Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man

 

Okay so every other Wednesday we have a group of folks who get together and practice tricks. Sometimes in an organized fashion, sometimes not so much. Well we also are trying to come up with some big group tricks that we can pull out at trick expos and competitions. Doggy Band is one. Since Gauis is the -cough- smallest (don't tell him) member of our troop, I wanted to think of something similarly adorable fro him to do in our doggie band. I came up with a tambourine. Here's a video of what we've got so far. (WARNING: My voice is very high pitched in this video, I recommend turning the sound down or off)

Sorry the video is a little dark and turned sideways. I was taking it with Sean's i-pod. His command to shake an object is 'kill it'. I started with socks hat he loves to shake anyhow then stuffed animals then to more stiff harder objects and eventually to the tambourine which he wasn't even a fan of holding at fist. I put duck tape over one of the opening because his teeth had a tendency to get caught there (You can see that in the video once in another location). I think he has much improved and it's almost ready to take on the road. 

Below is our bands pianist Garth (Who also has a blog, click the link). We have a singer, drummer, and horn honker too but I can't find good pictures of them applying their art. This was taken at Marti-Paws where Garth played for tips and helped raise $275 for Fetch-a-Cure :)

Annie

So I thought you all might be interested in a video I made for a friend of mine. This is Annie a standard poodle and her owner Joyce. She's going to be one of the other dogs doing the trick demo in February. Annie is just the sweetest, but highest energy dog I have ever met. She's quite a handful!




After the pet expo Joyce and I are planning on getting together to teach two dog tricks. I have been dieing to try some and I think it would be really cute. :)

Trick Title Sucess! (And other things)

Hello everyone :)

There are some new faces here because of this little post on:

The Long and Short of it All: A Dachshund Dog News Magazine: Gauis Rocks: Expert Trick Dachshund - Amazing Vid...: "We told you this was coming, and we know you can't wait any longer! Congratulations goes out to our pal 'Gauis,' the first-ever Dachshund..."

Which is a great dachshund news blog, so check it out if you haven't heard of it already. But Gauis big news is that he got his expert trick title! Check out the video: (Now if you joined my blog from the long and short, you've already seen this. If not you've seen most of these tricks already. Think of this as a greatest hits video)



But we aren't stopping there! There are plenty of tricks left to learn and things I want to teach. Such as roll on a barrel:



We are currently working on distance. But it's getting there! So stay tuned, I have lots of fun stuff planned.

In other news, we have an agility trail in Woodbridge this weekend. (Just one more leg for NJWW title!) so wish us luck. I'm sure you'll see an update on that)

Also, posts have been lacking recently because I lost the charger for my camera's battiers. And I like having nice pictures with my post not just videos. But today it was found! So expect a more active future.

Trick Title Update: Ring Drop

Guest photographer Sean and his cell phone camera! Because my camera has decided not to talk to my computer any longer.

Well this trick took long enough to teach. Jeeze. Usually to 'teach' a new trick its about a week, a few sessions a day. Then of course I have to refine my criteria and make it reliable and that takes much longer. As proofing things isn't my favorite activity in dog training. I always feel like I'm setting him up to fail and therefore its a bit more stressful a process for both Gaius and me. I'd much rather just teach something new, as watching him learn something is a creative process where I get to watch his brain work, where proofing is more of a consistency excersize Do what I say and don't think too hard about it. Much less fun.

But this trick took, shesh, like months to get right. As mentioned in the original trick title post, he just isn't a delicate or detail oriented dog. It took five sessions to convince him that slamming the rings as hard as he could into the post was not what I wanted. He's also very short (dachshund) and therefore has to lift his head up to put the ring on the post. Which I'm pretty sure made the process much more difficult. But we got there! YAY! Shesh, I have to re-look at my list to see what to do next.... hmmm.



NEWS FLASH I know several of my current readers own dachshunds, so this is for you! I am going to a practice for a dog sport this weekend, which requires little to no training, is designed specifically for dachshunds and ....... wait for it ..... not just encourages, but requires barking. Its an awesome activity for any dachshund and their person and I HIGHLY encourage it as an introduction to doggy sports :) But more on that next week. For now I leave you in suspense.

Trick Title Update: Read Me a Bed Time Story?

Well now that the trail is over it's back to perfecting Gaius' tricks for his trick titles. I had a little set back yesterday teaching Gaius to run through a rolling hoop (not technically required for his trick titles but a cute thing to teach). You see the hoop fell on him mid jump and scared him. Which caused him to shriek and run away. The hoop got tangled in his feet and he dragged it across the apartment with him at full speed until it tripped him on the tile in my front hall and he skidded head first into the wall. Suffice it to say he decided he no longer likes the hula hoop.

In fact the next time I pulled one out to practice he whined and hid under the couch. I pulled him out and tried to do some counter conditioning but ended up moving a bit to fast and he ran into the bathroom and spent the next three hours cowering in the bathtub. I felt too guilt to move him again. So let's just say we are currently working on gaining confidence around hula hoops. So in the mean time here is a trick that Gaius already knew but had to be perfected in order to qualify for the trick title (I had to add the head down at the end).



This actually took some time to teach. At first I couldn't get him to roll over with anything in his mouth. I started with his obediance dumbbell. Can you roll over while holding something fimilar in your mouth? When he had that down I moved on to a wash cloth folded into four. When he could do that I slowly unfolded the wash cloth. We ran into a bit of a snag when it got large enough to catch under him when he rolled. The pressure caused by his body cause him to drop it. But we went slow and he got over that we moved on to something actually dachshund blanket sized. Teaching him to pick up the corner by himself didn't take much time at all and tada!

Trick Title Update: One more down

So I got my book and got my hula-hops and have been working hard (ok off and on a few minutes a day) to complete my list. I thought I'd show you some progress so far. I promise a video of Gaius retrieving liquor soon!

But without further ado, Which hand holds the Treat: