# Can Your Poodle Do Some Tricks? I'd love to see a video.



## Beautiful Blue (Apr 24, 2017)

I'd love to see what your dog(s) have learned to do just for FUN!

Rio has been through a couple of training sessions with his previous owner...certainly knows the fundamentals of obedience. But our previous spoo females used to do a couple of fun things. Crawling along the floor like a member of the military, sitting up to beg for treats...is all. But I wondered if it's too late to teach a few tricks to Rio. 

And what would be fun?


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## Eclipse (Apr 26, 2010)

It's never too late to teach an older dog some new tricks LOL! I don't have video but one of the fun tricks both my girls do is play the piano. I bought a tiny kiddie piano at Toys 'R Us and taught them to "play" by transferring the touch command which they already know from agility and obedience to the keyboard. They will do it on command and will also go and play it on their own when they want attention since they know they have always been praised for the behavior.

I've also taught my older girl to "stalk" on command, she does it naturally in some instances and I just reinforced the behavior by associating a command with it and treating. One of the easiest ways to teach a trick is to find a natural behavior that could be turned into a trick. For example, suppose your dog spins in a circle for a certain occasion, maybe you are getting dinner ready and they are really happy and spin in a circle as an outlet. You can stop dinner making for a moment while the behavior is happening, give it a name such as "spin" or "dance" or whatever, and reward. Done with consistency, you can pattern it so the dog will do it on command at other times.


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## Beautiful Blue (Apr 24, 2017)

Thank you for these excellent tips.

I'm going to do just that. He does have the habit (innate or taught, I'm not sure) of lifting his left paw quite high as in "shake" or "high five". I actually have been discouraging it because he can rake his toenails on someone on the way back down. Let's say a youngster is kneeling in front of him. 

The g'daughter with the GSD pup has taught Ryker to roll over. Maybe I'll try that with her help.


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

Dogs of all ages can learn - and it can be very rewarding to teach them. I trained my dog at home myself for the AKC trick titles. I did have an advantage because my dog has some training in agility and obedience and had her CGC so I was able to used some "tricks" from other classes. 

For the rest of the tricks, I thought about what I thought she would like to do - for example she does not like to roll on her back so I did not want to force her to learn to roll over. I also don't like the "dead" dog trick - I find it creepy. She does like to use her front paws and knew to get on a pivot bowl so I used that to train her to turn on a light, play music, roll a barrel and a ball. If your dog likes to fetch and carry a toy, then think about things like carry a basket or pulling a toy on a rope. There are videos and you can see the list of tricks for inspiration. Trick Dog - American Kennel Club Also look on youtube for AKC trick dog videos - you'll find both videos people made for Trick Dog Performer title as well as people showing how they trained the dogs.


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## snow0160 (Sep 20, 2016)

You guys have to check out this video. Lucky has his trick's title and task alerts but this dog destroys him. I am quite impressed. It is an old video so maybe some of you have already seen it. This dog is able to do things that most humans cannot do.


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## Beautiful Blue (Apr 24, 2017)

Oh my gosh, that is amazing! I love that dog! And frankly his owner/trainer...who would teach a dog to back his rear end up the cabinets!!

I imagine that dogs who "act" in movies and on tv etc. have to know a lot of subtle moves and looks to do in response to just a gesture. 

My granddaughter said she thinks Rio probably already knows to "roll over" since he took the Puppy Training class with his former owner - where she learned it with Ryker.


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## twyla (Apr 28, 2010)

this is an old video as baby Beatrice


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## afkar (Dec 9, 2011)

My older boys especially Joey, do a number of things. They know "sit pretty" (beg), spin & twirl (left & right spins), bow & other things like that. I taught most of them by shaping or luring in the case of twirl with Joey as he naturally spins to the right. For some reason, even as a pup, he turns this way before he climbs the stairs at a friend's house so it was just a case of capturing the behaviour & adding a cue. It is never too late to teach a poodle anything I have discovered


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