# Trick Ideas



## Pavie (May 4, 2021)

Pavlov recently got his AKC Trick Dog Performer title! And I need some help coming up with what to do for the next level (Elite Performer). One of the challenges is that it requires 5 prop tricks, and I don't have a lot of props (and I don't really want to buy a wagon or skateboard just for a trick). Could you help me be creative and think of prop tricks? Ideally things that can be taken from everyday life? Or if there are any inexpensive props, I might look into buying them. Also we need at least 5 performer level tricks, so ideas for what non-prop tricks we should learn next would also be welcome (as we need to learn more of those too)! Thanks for any suggestions!

Here are the tricks we submitted for the past titles:

Trick Dog Novice:
CGC is on record
Balance beam
Fetch it (ball 10 ft)
Find it (find treat under cup)
Get in a box
Sit in a box
Get on platform (4 paws)
High five
Jump through hoop
Paws up (2 paws on platform)
Push-ups (sit, down, sit, down, sit, down)
Shake hands
Spin in circle
Touch it

Trick Dog Intermediate
Catch (ball in midair)
Fetch it (ball 20 ft)
Game (manipulates interactive canine game)
Go find (handler hides, dog does and finds)
Heeling with automatic sit
Jump through handler's circled arms
Open door 
Remove object from box
Rollover
Shell game

Trick Dog Advance
Back up
Bow (i.e., take a bow)
Circle right, circle left
Cover your eyes
Leg weave, handler walks
Play dead
Down at distance (15 ft)
Under handler (handler on hands and knees)
Handler's choice 1: Recall past plate of food
Handler's choice 2: Deep pressure therapy

Trick Dog Performer
Sit pretty
Wave hello
Block (stand in front of, behind, and to side of owner as cued)
Walk on hind legs
Footsies 
Run circles around handler x3
Back stall
Balance hat on head
Tissue out of box
Push button to open handicap door, on hind legs

In addition to these tricks, Pavie also knows how to go to place (his bed or kennel from 10 ft) but we're not sure if that can be used (since Elite Performer doesn't allow agility equipment). Although I generally don't like buying props, I bought a toy piano a while back and taught him the play piano trick. Lastly, we're also working on cross paws and dig, but we're still a bit far from getting there...


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## cowpony (Dec 30, 2009)

Since Galen has a tendency to demand snap and demand bark, I put these two actions on cue.

I also taught Galen to ring a library bell someone had given us. I was working on teaching him to walk to a table and ring for service when Ritter arrived, and his trick training went on hiatus.

One of my coworkers had a dog that brought her socks from the laundry. I personally think it would be more useful to put socks into the laundry. 

{Added} Ooh, I just remembered seeing a Rin Tin Tin episode in which he grabbed a rope and wrapped it around a tree.


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## PowersPup (Aug 28, 2020)

cowpony said:


> One of my coworkers had a dog that brought her socks from the laundry. I personally think it would be more useful to put socks into the laundry.


Topper will take socks out of the dirty or clean laundry - doesn't matter to him. He does not put them back. That would be a great trick to train him!


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## twyla (Apr 28, 2010)

Good old army crawl
Say your prayers


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

It’s been about 5 years since Babykins earned all the AKC trick dog titles so I can’t remember everything.

I bought a cheap playground ball in Five Below and fought Babykins to put her two front paws up on it and walk. I had her walk 15 feet with no lure, just treat at the end. This was my handlers choice.

In the hardware store I bought these cheap lights that you can stick on the wall and push lightly to turn on and off. I tried to teach Babykins to push it on with her paw but as a minipoo she wasn’t pushing hard enough so I taught her to step on it. the first step turned it on and the next command to step turned it off. I figured I could use these lights somewhere around the house. 5 years later they are sitting in the basement unused and ready to teach Theo when it’s his turn.

Tie a rope onto something on wheels, (or no wheels) and have him pull it I have a bucket to wash my floors on wheels which would work.


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## Fluffy Poodle 4 (Nov 29, 2020)

Just recently I was curiously investigating AKC Trick Dog levels and tricks. Some things I remember or can think of for tricks with props (I think) are: 
retrieving a ringing phone (you could set a timer to mimic a ringing phone)
picking up a flat object (like a credit card) from the floor
cleaning up his toys
bringing his leash
pull a laundry basket
if you have a grooming table maybe jump up on it
do place with his dog bed
tuck you in or wake you up (pull a blanket on or off of you)


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## cowpony (Dec 30, 2009)

I would love it if my boys could help me set up a tarp by pulling on the ropes.


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## For Want of Poodle (Feb 25, 2019)

At one point I had trained Annie to turn light switches off (can't remember if Pavie is a standard or not) - I stopped because she was scratching the paint. 

I also taught her to hop into a wheelbarrow and let me push her. 

What about a send out to go around a cone? 

For DMWYD, object recognition/differentiation counts, for example, being able to take the dragon out of a pile of toys, then the other toys on command and by name. 

How about pick pocket, where the dog takes a dangling cloth from your pocket? 

Carry a basket or your purse? 

Can you have him pull a cord to open a door, and then push it closed? 

Unroll a carpet (easy to teach this starting by hiding treats in the carpet, then increase how far dog has to push to get it until they have to unroll whole thing, then get a treat). 

I also hate buying things for tricks!


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## Pavie (May 4, 2021)

Thank you everyone for all the wonderful ideas so far!! Poodle forum is a great community and everyone is so helpful 🥰 🥰 Yay, Pavie has lots to work on now. 




cowpony said:


> Since Galen has a tendency to demand snap and demand bark, I put these two actions on cue.


Oh, I've been wanting to teach Pavie to bark on command for a loooong time! It'll be a useful service dog task to get the host's attention if I need to tell them I need to leave their party early. I wanted to wait until he was older before teaching him this as I was worried it might increase his tendency to bark when not cued. But now I don't know where to start as he rarely barks. He's never demand barked before. We would appreciate any tips!




cowpony said:


> One of my coworkers had a dog that brought her socks from the laundry. I personally think it would be more useful to put socks into the laundry.


Socks!! So clever! I had pondered about laundry tricks before...and I'm fine with Pavie handling my dirty clothes, but he can't reach my washing machine. He can reach my drying machine, but I don't want slobber on my newly cleaned clothes, so I gave up on that idea. But socks would be fine, I don't mind a bit of slobber on socks  Such a great idea.




twyla said:


> Good old army crawl
> Say your prayers


Oh yes, we still have to work on those 




Skylar said:


> It’s been about 5 years since Babykins earned all the AKC trick dog titles so I can’t remember everything.
> 
> I bought a cheap playground ball in Five Below and fought Babykins to put her two front paws up on it and walk. I had her walk 15 feet with no lure, just treat at the end. This was my handlers choice.


Congratulations Babykins!! That's wonderful. 

A playground ball is a great idea (much easier than buying a barrel for her to roll). I might try that. Very creative with the step lights and pulling a bucket. Those sound very fun too. 




Fluffy Poodle 4 said:


> tuck you in or wake you up (pull a blanket on or off of you)


Thanks for the list of good ideas. I definitely need to work on better retrieval skills, then I can start checking off these tricks!! The last one is so cute! I've actually never thought of it before. I would love to teach Pavie to tuck me in and wake me up. 



cowpony said:


> I would love it if my boys could help me set up a tarp by pulling on the ropes.


I have never set up a tarp before myself. But it's a nice goal for your dogs. Good luck in training!



For Want of Poodle said:


> At one point I had trained Annie to turn light switches off (can't remember if Pavie is a standard or not) - I stopped because she was scratching the paint.


Pavie is a mini goldendoodle 😅😅 I guess he would be considered standard according to AKC poodle guidelines, he's 17" tall, but not tall enough to do most of the big dog tricks. He can't reach the lights unfortunately. He might be able to do pick pocket if he stands at his tallest, and the cloth is dangling out, but we might need to try it out to see if it's physically doable. I've also thought of carrying a basket or purse, but I really need to find a small one so he won't kick it or step on it while walking. With the tissue trick, we can only do short distances as of now, because most of the time when I make him bring it over a long distance, he ends up stepping on the tissue at some point in the delivery....😔 



For Want of Poodle said:


> Unroll a carpet (easy to teach this starting by hiding treats in the carpet, then increase how far dog has to push to get it until they have to unroll whole thing, then get a treat).


I'd imagine this would look very cute!! I don't have a rollable carpet, but I love this trick.


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## For Want of Poodle (Feb 25, 2019)

Pavie said:


> Pavie is a mini goldendoodle 😅😅 I guess he would be considered standard according to AKC poodle guidelines, he's 17" tall, but not tall enough to do most of the big dog tricks. He can't reach the lights unfortunately. He might be able to do pick pocket if he stands at his tallest, and the cloth is dangling out, but we might need to try it out to see if it's physically doable. I've also thought of carrying a basket or purse, but I really need to find a small one so he won't kick it or step on it while walking. With the tissue trick, we can only do short distances as of now, because most of the time when I make him bring it over a long distance, he ends up stepping on the tissue at some point in the delivery....😔
> 
> I'd imagine this would look very cute!! I don't have a rollable carpet, but I love this trick.


With the pickpocket trick- what if you sat on the floor, or on a chair? 

How about a makeup travel case, or an old wallet, or one of those little baskets people put on counters? I see tons of things like that in thrift stores. I am quite jealous of this trick - Annie will not hold things in her mouth at all. 

With the carpet trick - a bathmat, a thick towel, or a yoga mat can work too.


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## cowpony (Dec 30, 2009)

Pavie said:


> Oh, I've been wanting to teach Pavie to bark on command for a loooong time! It'll be a useful service dog task to get the host's attention if I need to tell them I need to leave their party early. I wanted to wait until he was older before teaching him this as I was worried it might increase his tendency to bark when not cued. But now I don't know where to start as he rarely barks. He's never demand barked before. We would appreciate any tips!


Years ago, when my Pogo was a youngster, I took a class with a trainer who told me that a lot of really awesome tricks come simply out of catching something the dog is naturally inclined to do and encouraging the dog to do it. The context for her comment was that Pogo was very very good at walking and even jumping backwards. He also enjoyed pretzeling through our legs. She thought he was a great candidate for freestyle dance training because so many of the moves came naturally to him. 

So, transferring that lesson to Galen. I use clicker training to capture and reinforce many things I want him to do. He was a demand barker from the day he set his little paws on the floor of my house. He also naturally has a demand snap, which is really just a muted bark; it's not an aborted bite. Therefore, I just needed to capture and redirect this naughty barking and snapping into a trick. 

The way I taught him to bark on command was to tease him with a treat and playful sudden movements until he got so excited he let out a yip. Then I clicked and gave him the treat. I repeated the teasing a few times until he got the idea that I really wanted the yip. At that point I was able to add the command, "woof." I even taught him a secondary command, which is to click my teeth at him.

I did pretty much the same thing when I taught him to snap his teeth at me. As I said, his snap is a silent bark; it's not an aborted bite attempt. As with the bark, I teased him until he gave a snap. I clicked and gave him the treat. Again, I repeated the teasing and the clicking several times until he was consistently snapping his teeth. I then paired it with a gesture. I hold my fingers and thumb like I'm wearing a sock puppet, and I make a biting movement as though I'm closing the sock puppet's mouth. I don't actually have a verbal command for this trick. I just have the biting gesture. This method is a bit different from the way other people have taught "shush," but it actually worked pretty well for Galen when he was in the worst of his barky adolescence. When he was yelling I could often get him to turn the volume down by asking him to do silent snapping instead of barking.


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## Pavie (May 4, 2021)

For Want of Poodle said:


> With the pickpocket trick- what if you sat on the floor, or on a chair?
> 
> How about a makeup travel case, or an old wallet, or one of those little baskets people put on counters? I see tons of things like that in thrift stores. I am quite jealous of this trick - Annie will not hold things in her mouth at all.
> 
> With the carpet trick - a bathmat, a thick towel, or a yoga mat can work too.


Thanks for the so many good ideas! I think we can definitely try the pickpocket trick with me sitting on the floor or chair. That might actually be a really good way to begin teaching the trick, before doing the standing up version.

I really like the basket trick too! I guess something like this might work:


Amazon.com



It'll be a hard one for us too. Pavlov isn't very good at holding things in his mouth either. I think I over-trained "drop it", so now whenever I try to get him to hold things, he'll hold it for a bit and then drop it....

I don't have a bath mat, thick towel, or yoga mat 😅 But maybe it's worth investing in one!


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## Pavie (May 4, 2021)

cowpony said:


> Years ago, when my Pogo was a youngster, I took a class with a trainer who told me that a lot of really awesome tricks come simply out of catching something the dog is naturally inclined to do and encouraging the dog to do it. The context for her comment was that Pogo was very very good at walking and even jumping backwards. He also enjoyed pretzeling through our legs. She thought he was a great candidate for freestyle dance training because so many of the moves came naturally to him.
> 
> So, transferring that lesson to Galen. I use clicker training to capture and reinforce many things I want him to do. He was a demand barker from the day he set his little paws on the floor of my house. He also naturally has a demand snap, which is really just a muted bark; it's not an aborted bite. Therefore, I just needed to capture and redirect this naughty barking and snapping into a trick.
> 
> ...


Cool!! Thanks for sharing your experience and for the very detailed reply. Yeah, I think catching things that they are naturally inclined to do it a good strategy. I took advantage of this when teaching agility-related tricks, like weaving or jumping through hoops, as he likes to play and run around, he learned them quite quickly. It also seems that the same trick can be easy for one dog but hard for another dog. My friend's dog had no trouble learning bark, but could not do fetch. Pavie is the opposite, he had no trouble with fetch, but still hasn't learned bark. We'll really have to work hard with bark, since Pavie rarely barks, it'll be hard to capture.


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## Looniesense (Jul 10, 2021)

I taught Luka to wag his tail. That is not in the usual bag of tricks and quite cute. He does it with a hand signal where I just wag my hand back and forth. I captured it with the clicker and admit to cheating a bit as I also wagged his tail using my hand once or twice to cement the action I wanted.


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## babyscout (Feb 28, 2021)

Anise loves getting the mail!

__
http://instagr.am/p/B_JXStJBoCn/


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## 94Magna_Tom (Feb 23, 2021)

babyscout said:


> Anise loves getting the mail!
> 
> __
> http://instagr.am/p/B_JXStJBoCn/


Great job Anise!


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