# Circus dog tricks



## Aubrey (May 18, 2013)

My BC x Whippet has finally mastered the "beg" command at 10 years old. She's built like a whippet in the rear, so her butt doesn't actually hit the floor and her steep croup is pretty poor for balance.
Pixie spontaneously offered it one day for her dinner- I about pooped my pants in surprise. I had only been trying to teach her this trick off and on every month for TEN YEARS. She never could get more than halfway thru the balance part.
Now she offers it for every meal, and sometimes when I am trying to shape other behaviors. She will even start out in a stand and lower into it. I don't know what finally clicked in her brain!


Anyway, I teach it with a clicker and a nose to hand target. With the dog in a sit, tell the dog touch(assuming your dog knows touch lol) your hand that is slightly above eye level. Gradually move your hand up and over their skull. Every time you move your hand upwards, increase the length of the touch so that they will learn to balance. Once the balance is there, start using the command you want to use instead of target(but still keep your hand there). Once the balance and concept is really there, you can remove the target.
You could use a treat instead of touch to lure the dog, but then you have to phase out the treat and hand movement. I find it easier to just use target/touch.


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## N2Mischief (Dec 3, 2012)

My dogs do the typical, "give me high five", "speak", "sneeze", they are chihuahua's and they are smart but not poodle smart. Misha had all three of these down almost instantly. 

My mpoo growing up, knew: walk like a person, dance, jump through a hoop, speak, sneeze, play dead, sit up, crawl, roll over and others I just can't think of right now.

Every trick she learned my mom would show her ONCE, say the command, and she had it. She was extremely smart.


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## Luce (Mar 4, 2013)

I picked up a small hoola hoop for Luce to jump through! I started with holding it up touching the floor and lured with a treat to the other side. When she did that a few times I started lifting it off the floor and saying "jump". I can hold it about 6" off the floor for her to jump. 

I purposely haven't let her jump in the house - on/off the furniture so she doesn't get hurt. She can get on her hind legs to "dance" but she does that on me. I want to train her out of jumping up on people and leaning on people or furniture before I trainer her for acceptable "trick" jumping.


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## Chagall's mom (Jan 9, 2010)

Kaybeegenie said:


> Does anyone's spoo sit up pretty, dance, or other circus-y tricks? How did you teach them?


Chagall is a mpoo, he learned "sit pretty" almost instantly. He also does "spin," "jump," "weave," "walk backwards" and "roll over." Maybe not a full circus act, but lots of fun all the same. There are loads of good trick training videos on-line. Here's a link to an easy way to teach "sit pretty." Have fun with the tricks!
Dog Tricks : Sitting Pretty Dog Trick - YouTube


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## Jacamar (Jun 2, 2012)

Panda knows "Can you do a right-hand spin?"
(He spins to his left.)
"Not MY right, YOUR right!"
(He spins to his right.) :laugh:

He also knows
"High five!"
(He uses right paw.)
"Other side!"
(He uses left paw.)
"In the dark!"
(He lets me hold my hand over his eyes.)
"Poodle bark!"
(He barks of course.)

Now I am teaching him "Poodle hugs!"
(He stands up on hind legs and leans against me for a hug.)


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## My babies (Aug 14, 2012)

I like the poodle hug. I'm going to teach Gucci and Miu Miu that! Love this thread. I ran out of tricks to teach them. Some of the stuff they know are the roll, turn, stand up, stand up and turn, stand up and walk backwards, crawl, back up, stay, time out (they go stand up against the wall and stay in that position till I say ok), give me a kiss, speak (although I stopped that cause Gucci thought it was fun just to speak anytime he wanted a treat), beg me, "do you want it" and they nod (Miu Miu nodes so fast it looks like she's having a bad neck cramp), jump up, jump thru a hula hoop, attack (Gucci little attack position is hilarious he looks like a cat), Gucci will give Miu Miu a kiss when asked but Miu Miu won't kiss him back, and handstand. 

Love this thread. I'm always looking for new things to teach them!


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## Quossum (Mar 18, 2011)

Sugarfoot knows Sit Pretty (one of the best "tricks" you can teach you dog, as it strengthens their core and fosters good balance and body awareness), Spin, Twirl, Shake hands, Back up (his command is Beep, Beep like a truck backing up), Kitty (rubs against you like a cat), and a few tricks with a big yoga ball. He can "walk" it with his front legs and I'm trying to teach him to donkey-kick it.

Most of these I "captured" with click once he got operant (offering behaviors wildly) and then refined. If I recall correctly, we started Sit Pretty with him sitting in front of me, getting a nose touch to my hand higher and higher, with the click as soon as front feet left the ground. It was several months before he had the abdominal strength and balance to fully Sit Pretty all by himself.

My word of advice to anyone teaching these tricks is to try try try NOT to lure with food. If you absolutely must, lure with a nose touch to hand or a touch stick while the food is in a bowl or your other hand. This is important because a lure-trained dog will always orient on and follow food. Their mind will be focused on the food rather than the task, and it can be very difficult to fade the lure and get them to understand what the actual task is that you want them to do. I liken it to trying to train a person to walk to a certain spot. If you wave a dollar bill and get them to follow you, trying to grab it, you can get them to the spot *really* easily...but they will be so focused on the money they probably won't even be cognizant of where they're going, and instead will basically be trained to "follow you" rather than "go to that spot." Whereas if you whip out a dollar and say, "wander around here and I'll give this to you when you get to the 'magic spot,'" your subject will really be focused on where their feet are going and will *memorize* that spot and dart back to it as soon as you break out another dollar! lol

--Q


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## Jacamar (Jun 2, 2012)

My babies said:


> I like the poodle hug. I'm going to teach Gucci and Miu Miu that! Love this thread. I ran out of tricks to teach them. Some of the stuff they know are the roll, turn, stand up, stand up and turn, stand up and walk backwards, crawl, back up, stay, time out (they go stand up against the wall and stay in that position till I say ok), give me a kiss, speak (although I stopped that cause Gucci thought it was fun just to speak anytime he wanted a treat), beg me, "do you want it" and they nod (Miu Miu nodes so fast it looks like she's having a bad neck cramp), jump up, jump thru a hula hoop, attack (Gucci little attack position is hilarious he looks like a cat), Gucci will give Miu Miu a kiss when asked but Miu Miu won't kiss him back, and handstand.


Thats an amazing list! Sure would be fun to see that on video (hint hint!) :smile:


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## My babies (Aug 14, 2012)

Jacamar said:


> Thats an amazing list! Sure would be fun to see that on video (hint hint!) :smile:


I never video taped them after they performed the task better. Only video taped them while they were learning cuz I was super excited when they did something that looked like what I asked for. Lol. But here are some of the videos. Click on the pictures to play the video

These are some when my Gucci boy was 3 months old
Practicing his scary attack (hubby taught him this. Lol)


After 10 mins of learning go timeout (I put him in a standing position up against the wall and say go timeout)


Giving mommy a kiss (he was short so I picked him up and kissed him on the mouth and said give me a kiss)


Miu Miu practicing her stay. I put her in a down position and said stay and when she moved I said eh eh then slowly started walking away and said stay while holding my hands out whenever she moved. My Gucci boy would try to trick her into moving by walking in a zig zag between her and me. Lol


Miu Miu with her back. Started with a narrow space and pushed her backwards each time I said back


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## Ciscley (Jul 16, 2013)

The scary attack is really cute.


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## My babies (Aug 14, 2012)

Ciscley said:


> The scary attack is really cute.


Lol. It really was scary when I first saw him do it. Hubby thought it was funny to secretly train him. Then One day I asked Gucci to give me a kiss and hubby said "aaaaattttackkkk". Gucci immediate got on his hind legs and came at me. I was taken by surprise. But it was cute.


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