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 :)
So I have been thinking about dog tricks I want to teach Gaius after the pet expo, or tricks I want to perfect. But I thought I’d get organized an make a list so I can keep up with my progress. That way whenever I feel like I have nothing to train I can come back to this post.
Bow
Back up
-Heel Backwards
- Do backwards Figures 8s around my legs.
Go around me in a circle
- forwards
- backwards
Jump on Command
-Jump rope
-Hop to the side (into heel position)
Run through a hoop rolled on the ground
Nod Your Head Yes
Limp
Crawl
Object discrimination (Hold up an object and ask your dog to pick the same out of a list of choices)
Two Dog Tricks
- Under
- Over
- Leap frog (Jump several dogs in a row)
-Weave between another dogs legs
- Sit in between another dogs front legs
- Circle another dog
- Ride another dog (Stand on it’s back)
- Kiss (Noses touch other dog) Would need a very tolerant partner
- There is a bunch of other stuff that could be done here.
Hide your head under a pillow
Dig the Ground on Command
Cross your paws while laying down (Legs may be too short for this)
Hold a Cookie on your nose without going for it (HA! I’ve tried to teach this several times and each time I sort of give up. He just doesn’t have that much self control)
Things we have been working on that need to be perfected
How embarrassed (Paw held over nose)
Mark (Lift his leg on something on command)
Skateboarding
Lift and go through a hoop which is stationary on the ground.
Nod your head No
Caught your tail and spin
Blow bubbles in water
Here is a video that shows the object discrimination game I'm dieing to teach.There is a better one that describes the raining process with a standard black poodle I think, but for the life of me I can't find it on you tube. If you have the link PLEASE let me know. I'd really love to watch it again.
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. :)
I wish I had more to say, I would defiantly post more. Winter is the agility off season so I have no trials to speak about. Trick wise, I have a few new ones, most are difficult to self record, but mostly we have been working on cleaning up the ones we already know. Making them sharper and gaining distance and consistency of performance, at home and in new places. Cindy keeps telling me that distance isn't gained by training it directly. It's gained by building value for doing the work close in! I need that on my refrigerator or something to keep reminding me. I want to move to fast in training.
All this detail work is mainly because of the Pet Expo in February where Gauis will be doing a tricks demo in front of a crowd. He will also be participating in the agility demo. Come on down and see us if you are in the area :) I'll have someone record us this year and put it up here for you all to watch.
Here's a video of Gauis in the pet Expo last year. (Both in the obedience and agility demo)
This is the first time I have embedded through facebook. I changed the privacy settings to everyone so it should work. If it doesn't let me know and I'll try and get it on you tube.
We had just started learning weaves, so he really wasn't ready to do them, but bless his heart he tried. The obedience stuff made him nervous when he had to have his back to some kids and a bunch of strangers which is why he broke the stay, but other than that I remeber being really proud of him. It will be exciting to see how much progress he's made in a year!
No news on the foster front yet. We are still currently a single dog household. I will let you know when that changes. I think we are still getting Buckwheat but I'm not as sure. Rescue seems to change plans by the hour. We just try and roll with the punches.
In other news I am now an instructor at my local agility school teaching level 1 and level 2 agility. Just the basic stuff. How to go through a tunnel and chute, start line stays, the beginning of front and rear crosses. It is so strange that only a year and a bit ago I was just starting to learn this stuff and now people are confident enough to let me teach! Almost all of my students have really big dogs too which I don't have much experience with (Though I guess anything is big compared with ten pounds). But the principles of training are the same I guess.
Gauis was a lovely demo dog and worked really well despite all the new dogs and people. He wasn't such a fan of hanging out in the crate while I taught though and whined a bit and once got to come see me which he NEVER does (I usually leave his crate door open because he knows not to come out unless released. g-d bless crate games). I think he'll get used to it though.
We have an agility trial coming up in February and one in March. I'll keep you all up to date on the status of our agility career. Especially that last Jumpers with Weaves Q we need to finish up Novice. I hope he gets it in February before he turns three. That would be a nice birthday present.
Earth dog trials won't be until the spring, but will be his first time in Senior (Sean hasn't practiced recalls with him at all though so I'm not holding out much hope for qualifying) but he'll love it either way.
I guess I need to get on the stick about his obedience. I'm still nervous about his stand for examinations. I just need to flood him with new folks until he's totally comfortable. Our weekly trips to Stony Point and class on Monday's might not be enough. I should find some obediance trails to crash in my area and just get everyone there to put their hands on him. It's such a boomer to know that we're really ready to compete in open if I could just get him to tolerate strangers for a few seconds.
Stoney Point too was delayed due to a dead battery in my camera, but look for it in the future. Here's a new trick We're working on.
It's not perfect yet, but certainly coming along. A VERY difficult video to shot though :) He's licking his lips the whole time (calming signal) because I think that he's nervous that I'll step on him. But Cindy says he'll gain more confidence the more we do it. It also might come from a puppyhood filled with "DAMN IT GAUIS, DON'T GET UNDER FOOT. I'M GOING TO SQUISH YOU LIKE A BUG ONE DAY" Again, the more cookies he gets for it, the more comfortable he will get.
This is one in a long line of tricks that Cindy wants me to teach so we can do a "freestyle-esq" routine at the Richmond Pet Expo this year. I'll keep you all updated on what he's learning :)
If you don't know what free style is, here's a video of a woman (and her dachshund of course) doing a routine. Gauis' and I are no where near that, but we'll come up with something fun!
First off I'm not kicking him to get that third foot off (I know it looks like I am). I'm just putting my foot on the board and invading his space (without touching him) enough that he chooses to take his foot off. Also I inadvertently feed him a lot when all four feet are on the board don't I? Hmmm, well this is why we record things! I'll work on not doing that as much next session.
Also Guest appearance by Snickers! Who by the way is currently available for adoption HERE
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.
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.
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!
Well we're moving right along with the Trick title list. This video is seriously from our second session training this. So basically he learned this in 3 minutes. Amazing! Really the more tircks you teach the easier they get.
