack the cat when the phone rang! No idea how that started! ROFL!!

WTF??

That's hilarious

[mumof3]

This story may get me flamed, but what the heck, we were all young once.

My husband and I used to have pig hunting dogs. The dogs were of mastiff, and boxer cross lines, back yard bred freebies. They were fit, happy dogs that loved what they did, and were relatively well cared for. As hunting dogs go, they were hunted carefully, with protective gear and were never allowed to simply fight pigs -some people actually stand back and watch the dog fight a pig

When we would get their hunting collars out, our dogs would go beserk, jumping, wagging their tails, getting on and off the ute, they were so excited - theyt knew what those collars meant - a run in the bush and a hunt.

We don't hunt anymore, but the dogs did love it.

We also had a dog that would scratch her tummy by rubbing it on the ground - it looked very rude!