# Help! I need an easy trick to teach Ranger!!



## fostermom (Sep 6, 2007)

Spin is easy to teach. You lure them in a circle with a treat. Keep the treat low enough so that he has to follow their head with their body. Have him end it with a sit. Keep in mind that some dogs are "handed" like people. Either right or left handed. So if he won't go in one direction, try the other.


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## turtle66 (Feb 19, 2010)

How about opening the refrigerator without a towel?

(sorry - couldn't help myself after your last thread, which still makes me laugh just thinking about it).

Heike


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## RedDogs (Jan 30, 2010)

Spinning is super easy. 

But the real question, is "what is the scoring system"? Is it who has a more cool trick? Is it who has a trick under better stimulus control? Are you looking at how difficult the trick is or just that it's amusing? Who is judging? THOSE are all crucial to helping you win!

If Ranger likes to retrieve, obviously the best one would be teaching him to find money... .this only takes a couple sessions for most dogs. Set the a dollar on the floor, ask him to give it to you. Repeat a few times. Set it on a chair, ask him to give it to you. Stick it a bit under a couch cushion, ask him to give it to you. Gradually increase the difficulty, with him watching.

Then, have him stay, put the dollar just around a corner... and then come back and release him. Gradually have it more hidden. 

We did NOT win with this...my family thought I was training my dog to be a pickpocket!


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## FlyingQuizini (Oct 24, 2006)

I successfully "cheat" with the clicker all the time -- meaning, I'll lure a behavior, then click upon completion. Quiz catches on amazingly fast that way and I can fade the lure w/in just a couple training sessions in the same day. So - if your dog is clicker savvy, I'd do that. Plus then you can lure a bow (it's just a 1/2 down from a stand) and click for it. Or do the same with the spin - lure + click and then fade the lure as quick as possible.

BUT - as Red said, what's the criteria for the trick? Does it have to be done w/o food (so no lure by showtime)?

Other ideas - 

Spin

Bow (Personally, I use "Pull my finger!" for this one!

Play Dead (but use a funny cue, like whatever beer your brother really likes, ask your dog if he likes THAT and dog responds by crashing to the floor!)

Where's your nose (paw at snout. Use piece of tape to prompt and click for action)


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## Ranger (Nov 11, 2009)

Reddogs - hmm, good point about the scoring. I think it was more a "my dog is smarter than yours" kind of thing...meaning one of the dogs won't have a new trick by Monday. I think so long as Ranger has a new trick, we'll be in the clear. I hope anyway!

Turtle66 - I tried to win the argument by using that trick! Which is why it has to be a "new" trick so all of Ranger's old ones can't be used. On the plus side, I set the fridge up for that trick again on friday - it was pretty nice to not have to hobble down the stairs everytime someone wanted a beer! 

I'd like to do the money trick, I'd just be scared of Ranger eating it. He has quite an affinity for paper products and our lowest denomination in bill form is $5.00...not sure how much money I'd lose before Ranger learned to give it to me instead of "gobble & swallow really really fast"!

I'll work on spin today...anyother easy tricks?


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## Ranger (Nov 11, 2009)

Steph - pretty sure no lure can be used but a hand signal will be okay...and sometimes I cheat by using a hand signal that's close to the lure. Like for swing, I flick my fingers back which was the start of the lure in that command.

Ranger and I aren't clicker savvy at all. I started using it 2 weeks ago just for fun and he picked up on it really fast so I thought for bow it would help. He stretches like that close to ten times a day, so I thought eventually I'd be able to say the command before then click to reward.

I tried doing play dead in his first few months...he'd probably learn it better now...I like the idea of asking him the beer brand question. My friend's brother taught his hunting dog, "What do bad girls do?" and his dog would lay on her back and spread her legs...classy.


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## RedDogs (Jan 30, 2010)

Practice with a folded piece of paper...start with super high value treats....

Circle a chair, rest head on paws (looks very cute), hand targeting, go to bed,


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## esSJay (Apr 13, 2009)

I taught Molson the other day to go through my legs on command. It was super easy. Also, he learned "around", and he just circles around me and sits when he gets back infront of me. Another trick is (pretty stupid and useless!) "what's 5 + 5?" and he jumps up and hits both of my hands with his paws (showing "10") 

A trick that Jen (MssJnnfer) taught Mojo and I think is so cute is "Take a nap", so he lays down on his side and puts his head down and then when she says "Wake up!" he jumps up onto all fours. 

Keep us posted and let us know what you end up teaching him!


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## nolster (Mar 21, 2010)

We had to come up with an original trick for puppy class this week. We taught Riley a different language. We learned the words in Italian for a few easy commands he already knew and he caught on pretty fast. We thought it just sounded super smart to say he is bilingual.


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## Ranger (Nov 11, 2009)

Well, luckily my brother was uber hungover today and hadn't taught Blue anything over the weekend. I grabbed a little hunk of bread and completely cheated by luring Ranger into a spin since he hadn't figured it out in the 20 minutes (combined) I spent teaching him over the weekend.:uhoh: 

Amazingly, Ranger did it before I even lured him but that was a fluke and my bro knew it. So we've extended the challenge to friday. Hopefully by then I'll have spent more time teaching him! (My bro wasn't the only hungover person this weekend!):doh:


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## Enzos_Mom (Apr 8, 2010)

You can teach him stop (sit), drop (down), and roll (roll over). My fiance's dad is a firefighter and he wants to teach Enzo that so that they can take him to do fire safety talks at the schools. =)


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## Proof Pawsitive (Apr 1, 2008)

A real easy trick is to teach your dog to find the treat under a cup. Sort of like the human trick where they watch the cups and try to keep track of the ball under one of them. Start with 2 cups, a treat underneath one, your dog in a sit, and start to move the cups around. Tell your dog to "watch" and then have him find the treat. A lot of people can't keep track of which one the treat is under, and are duly impressed when the dog gets the right one every time. Of course, it's their incredible sense of smell that helps them


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## Bender (Dec 30, 2008)

'Hide' - teach him to stick his head into and then keep his head in a bucket.

'sit' - get him to jump into a chair and sit there...

and my favorite, had to do this for a movie... 'order a beer'. My guy had to go grab a wallet, jump up on a table with his front paws, wave his paw and bark....

Storee is currently perfecting 'slide' (she runs up the playground stuff and then flys down the slide) and 'perch' where she hops up on a little bar at the playground and balances on it like an overgrown chicken...:

Lana


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## Ranger (Nov 11, 2009)

Lots of good ideas! I think I'll try "hide" next! 

I seem to running into a problem with "spin". I'm doing it with him sitting in front of me facing me but when I start to say "spin", I think he thinks I'm going to say "swing" so he starts his swing action. I really think it's confusing him, though I'm not sure why..."swing" and "spin" don't sound the same besides the "s" sound but he doesn't get confused with "swing" and "sit". Either way, he's getting confused and frustrated I think, so I need a different command for that trick. Any ideas? 

Bender, how do did you ever get Storee to jump up on a bar and perch?? Ranger woud lose it! Of course, he's also scared of slides...he's a weird combo of bravery/confidence and chickenness. It's really bizarre.


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## RedDogs (Jan 30, 2010)

twist, around, turn, circle. Or think about changing your inflection. Not that I can type that well

"siTT"
"Spiiiiin"
"arouND"
"DOwn


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## Thor0918 (Feb 28, 2008)

Nips,,, It's spin backwards.


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## fostermom (Sep 6, 2007)

Ranger said:


> Lots of good ideas! I think I'll try "hide" next!
> 
> I seem to running into a problem with "spin". I'm doing it with him sitting in front of me facing me but when I start to say "spin", I think he thinks I'm going to say "swing" so he starts his swing action. I really think it's confusing him, though I'm not sure why..."swing" and "spin" don't sound the same besides the "s" sound but he doesn't get confused with "swing" and "sit". Either way, he's getting confused and frustrated I think, so I need a different command for that trick. Any ideas?
> 
> Bender, how do did you ever get Storee to jump up on a bar and perch?? Ranger woud lose it! Of course, he's also scared of slides...he's a weird combo of bravery/confidence and chickenness. It's really bizarre.


Make sure he is comfortable turning in the direction you are asking him to turn in. Like I said, some dogs are very definitely "handed". Also, you may want to start him in a standing position. Once he gets what you want from him, he will be able to do it from sitting or standing.


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## Ranger (Nov 11, 2009)

Thor0918 said:


> Nips,,, It's spin backwards.


Hahaha, that's hilarious. I might use that one!

RedDogs - I'll watch my inflection, I tend to give commands short and crisp...maybe the inflection will help.

fostermom - I try to get him to do it from a standing position except when I'm standing with a cookie, he automatically sits now. Pretty sure he learned this from the petstore where he gets cookies from everyone as soon as he sits. He's definitely better turning to his left, so that's the way we've been doing it. Huh, I bet that's why he learned swing easier than he learned the round-the-back finish; because it's more natural for him to turn left. Crazy.

Well, i'll keep working on this. Funny story: I was trying to teach my brother's dog spin today and he, like Ranger, automatically sits when he sees a cookie. So I was trying to do a big circle so he'd take a step to stand up and then spin, but instead he did this awkward jump thing and ended up flipping over backwards and bonking his head on the cement!! Poor little guy...he's the most awkward dog I've seen but just the cutest thing. Afterwards, we were trying again and instead of getting up (or falling backwards) he "spun" by pivoting on his butt!! Oh my god I was laughing so hard I had to sit down.


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