Teaching Puppy To Balance A Treat On His Nose

[koalathebear]

I really like tab289's youtube channel. He and his gorgeous German Shepherd Solea are so helpful and entertaining.

is Solea as a beautiful, playful 'little' puppy. She's pretty huge for a puppy but sooooooooo cute and soooooo well-behaved.

It was tab289 and Solea who were able to teach us how to teach Elbie how to do the

. Other methods weren't working for us.

This week, I've been trying to teach Elbie how to balance a dog biscuit on his nose using

. Naturally Solea is a total star and makes it look easy. One funny thing is that because Solea is so well-trained, tab289 clearly has to teach her to display the 'bad' behaviours for the training videos but even her 'bad' behaviours just demonstrate how well-trained she is.

In terms of the 'balancing' trick,

as it seems to have a 'spot' on its snout for putting treats and toys Elbie's snout just isn't quite shaped to balance things but he is trying and it's so cute.

I feel really, really bad for this poor dog though. Look at those adorable, adorable eyes!!! He is drooling in seconds and I don't know how he manages to hold on for as long as he does!

Has anyone else managed to teach their puppy to balance a biscuit on his/her nose? I'm using it as an exercise to try to teach Elbie patience and self-control. He's already very good about waiting for his food for ages (although sometimes he quivers). He can wait up to a minute even if the food is directly under his nose. We can also make him stop eating half-way and we can also throw kibble around his legs and make him ignore it. The nose-balancing is really testing his self-control though.

Edited August 31, 2010 by koalathebear

[lovemesideways]

I'll have to teach Riddick and make a video on it.

[aussielover]

great videoas BUT... should a 7 month old GSD being playing frisbee?

I can put a treat on Mindy's nose and get her to balance it for maybe 30 secs. But she doesn't do the cool throwing it up in the air and catching it like some dogs do, she just shakes her head, bisciut falls to floor and she eats. Not very exciting at all. Anyone know how to teach them to throw it up and catch it?

Also, she has a very wide muzzle so it is easy for her to keep stuff on it!

[Kavik]

I taught this trick to my previous dog, who could balance it on her nose and then throw it up and catch it.

I would wait til your pup is a bit older to teach it - some tricks are much easier to teach when the dog has a bit more maturity, patience and self control.

I tried to teach Zoe at one point but we weren't as successful as with my previous dog

[Niques]

Good luck - I can't even get James to keep his head still long enough to put the biscuit on, let alone keep it there! His head has a tendency to follow my hand. He has a bizarre hand signal for "Shake" simply because I needed to distract his head with one hand to stop him interfering with the hand I was using to pick up his paw, when teaching him

He does have brilliant self-control with food and bones anyway though, so I've decided to rest my attempts on the balancing trick for the time being. I accidentally walked off the other night after setting his bone down without telling him he could eat it. I figured he'd know that when I walked off he could go. I turned around before going inside and the poor sod was still staring at me waiting for permission

The poor pup in the last video Look at those eyes!

[koalathebear]

I'll have to teach Riddick and make a video on it.

Awesome. I can't wait to see it!

great videoas BUT... should a 7 month old GSD being playing frisbee?

I can put a treat on Mindy's nose and get her to balance it for maybe 30 secs. But she doesn't do the cool throwing it up in the air and catching it like some dogs do, she just shakes her head, bisciut falls to floor and she eats. Not very exciting at all. Anyone know how to teach them to throw it up and catch it?

Also, she has a very wide muzzle so it is easy for her to keep stuff on it!

No idea about the frisbee and GSD puppy thing ... I have to admit, Elbie runs around on grass with his frisbee at six months - he loves it so much.

I'm impressed Mindy will let the treat sit there for 30 seconds! I think Elbie will be able to learn the flick catch thing if I can just get him to sit there with the treat first - he's very distracted by the FOOD on his nose

I would wait til your pup is a bit older to teach it - some tricks are much easier to teach when the dog has a bit more maturity, patience and self control.

*laugh* Well Elbie seems to enjoy learning new things even if we aren't always successful. It's really hard for me to come up with new tricks because the books we bought have really complicated tricks that seem more suitable for doggy dancing - there is no way I'm going to do a cartwheel and have the dog leap through my legs or do a handstand with Elbie leaping past me so we shall persist with the balancing trick for now ...

Niques: I've been doing it with a clicker. When he keeps his head still then he gets a treat. he does sometimes follow the hand around but I've been able to get him to stay still now and then ...

He does have brilliant self-control with food and bones anyway though, so I've decided to rest my attempts on the balancing trick for the time being. I accidentally walked off the other night after setting his bone down without telling him he could eat it. I figured he'd know that when I walked off he could go. I turned around before going inside and the poor sod was still staring at me waiting for permission

Awwwww that's so cute! Poor puppy. And yes, the dog in that last video - I felt so sorry for it. It was drooling away and looking soooooooo sad.

[koalathebear]

I should add I'm also still working on the commando crawl with Elbie. If there are no benches/stools for him to scramble under, his butt goes in the air Not much of a commando!

[Kavik]

I can think of heaps of tricks that would be more suitable to teach a puppy!

Bow, walk backwards, spin, play dead, roll over, high five

Something in preparation for that trick - to catch a piece of food thrown at him (this is a skill too! Can take a while for them to get it, some quicker than others. Even my GSD figured it out)

Remember patience is a virtue in BOTH of you Sometimes it is better to prepare to ground work well to make it easier later on

[koalathebear]

I can think of heaps of tricks that would be more suitable to teach a puppy!

Bow, walk backwards, spin, play dead, roll over, high five

*laugh* But he can do all of those already! Also "are you shy" and "

". See

. Although we didn't make him bow for the music video. Ergo, aside from commando crawl and balance things on nose, I'm struggling to find basic tricks to teach him before we move to the more complex ones. Edited August 31, 2010 by koalathebear

[Niques]

there is no way I'm going to do a cartwheel and have the dog leap through my legs or do a handstand with Elbie leaping past me so we shall persist with the balancing trick for now ...

I know the feeling. I have a tricks book containing some that just make you think...why?!

That's a really good idea to clicker train him to keep still! Hadn't even thought of taking the trick that far back. I gave up on the clicker after I think about 3 days ( ) but the principle stays the same - I think I might have to pinch that idea and work on it with James.

[koalathebear]

We're still having troubles balancing treats on Elbie's nose - he's happy to have them there but they fall off his nose So for the time being, we are using a strip of ham. So, here's a video of Elbie's willpower being tested by ... ham. Video is

.

[lilli_star]

Awwwww! Poor Elbie!

[koalathebear]

Awwwww! Poor Elbie!

It's ok - he gets to eat the ham after he's done waiting

[lilli_star]

Hee! I tried to get Ruby to balance some meat on her nose last night- I couldn't even get it close! Elbie stays so still!

Off topic slightly, but I'm watching the music video you made of Elbie- so cute and such a crack up!

[koalathebear]

Hee! I tried to get Ruby to balance some meat on her nose last night- I couldn't even get it close! Elbie stays so still!

Elbie has a very bizarre ability to remain motionless for several minutes when he wants to do so. Sometimes if we have a toy that he knows we're going to throw, if we tell him to sit - sometimes he will stand there for several minutes waiting and then he will only very gradually sit down.

Do you use a clicker with Ruby? What I did for Elbie was to follow tab289's advice in his youtube video. I started with kibble and held it up near Elbie's nose. At first his head was following me all over the place and he wouldn't keep still because he looooooooooves his food. When he didn't move/lunge/nibble for it, then I clicked or praised him and let him have the kibble. Then I started holding the kibble on top of his nose to get him used to it. After a bit, he started keeping still.

a video of when we started.

Unfortunately his nose isn't good for balancing kibble - I might try a dog biscuit or something. We've been trying to get him to be more disciplined with his eating e.g. not just wait but have him run towards it, we call out "sit" and he'll sit and wait. Sometimes he sits twice before even getting to his food. When he was younger he'd just gobble it all down like a little piggy but these days we can throw his kibble around him and he'll

before eating it. We don't even have to say "leave it". Of course when it's super delicious treats, he sometimes loses control

Off topic slightly, but I'm watching the music video you made of Elbie- so cute and such a crack up!

Thanks ;) I'm teaching myself how to use the windows movie maker and it's a lot of fun! I don't have enough video clips to practise on, though so if you have good ones of Ruby I'd be more than happy to try to make a music video for her ;)

Edited September 2, 2010 by koalathebear

[Genabee]

*laugh* Well Elbie seems to enjoy learning new things even if we aren't always successful. It's really hard for me to come up with new tricks because the books we bought have really complicated tricks that seem more suitable for doggy dancing - there is no way I'm going to do a cartwheel and have the dog leap through my legs or do a handstand with Elbie leaping past me so we shall persist with the balancing trick for now ...

And why not? Elbie would be really good at doggy dancing.

[koalathebear]

And why not? Elbie would be really good at doggy dancing.

I don't think either husband nor I am up to dancing around with Elbie in a dorky outfit It's a bit like how we like the idea of Elbie doing agility but neither of us really likes the idea of being the person in the field running around with him and gesturing at the various apparatus

Can Genevieve dance? The little doggies look so cute on hind-legs doing a kind of pirouette Elbie just looks spastic when he does it.

[Genabee]

And why not? Elbie would be really good at doggy dancing.

I don't think either husband nor I am up to dancing around with Elbie in a dorky outfit :p It's a bit like how we like the idea of Elbie doing agility but neither of us really likes the idea of being the person in the field running around with him and gesturing at the various apparatus :p

Can Genevieve dance? The little doggies look so cute on hind-legs doing a kind of pirouette Elbie just looks spastic when he does it.

I looked into doing doggy dancing with her, but the only place that does it is miles away and in the evenings - when I work!

I think my husband would skin me alive if we actually did it though! Being an ex dancer myself, he insists our children are not going to dance - the same would more than apply to the dog! I think she would look cute too! Though, I think she would be more in to her own choreography, and not mine! I know what you mean about liking the idea of something but not wanting to be the one to execute it! Why do you think we have a lap dog!!!!