Silly Rabbit, Tricks are for Dog Kids

SUMMARY: In which we start pursuing tricks real serious-like (or is that Sirius-like?).

I signed up for 2 days of auditing a Sylvia Trkman tricks seminar in December. I started thinking about how pathetic my dogs' tricks repertoire is, especially after having Remington who was quite the trick dog in his time. (Nowadays, especially with internet videos showing how to train your dogs to do all kinds of things, his tricks would be mostly considered pretty basic.)

So for the last 3 days I've been working on improving some tricks and adding some new ones. There must be something to karmic communication, because my parents showed up today with the book "Dog Tricks - 40 fun activities for you and your dog" for me. It's always fun to get a new tricks book to see what variations on a theme they might have, or new ideas I haven't tried before.

So--let's run down the list of tricks as introduced in this particular book.

Trick	Remington (the late great)	Tika	Boost
Sit	yes--could do a long obedience sit-stay	yes--start-line stay is a little iffy	yes--good start-line stay
Stay	for my dogs, "Sit" and "Down" automatically incorporate "stay until released"
Down	Yep, always a little slow	Yep, getting slower	Yep, very fast usually
Come	Well...	kinda...	usually...
Drop it	pretty good	erm, not really	iffy
Fetch something you throw	Never liked it much	Getting better on command.	Pretty dang good.
Shake hands	Yes	Yes, also shakes left hand on request	Yes
Speak	Yes	No	Yes
Take a bow	Yes	sometimes "stretch" on command	sometimes "stretch" on command
Kissyface	No, but tried. Not really a licking dog.	No	No, but hmm she licks a lot, could be taught.
Jump for joy	No	Does it on her own; maybe could teach it.	No
Roll over	Yes	Yes, fairly well	Yes, fairly well
Jump over your legs	never tried	Hmmm--could do this	ditto
Get your leash	No	No--worked on it for a while and quit	Yes
Beg/sit pretty	Yes	just learning	just learning--getting it
Fetch a specific item	Not really	Worked on it some	Will look for some specific items: Dish, leash, lattice, tennis ball--
Leave it	Decent	Never worked on it	Ditto
High five	Yes	Yes	just learning
Spin	"left" or "right" on command	ditto	ditto
Wave	Yes	just learning	No
Dance	Reasonably good	No	No
Carry [something]	not a chance	not really	Not bad with frisbee
Figure 8 around legs	Yes	Yes	just starting
Jump up (on a chair etc)	Yes	yes	yes
go to your bed (and stay there)	Yes	Yes	OK with direction
Put away your toys	No	just started	One at a time with encouragement
balance biscuit on nose/catch	Yes	Decent	just started
Act shy (hide face)	Yes	No	No
Find the keys	No	No	No
Close the door	No	No	No
Crawl	Forward and backward	Just started	No
Follow a scent trail (drag treat along floor)	Took some tracking classes to follow my scent trail	No	No
Pull cord to turn on light/fan	No	No	No
Achoo	No	No	No
Run through a tunnel	Duhhh!	Duhhh!	Duhhh!
Jump through a tire	Duhhh!	Duhhh!	Duhhh!
Touch a nose target	Yes	Yes	Yes
Run down a ramp and touch a nose target	Pretty much	Pretty much	Pretty much
weave poles	Duh!	Duh!	Duh!
jump over hurdles	Duh!	Duh!	Duh!
jump onto a table, lie down, and stay until released	Yes	Yes	In theory--

OK, how cool is it that they include a chapter on agility obstacles in the book? Looks like there are a few basic ones in there that I could work on. But here are some others that we do:

Trick	Remington (the late great)	Tika	Boost
Find a treat (hidden)	Yes	Yes	Yes
cha-cha line	No	just started	ditto
Back up	Yes	Yes	No
Bang!	Yes	Yes	Just started but already she's added her own flavor to it.
Get in the box (like a cardboard box)	No	Pretty much	Pretty much
Lie on one side	Yes	Yes	No
balance biscuit while sitting pretty or walking	Yes	No	No
Say your prayers	Yes	No	No
Hang ten (paws on your arm)	Yes	No	No
Where's your nose?	Yes	No	No
Limp	Yes	Just started	No

And probably more that I'm not thinking of at the moment.

Sooo--I want to fill out my table with more yesses, and add more interesting, more up-to-date tricks. Like, I love the one where the dog blows bubbles in a bowl of water. I actually started that once with these gals and they were doing great and I forgot about it again. Agility, you know.

Or standing on two legs--one SIDE's legs! That's got videos online, too.

Or balancing on my big yoga ball--started with both of them and abandoned. That takes a lot of work. But would be very good for their muscles.

So--onward, like I don't have enough to work on with cleaning up boost's rear crosses or serpentines or bar knocking, or tika popping out of the weaves when they run into a wall, or like that.

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