Dog Tricks

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Anyone care to share a quick explanation of a particularly cute, clever dog trick you've seen or taught your own dog to do? It needs to be one without props, for my purposes.

Thanks in advance!
 

StephanieFox

Maybull the Bulldog
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Check out Canine Freestyle aka, dog dancing. This is competative and there's a lot of it going on around the country.

http://www.slate.com/id/2122857/

Please note that my little bulldog does not do this. She is too busy napping and demanding attention.
 

Rowan

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My poodles know quite a few behaviours... :) They'll go get specific toys, will find specific people, find things that I've hidden (by scent usually).
 

JulieHowe

Spent the night with Jack Daniels
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A neighbor of mine had a dog who liked my cat. Years after I moved out of the apartment building, she and her husband would tell the dog at the elevator 'Find the kitty! Where's the kitty?' They could let go of her leash and she'd bound down the hallway and stop at my front door, sniffing, making whining noises and looking for my cat, and we hadn't lived there for several years. Out of a long hallway lined on both sides with doors, she always found the right apartment.
 

poetinahat

say it loud
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Our usually jovial bulldog would occasionally fart silently, rise from his haunches, divert suspicion to someone else by giving them an indignant glare, and waddle out of the room in a huff. Leaving the rest of us huffing for air and suppressing giggles.
 

Calliopenjo

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My dog knows how to bow and say please. It took one ten minute session and several liver treats, mind you, but she knows how to bow now.

I bow in front of her, tell her to bow, and she does it.

Saying please is begging except please substitutes beg. She'll do it if I'm eating or drinking something she really wants.
 

Puma

Retired and loving it!
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Our daughter's dog talks. If you ask her what's wrong, she says I-o-no. It's really hysterical. She's a very vocal dog with untypical dog sounds. Puma
 

backslashbaby

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If I wiggle my butt a little, my little dog will wag his whole back end like a loon. My sister says it's adorable, anyway :D I have no idea how/why I started that one, lol :)

ETA: Oh, and if my dad sings Jingle Bells to his little dog, she sings the tune with him (really well)! She's part Basenji, and they yodel anyway :)
 
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Eirin

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I taught my old dog to balance a dog biscuit on his nose before he was allowed to eat it. He would then toss it up and snatch the biscuit out of the air. Watching him go crosseyed keeping an eye on the biscuit while waiting for the go-ahead was hilarious.

In the no-props department there was Play Dead, Roll Around, and, of course, the old crowd pleaser: Make Like A Wolf. Everybody loves a good howling :)
 

Kalyke

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no props? that's a tough one. I have an IG who kisses me when I ask. She has this long elegant nose and looks hilarious. We'd be sitting side by side and I say "kissie," and she will touch my mouth with her nose. She'll do it in any direction, getting into some wild positions. She will also jump up from the ground to kiss my mouth so I say "kissie," (boing) "kissie" (boing) etc. I keep a doggie gate actoss the bedroom door and she can still get over it. I can say come here and she makes this huge leap like a jumping pony, and then I say "go back" and she will go back into the room. I also give her the empty cat food can (tin) after feeding the cats. She will take the empty can in her tiny teeth and leap over this high obsticle very daintily, holding the edge of the can with her teeth.

My chihuahua's only cute trick is if I put an open purse down, he'll jump into it. He's this little 6 pound chihuahua and it looks cute.
 

StephanieFox

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Our usually jovial bulldog would occasionally fart silently, rise from his haunches, divert suspicion to someone else by giving them an indignant glare, and waddle out of the room in a huff. Leaving the rest of us huffing for air and suppressing giggles.

That's not a trick. That's a strategy.
 

Perks

delicate #!&@*#! flower
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These are giving me lots to imagine, guys! Thanks so much. And, just for the record, I'm sure my story's dog farts, but I shan't be discussing it.
 

Canotila

Sever your leg please.
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If my husband's dog is going mad running the fence, barking, and howling at the top of his voice, I can yell "Charlie be quiet!" and he will look at me, then go back to barking. Only when he resumes, he makes a whispery high pitched "woo, woo woof!"

I have no idea how he learned it either, because we made no effort to teach him that. It's funny because his movements are just as intense, just less volume.

My dog knows a lot of tasks, he can alert to seizures 15 minutes before they happen which is extremely useful. When our daughter was an infant he would try to entertain her when she cried. If she was in her bouncy chair, he would use his paws to bounce her until she started laughing, and if that didn't work he brought her pacifiers and toys, or did weird dances for her. She loved it.
 

Pomegranate

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Our friends dog (little terrier mix) has a great trick. If you stand with the foot of one leg balanced on the knee of the other leg (so your legs make a P shape), he will "jump through the hoop." He'll also jump through a hoop made by one's arms if you lean over low enough.

I had a dog who knew how to shake hands and roll over. She learned them as separate tricks, but after a few years she'd "work the room" at parties. she'd sit in front of guest, shake her paw at them, then roll over, then sit at stare at them with her head cocked to one side (saying "well?") until she got a treat.
 

TerzaRima

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I'm fascinated by all these brilliant pooches. I have one who is the sweetest dog you've ever met, but I don't think she even has object permanence.
 

veinglory

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My dog is plenty dumb but it was still fairly easy to teach him things like "play dead" without props or even tangible rewards. People seem pretty impressed that finger-shooting him makes him fall down and lie on his back.
 

Ken

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... friends taught their dog to do something similar to Pomegranate's. It gave people his paw when they said "give me your paw." Sure was something.
 

katiemac

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I taught my Labrador how to roll over. Later, he learned to roll over when we sang the song about the bears.. "there were two in the bed and the little one said, 'roll over, rollover'". So pretty soon after that he'd roll over when we sang anything at all. But he got so excited, he'd usually run around in circles for a bit, then collapse on his side and roll over after he hit the floor.