What Unusual Tricks Does Your Dog Do?

Just wondering what tricks everyone has taught their dogs. My little dog can do the following (some are just commonplace tricks).

*Fetch
*High Five
*Sneeze into a tissue
*Say my name (almost anyway)
*Chase her tail
*Roll over
*Wave Bye-Bye
*Dance

However, try to get her to lay down and it just isn’t every going to happen. She will sit, but will not lie down. I never could get her past that phase in obedience school and then we got kicked out (long story). Oh, she does know to drop if I shout “halt” and it saved her once when she got away from my daughter and was running toward the street.

My little guys aren’t much into tricks. All three of them do the basic:
Sit
Shake hands
Fetch
Down

Gizmo plays Freeze really well. It works if we are playing with him or he is going somewhere he shouldn’t. He stops in his tracks until you say go. He also plays the his own made up game of “water race”. He tells me he wants water by scratching the wall (he will not drink after anyone else has) and then he races me around the corner to the kitchen sink. He goes through the dining room and living room and I just go about 10 feet back to the sink but he loves to beat me there. He is all proud and wiggly when I tell him he won.  I guess he is teaching me tricks

Paki loves to dance around the house on his back legs. He goes all the way across the room sometimes.

Benny enjoys watching the other two as he is a very laid back kind of guy!

Well, I’m a little jealous of you both. I don’t have a much free time these days between work and running the kids around, so I haven’t taught my three JRTs any tricks. My oldest son did teach Nealie to sit on command, but that’s about it. However, Nealie does play fetch on her own, and that’s kind of a trick. She’ll take a piece of kibble from her bowl and toss it in the air. She’ll then run to where it lands and eat it. She’ll repeat this until she gets tired of the game or one of the other JRTs comes to play with her.

Kelly,

My daughters taught several of the tricks to my dog. The other I taught her by observing natural habits. For example, I noticed that if I had something in my hand (food) that she wanted, she would come up and place her paw on my hand. So, I started teaching her high five from that. On the sneezing, she sneezes occasionally anyway, so I would simply say a command each time she did and put a tissue on her nose. When the trick comes from a natural habit of the dog, it is very easy to teach. Some tricks are harder than others. However, the harder tricks, my daughters have taught to the dogs. It’s fun for the kid and the dog .

Lori

Lori, that’s a really great way to train a dog to perform certain behaviors. Our Two Minute Dog Advice columnist, Wendy Nan Rees, says that is the easiest way to teach tricks. Just watch your dog, pick up on something he/she does naturally, and build on it. So, I’m going to try to follow your lead and teach Nealie one trick using that method. I’ll let you know how it goes. 

Hi Kelly, Lori, and Terry, my Misha also gives a high five, but it depends on her mood- sometimes she’s batting at you (if you tease her), and other times she gives you five.  My husband taught her how to “give her paw” or a high five.

I’m not sure if this is a trick, but she also carries things for us. My husband and I utilize this a lot when we’re feeling lazy, we just hand it to her and she takes it to the other person :-) it’s so cute!

I had a dog that we taught to roll over on command. However, I agree with Lori and Wendy… the key is to watch your dog and her natural instincts. Our dog was easy to train because she loved fetch so much. When trying to get us to throw the ball, she would lay down in front of us and wiggle around so much that she would roll on her sides. We just kept encouraging her to roll all the way over before we would throw the ball and gave her the roll command. It didn’t take more than a couple of days to teach her and have her do it anytime we asked—even if we didn’t have a ball.

Hi there,

I’m new to this site and wanted to reply to the tricks my dog Jed performs. He’s a 4 year old blonde lab with the biggest personality ever. We bought him as a family pet and I have to say he’s worth every penny we paid for him. He especially loves my son who has spent many hours with him. As you may know Labs love the water, my son would spend all day with Jed in the pool. One day my son came in the house very excited and explained to me he taught Jed to dive under water to fetch one of his toys. I really didn’t believe him, however, I went out side to watch this event. I watched as my son threw the toy in the water, sinking to the bottom of the 8 foot deep pool.  Sure enough to my amazement, Jed dove into the water to the bottom of the pool and swam back up with his toy in his mouth.  We were astounded by this trick.  People love to come over to watch him perform, and he is glad to show them.  Is this an unusual trick for a dog to perform?

Linda

Hi Linda, and welcome to the forum.

I don’t know if any other water dogs will dive like that, but I think it’s amazing. I have never seen a dog voluntarily stick its entire head underwater, let alone dive to the bottom of a pool. Jed must have really wanted that toy,  .

Hi Kelly,

You are correct in saying he really wanted that toy! We joke with each other that he has OCD, obsessive compulsive disorder. We can’t leave his toy outside with him because, if we are not outside to play fetch with him or to throw the ball in the water, he will take the ball over to the pool, drop it in the water and dive to the bottom of the pool.  He will perform this trick over and over again without us to toss the ball for him. If there was a way to post a video on this site to show you, I would do it.  It is hilarous to watch!  Thank you.

Linda

Linda, if you can post that video on YouTube, we can link to it from here. 

Hi Kelly,

I will try and link the video tomorrow morning.  Once I figure it out and upload it I will let you know. 

Linda

The Video is uploaded on You Tube, Jed the diving dog.

Linda

Hi Linda,

Welcome to the forum.  I just watched your video.  First of all, you have a beautiful dog and a beautiful pool.  What a great trick.  That is amazing.  I love how he does it over and over when you can’t play with him.  You have a great dog.  Thanks for sharing your video.

Christine

Hi Christine,

Thank you, he brings us lots of joy!

Linda

Okay Linda, I’m linking your video here to make it easier for everyone to watch. Just click your back button to return to the forum.

Jed the Diving Dog

I’d embed it directly, but I don’t think we have that capability on the forum like we do on the website.

Anyway, that really is awesome to watch. I still can’t imagine one of my dogs doing that, but then again, they’re Terriers (Earth dogs), not water dogs.