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Fading the lure in sitting pretty for me meant getting the treat out of my hand first - ie: I'd lure with an empty hand and then supply the treat from somewhere else. After that was solid, I added a verbal cue and then started abbreviating the empty hand 'lure' as a prompt - ie: Instead of holding it above the dog's head I'd lift my hand less and less every time I was successful.

 

And I'm totally onboard for something for February.

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Thanks Jovi, Christine and Sekha. And Captain. I just tried the sit pretty, which we hadn't touch for many months, and she did a lot more duration than ever before. Maybe she wasn't ready back then and is now :)

 

About the backing up, I've never worked on feet targeting, so I may go with the diferent surface sugestion. OR work on feet targeting.

 

My problem is always the same, there's no one to give me feed back and from whom to learn this kind of stuff. . So, I can train behaviours like sit and down easily, but when it comes to stuff that needs lots of luring and fading and back chaining I get a little lost. We usually do pretty good at understanding each other, Tess and I, but with more complex tricks I often find we do alright with the beginning of the trick but then have problems refining it.

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Well, fun. I can't wait!!

 

I want to do this mostly for the camaraderie, but also for the fun of it, and also because at some point I want to finish up Bandit's Advanced Tricks title, and then do our Expert (none of my other dogs have Expert yet!). Maybe this will motivate me to actually finish the training we need.

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Some trick concept suggestions, with examples for varying difficulty levels:

Paw lifting:

Easy - sit a lift a paw
Medium - sit pretty and lift a paw
Hard - bow and lift a back paw

Backing up:
Easy - back up to target
Medium - back up onto a box
Hard - back up in a crawl

Opening a door (this would be harder to set up with round doorknobs though):
Easy - door is cracked, pulling a rope to open
Medium - door is firmly shut, pulling a rope down to turn handle then pushing it open
Hard - door is firmly shut, pressing down on latch handle to turn then pushing

Jumping:

Easy - jumping onto a box
Medium - jumping into your arms
Hard - jumping onto your back while you're walking

And then those would just be the examples, so people could follow them or instead they could teach the dog to back their legs up a wall, or jump while standing, or lift each paw on command, or whatever. The ones I just suggested are just a few ideas, but what do you guys think of the format?

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My current in progress trick is patty-cake. Which is really just give paw, give other paw, a high five, high ten, and then a roll over for fun. I am not suggesting that for anyone else just - tossing it out there as cute and not difficult with fun delivery.

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I like that format! Some of those tricks are really hard, but I'll try!

 

And since this is an ongoing process, can people post any additional tricks they stumble upon during the month's category?

 

We can make them easier, I just figured I'd throw at least one in there that would trip you and Sekah up. ;)

 

Posting additional tricks sounds good to me.

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I like that format! Some of those tricks are really hard, but I'll try!

 

And since this is an ongoing process, can people post any additional tricks they stumble upon during the month's category?

 

I like the idea of generating a list of trick ideas based on the month's theme. Maybe we could even post the theme a few days before the end of the month (like now) and let everyone brainstorm a little. If this month's theme is paw stuff, we could have a pretty long list of ideas...

 

Paw target hand

Paw target object

Lift a paw (while sitting, standing, sitting pretty, etc.)

Lift different paws on command

Limping

Skipping

Back paw targets

Wiping feet or digging

Etc.

 

And then we could just each start at whatever level we're at and see how far we get by the end of the month.

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I just started Livi on touching her nose with her paw. Tried a hair scrunchie on her nose first, but she hated it and of course I want this to be fun for both of us. Sticky notes didn't stick. Masking tape worked. By the time the third piece lost its stickiness she seemed to be catching on. We'll continue tomorrow. :)

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So yeah, the whole jumping into arms thing? Kolt loves it and does it frequently with me.

 

Tonight at SAR training he took a flying leap and jumped up to his "victims" shoulders before alerting. Victim was sitting up on a pile of logs in the woods, reclining slightly like the way I lean back just a bit when inviting Kolt to jump up.

 

:-o :-o :-o

 

Next on the training list? A different cue for jumping in arms... :D :D

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Hahaha! I'm working on the same trick, and it looks precisely like that. I only have one dog, but I steal my parents'. Unfortunately those choices are 2 cranky adult dogs and a 13 week puppy who appears to always be on crack. When the old dogs are in *just* the right mood, general punching and smacking occurs. I backed off a bit, as Keeper got a new butthole a couple of times and it was making him resent the trick. This might really resume with dog #2, or when Scooter grows up.

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When the old dogs are in *just* the right mood, general punching and smacking occurs. I backed off a bit, as Keeper got a new butthole a couple of times and it was making him resent the trick.

Oh yikes, I sure wouldn't do that! The two in the video I posted are best buds and if I thought either wasn't having fun, I wouldn't do this trick.

 

They do other tricks together, but more as a synchronized routine than interactive. It's pretty cute. These, btw, are my Open sheepdogs. If only their peers knew how they spent their downtime! :D

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I'm jealous of people who have to similarly sized dogs. :P I'm hoping to maybe work a bit more on this trick when one of my trick training friends comes to town.

 

VrBCgyg.jpg?1

 

I played around last night with a bunch of targeting, some preliminary limp work and some rear leg lifts while bowing. Fun!

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I am not currently working on any multi dog tricks, but would eventually love to do something like that with Tessa and Bandit. No hugs. Bandit would go for it, but Tessa absolutely would not!!

 

But I would like to teach them both to sit in front of me (one at a time) and give either one front paw or both and teach the other dog to circle me and jump over my arms joined with that of the other dog in front of me.

 

Bandit and I got out the dowel last night and worked on his paw skills. We are off to a good start, but have a lot to do.

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I'm jealous of people who have to similarly sized dogs. :P I'm hoping to maybe work a bit more on this trick when one of my trick training friends comes to town.

 

VrBCgyg.jpg?1

 

I played around last night with a bunch of targeting, some preliminary limp work and some rear leg lifts while bowing. Fun!

 

I'm actually training this between my 40lb BC and my 11lb mutt. I'm having the mutt do the hugging. The BC just has to lay down :P That said my primary group trick is having them leap frog over each other.

 

I... have no idea which of these things I'm going to end up teaching. Something.

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For the foundation work, I worked at it from two angles. First was the sit pretty side, the other the paw targeting. I actually found that by asking for a sit pretty right next to another dog, he naturally wanted to reach out for a bit of stability. I had to get the step in between where he was physically capable of sitting pretty while moving his paws around. He naturally has a very low sit pretty, so I've had to work on raising his arms. Once I had the stability, paw movement, and other dog, the pieces started falling into place. As for how to get that adorable arm drape and hug, I have no idea. :)

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Paw work, Paw targeting, paw stuff - doesn't matter to me.

 

But I do have a suggestion: let's limit it to front paw work. Then we can have a month for rear paw work, and maybe a month for a suggestion that requires both front and rear.

 

Back up exercises? Sit pretties? Roll overs? Pick up stuff and put in basket?

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