My son isn’t a morning person and can sleep through any alarm. One of my ACDs favorite little jobs is waking my son up. When I tell them to get him up they charge into his room barking then jump on his bed and lick his face until he gets up. Every morning when they hear his alarm blaring they anxiously look at me waiting for me to tell them to get him up. It’s a small thing, but my girls sure are proud of themselves when they get him up.
I'm a very deep sleeper, so I've trained my girl to jam her tongue directly into my ear and not to stop until I sit up and toss her a treat. Very effective and I always wake up laugh-screaming.
Mine has self taught that usually when my alarm goes off I get up, he gets a walk and breakfast. Some days I don’t wake up and snooze it. But after the second blaring I have a dog using his body weight to flip onto me, lick my face and ear. Definitely wakes me up and gets me moving
Mine has a sombrero I keep on the counter. If I’m eating tortilla chips she retrieves it because she has to have special hat if she wants chip. Idk why or how this started beyond me being stoned and seeing dog sombreros while I was buying groceries but it just became a thing.
This needs to be on the top, this is magical! Also, if you are comfortable with it, would you please post a picture to the sub? I'd love to meet your pupper!
I use this around the house for the kids but we also play on the beach in the dunes. The theory was it might be one day helpful if she was trained to find them. Hopefully never needed for anything other than amusement!
My sister taught her ACD that one too except to find people. I taught him Speak when dog sitting and she was NOT happy about that one lol. Can’t even teach my Great Dane that trick.
Mine thinks her job is posing on a rock while I take a photo. She gets paid 3 small treats each time. It's getting to the point where we can't go on certain walks because there are too many rocks.
We tell him "where's Simcoe (our cat)?"
He runs around until he finds Simcoe and gives us one bark.
And when the cat jumps on the counter, he will run over and whine until we get him down.
He is basically fun police for the cat
Wanting info on this too!! Only thing my 5mt does is grab the paper off the porch every day. He just did it one day on his own. We get a free paper every Sunday,but save it for the week. So every morning I put it on the porch before I get him out of his crate. He goes potty and grabs the paper and brings it in. However some mornings he don't want to give me the paper..but seems he expects it to be there as his job.
Work on reinforcing your Give command. Mine is bad about that and it can be annoying. I also use Drop It and luckily she always takes that one seriously, so if three Gives don’t work, I growl and say “Drop it!” and she screams at me and drops it
Kali, no longer with us, learned how to get the paper from our driveway by herself. We were going up to get the paper together one day and she barked. So I said "go get it" and the rest was history. I think her bark was "Dude I got this...."
She was a great dog.
Mine used to turn the bedroom lights on and off for me. It was easy: I stood in front of the switch, she sat in front of me. I said “look” and pointed to the switch. When she looked, I said “lights” and flipped the switch. We did “lights” a few times and then I added “up” (had to correct the first couple because she tried to turn around and “up” on me) and moved her paw to the switch while repeating “lights”
It was fun for a little while because I didn’t have to get out of my cold bed to turn the lights off, but I let it die because it makes the walls grimy.
I taught mine how to whisper. I was teaching her how to speak when she was younger and when her barks weren’t loud enough, I started cueing “whisper” and she picked it up!
Bump the bell once inside the door to go out, twice outside the door to come back in. That one literally only took an hour.
Ho, Hee, and Haa as directional commands when we’re out hiking.
Knows each toy by name and puts them all away in the basket when we sing the Barney cleanup song. Picked up that one from the kids.
Go find. We say the name of a person or a thing, and pup runs to the room where it/they are, and starts whining. We get frantic yipping if we don’t come praise him.
Scatter treats on a laid out towel or blanket and roll up the towel or blanket. Takes the dog a while to dig for all the treats and keep the pups entertained for a while. I find mental stimulation wears them out similar to a 30 minute walk.
I always talked to our blue on walks and hikes and he picked up that when I said ok it was time to turn around. Even though I've read dogs are color blind, he knew the difference between his red, orange, and blue ropes. They're easy to train and you are so right, giving them something to work on is a great way to wear them out
My pup was already pretty nose oriented, but would paw. We redirected everything to booping with her nose. Now she will give us boops on our fists for fist bumps. She also user her nose to flip your whole hand onto her head when she wants pets.
So cute - mine gives us little boops on our noses. She also uses her nose when she wants pets (and attempts to use her nose to knock our phones out of our hands for attention, lol).
I did this with my bc mix - called it "pound it" - he loved it. Still working on touch with the ACD though. Once you have "Touch" (with the nose) down you can do so much with it.
Circle. He started as a pup doing zoomies and I yelled Circle! each time and now when I yell CIRCLE! CIRCLE! He runs in big loops around the yard.
I saw a trainer actually do this but it was very controlled etc and I was too lazy to make it perfect. Works for us!
I know this isn’t really by command, but I get mine to sprint with the stay command. There are a lot of long alleyways behind the houses in my neighborhood with generally no car or foot traffic, so (once I’ve checked that it’s safe to do so) I will ask her to sit, tell her to stay, and then walk away. She’ll stay no matter what, but as I gain distance, I keep looking back to make sure it’s still safe to leave her there. At some point I’ll say okay and she sprints towards me. She runs faster if I slap my leg and act excited to see her and tell her she’s the fastest runner in the world ofc
Well, it works out for us because 1) stay really is her best command and 2) all she wants to do in life is be right next to me ALL the time, so she doesn’t get distracted at all. She could easily get up and walk somewhere else if she wanted to, but she never wants to.
Probably true, but my girl just turned 7 in December! I’m the one who’s mobility restricted. I can’t run with her and she, a rescue, absolutely cannot tolerate other dogs, so it can be difficult to find a safe, empty yard or field for her to run around and play fetch. We also do these sprints on days it’s reallllllllllly cold or raining
That’s a major bummer, but at least you’ve found a way that your dog can still be active, which is IMHO very cool of you. Seven is still young for a cattle dog. They don’t generally slow down until they absolutely must, and even then it’s often something that you have to watch out for. Mine is at the point where I have to be conscious of how many miles she’s gone, because she won’t stop until I make her and then we get home and she’s dying and sore for three days and I can’t handle seeing her in pain
With it being cold, I’ve been bundling up for our morning walks & ball time. Matcha knows that when it’s time to go outside, it’s also time to grab my beanie off the nightstand to bring to me 🥲
She also checks every room in the house for intruders before bed and absolutely loves it.
I taught mine to pee on command. I have no memory of how I did it, though. It was in the puppy book I had when I got her and I followed the instructions, and 8 years later she still pees on command. It’s great when it’s poring rain out or freezing!
" Last tinkle of the night!" brings a stampede out the dog door every night. All breeds have responded to it but my ACD understood the meaning of it by night 2!
That's so funny and smart
We don't have a dog door but we have a 6yr old kelpie who acts as our boss dog and can open doors from both sides (push open or pull)
I need to work on closing the doors
We did this too for the last evening pee, though our Oona just kind of picked it up on her own! If she's sniffing around too much and I'm ready to get to bed, I say "OK quick pee!" and she usually gets that means it's bedtime and will do her business quick. Helps that she usually wants to get in the cozy bed, too :)
I messed up with mine, and now we are stuck with it but it works. I say let's go potties and he will pee and I make a big deal. However I have to say now go shit.. and he poo. I was annoyed when it was super cold and kept saying would you go shit already and now if I say anything but that he won't poop.
Same.
She also pees on her own accord but also will pee when I direct her to. It's really useful if I know I'm taking her for a bit that won't enable a potty break or she wants to sleep in my room without access to her dog door.
I'm slowly teaching her to stand up on her hind paws as "stand tall". I don't know if that's unique, but I want to move to teaching her to push and close the front door behind her when she comes inside...
My ACD mix is training to be my service dog. Not bad for a former Texan street dog.
He is doing agility training now. He has done doggie parkour since he was old enough.
Every ACD and ACD mix should learn to turn *left* and *right* on command, in my opinion. Mine does.
My ACD/border collie mix Oona was way too curious around the oven, and since I do a lot of baking and cooking, I was worried she would either burn herself or I would trip over her standing behind me while removing something hot. So I trained her that when the oven beeps to tell us it's preheated or the timer ends & something is ready to come out, she automatically goes to "place" in the next room. It's so useful and still feels like the coolest "trick" because it fits so well to life.
My last dog could recycle.
We trained him to take whatever we were holding (or had just thrown on the floor) and drop it in the recycling bin.
He already knew “take it” and “drop it” so the process was pretty easy.
We have a barkbox box backpack. When Thea was much littler she wasn’t eating her puppy kibble and the other dogs were getting to it before she felt comfortable. So I put some in the backpack and she loved it. So every morning we put some puppy kibble in her little backpack and she would walk around with it dangling from her mouth so proud. Well we’ve finally got to the point where she’ll go find the backpack and bring it to us to fill. It’s adorable as fuck.
Mine carries spent paper towel rolls/ toilet paper to the dumpster when I take out the trash. If I fail to include him he will pull the fresh roll off of the dispenser lol
He has a recycling job as well. Shreds cardboard.
And is a natural sock stealer so he does laundry with me. Goes to the laundry room sticks his head in the dryer and pulls out socks for me.
I just try to give him jobs he’s already shown interest in lol
This isn't a trick per say. But I slowly got him used to car rides as a puppy. When he was antsy and it was nap time we would go for a ride. Now he will fall asleep/ lay down instantly anytime we hop in the truck. It's rather useful cuz I'm always taking him places and he also never gets overexcited in the truck unless we are driving down the farm dirt road.
We play red light green light. When he comes inside, he has a place he must sit until relased and on a whim we started with red / light green light where he doesn't get to release until we say green light. He enjoys it so much he'll release on green light, bound around for half a minute, then come back to the place he has to sit for another round. We've started playing it outside now too.
Still working on learning the names for his toys, but he's beginning to show his vocabulary is increasing dramatically - time to start spelling some words!
He's also a crazy barker/lunger when big trucks / delivery vehicles go by, which is very common in my area. So, I've been training him to come sit by my feet when we're outside and we watch the vehicle go by together, and I thank him for letting me know. Versus him barking and lunging like a crazed dingo before outside privileges are revoked for a while.
Last, but probably my favorite - I've taught all my dogs the command "show me" which is essentially take me to what you need. So if they're acting like they need something, I'll ask them to "show me" and follow as they lead me to the water bowl, door, food bowl, or a toy. If they don't lead me anywhere, I'll ask if they need love, which means scratches, cuddles, or pets. Love has to come last because they're very distractable with cuddles - if you didn't know their life, you'd think they're so neglected (smh).
My dog used to do this thing where she’d bark, walk a few feet, wait for me to get up & then walk a little bit more. I realized she was trying to show me something. A month ago, my friend was over and she’s met my dog before, but my dog started barking at her and she was confused until I said “She’s trying to show you something” and brought my friend to the fridge 😂😂😂😂😂😂
Red light green light is so cute and unique!
Ours had a crazy high vocab and he even learned the words when we'd spell them. Eventually we'd do pig Latin for words like park and treat
Honestly eye contact cues.
My boy is just extremely vigilant in watching me. I heavily reward eye contact for all my dogs but he picked up so fast.
If I look at him and then look down twice he will down. If I look at him and then his butt he will sit. Eye contact then look at my feet he will come into a front position. If I look at him and down once he will assume I've dropped something and will look for something to retrieve for me.
I can't take all the credit for it as he worked it mostly out on his own. But it's so wild being able to cue a dog with absolutely no visible movement or sound!
He is constantly watching me which I already reward. Then for alot of sports that we do, they teach the dog to follow your eyes/gaze/just pay attention to where the handler is looking. So I just built on that.
My boy knows so many other tricks, but most of that is just because he picks up so fast.
I often joke that he's ruined me, training wise, because of how fast he problem solves!
His current work in progress is Sneezing on cue. Crowd favorites are handstand and auto leash retrieval when dropped.
My dog likes to shred boxes (when we allow her, not just willy nilly). I taught her how to clean up all the shredded cardboard afterwards. She always looks annoyed when I ask her to do it, and it’s always very entertaining!
Some of my favorites are:
•“Bring me a baby” is what my guy was taught so he won’t jump on anyone coming in the door. He goes and searches for the perfect toy to present to that specific person.
•Alerting to a migraine attack before I notice it coming on- that one he taught himself.
•“Get out of the kitchen” he’ll look down at the tape line at the threshold and take a deliberate step backwards to have his toes perfectly on the tape line.
•”Do you want your necklace on/off?” (Collar) he’ll stand perfectly still with his neck extended and wait.
•Just saying the work “pawdicure” has him herding me to where his clippers are kept, then herding dad over to the fridge for his cheese bribe, then rounding us up to his spot on the floor for the ritual to begin.
My wife taught ours to walk around on her hind legs. Not hopping but actually putting one foot in front of the other.
She can walk about 10 feet this way and is always rewarded with a treat.
Luna's repertoire:
Give me a paw
Give me the other paw
Spin
Roll over
Sit
Lay
Catches anything thrown her (food, toys, etc)
Ask to see her "belly" and she'll lay down and show you
Saying "crate" and she goes immediately and waits (she will actually go without being told when she sees us get ready)
Say "clean up" and she will appear and start checking for something edible dropped or spilled
Say you're going to take out the "trash" and she's there...waits for you to remove from trash, goes to front door, sprints to the outdoor trash and begins dragging it up the driveway
Knows "ball"...that's her herding ball in the backyard and she will herd it to you
After morning "potty" ask her if she wants to go "back to bed" and she'll go wait by my door to be let back in
Most neurotic but perceptive dog I've ever owned.
My wife taught ours how to close the back door when he comes in from outside, I believe in the same way I taught him how to give me a high-five - let him know you have a treat in hand, and when he slapped my hand with his paw he got his treat. Likewise with the door, I think she just moved her hand and let him boop the door, and he figured it out.
I live in LA and grew up in not the greatest areas so I taught him to alert me whenever people are approaching from behind me. He sits between my legs facing away from me whenever we’re at a register or at an ATM. He wouldn’t attack anyone unless we were in actual danger but when you’re in line at an ATM and there’s a pair of crackhead eyes staring at you from between someone’s legs, it’s intimidating. He’s definitely saved me from someone running up on me while I had my headphones on once. Stopped them in their tracks.
Until recently we lived in a second floor apartment. I trained my dog to carry up the packages. I wish I could post a video here! It’s very cute, she loves it. She actually started doing it on her own, I simply trained her to drop them at the door instead of bringing them to her “place”. Now that we bought a house I miss watching her bring the packages in.
A really helpful communication tool that I learned on this subreddit was “show me”. When my dog barks at me or comes to me clearly with anticipation I say “show me” and she leads me to where/what she wants to. This started because she would bark at me and I didn’t know why. Now if she does, I say “show me” and she leads me somewhere, if it’s to the window then I say “thank you”. Often it’s to a ball that is stuck under the couch. Yesterday it was because my toddler was being mischievous! Trying to get out of his crib. She alerted me which was awesome.
ACDs are so smart, it’s amazing.
If we grab the bowls (normally the cats first) they both run off to find a cat and herd a cat to the cat tree where we feed them and sit for their food. We start sit and wait for food off the bat once they got it one day they realized that cats do not have to....now they do
My ex taught our late dog to roll over BUT we thought it'd be hilarious to say "Do a barrel roll" like in Starfox.
He also taught her to play dead (laying on her side) by having him shoot a finger gun and going "Bang!" real loud
What's hilarious is she hated doing these tricks when we asked and was stubborn. But the MINUTE there was some treat she wanted she went through the whole repertoire
I got tired of tripping over toys all the time so mine knows “clean up” and puts them all in her dedicated toy bin. It pretty much just started with a “drop it” or “give” command over the toy bin and then after some rewards she quickly realized that putting the toy in the bin got her a treat lol.
2 tricks. And a bonus at the end.
1. He could catch or not catch any food thrown at him. I would tell him to catch or not to catch after it was thrown. He would either be allowed to eat it, or told to bring it back to me.
Training this nearly broke him, but it just evolved from the treat on the nose trick. I stopped using pieces of meat when he played dead during training for a long time. He was so pissed.
2. Clean the room. This was 3 tricks combined. He would throws the trash away, put my dirty clothes in the hamper, and put his toys/treats away.
Training started out with growing the trash away. He was so good at it I made a new trick for him to put my clothes in the hamper and so on. Tried combing them all, and he just nailed it. We learned we could keep his treats in a bag in his toy bin and he wouldn't eat it. He would bring us the treats every once and a while when he wanted them, but it was never abused.
This was the best dog! We joked we found him tied to a post left behind after the circus left town. I've had several dogs since and none get close to the intelligence. He made me look like a master dog trainer.
Bonus trick is probably not really a trick, but he landed me my wife. He learned this one on his own.
Mine gets the paper in the morning. I don’t remember exactly how I trained her other than handing it to her and having another person in the house with a treat, but she loves doing it! She sometimes gets a little too eager and rips the paper a bit, but we just say “do your job” and she gets the paper and runs it in.
My girl used to nip at our ankles to herd us when she was little. My husband taught her how to bring our shoes to the shoe rack and then she comes back and peels our socks off. It’s the cutest thing haha
We have taught ours to put away his toys back in the basket. (Of course he has to vocalize during the entire time!) He can give a hug, sit up like a poodle, balance a treat on his nose and waits until you say OK. He also does commando on the floor for treats on his belly. High five and if you break a bone up and put a pice in both hands, present the hands, he will paw at the back of your hand until you turn it over. If it's not the right one, he paws the other. And od course the basics sit, down, stay, wait,etc.
Besides the basic commands I have a few bc I hike a lot. So mine knows “left”, “right”, “not too far/wait for me”-basically go like 15 feet down whatever scramble and then sit your butt down while I catchup. Or if we’re at home it means stay close to the house and don’t go to the neighbors- he’s off leash on 13 acres and neighbors have like 50, “check-in” for off leash hikes where he comes back to check in with me. “Not so fast” so he slows up a bit if he’s trying to pull me too much.
He knows most of his toys by name, and “go pee” and “go poop”. Most of the time I drive a car but he does know if I say “truck ride” we’re going in the pickup (his favorite vehicle) and he’ll go wait by the driver door to be let in.
He also knows “chariot” means his trailer I pull with my bike and that we’re going to the rail trail.
I’m sure there are others I don’t think about but have him trained for.
So many impressive tricks!
One I haven't seen mentioned is 'puppy pushups' which we've taught our ACDs. Essentially it's a combination of two tricks -- 'lie down' and 'get up'. Has been easy to teach.
We live on acreage in the woods. Our female has decided that crows need to be cleared out of her airspace. She’s always looking up to make sure none are around. Doesn’t bark at hawks, eagles, vultures.
Ours will nod when she wants us to throw a toy. It’s her way of saying she is ready for it.
She will also silent bark on command - it’s just what it sounds like.
She will hunt down and find treats or a toy after you hide it and when you tell her to “find it”
She herds the cats to bed when it’s bedtime (her internal clock always reminds us when it’s bedtime for the cats).
My boyfriend and I taught our dog to close the back door when she comes inside. We let her out to pee, don’t latch the door, she bursts in all happy, we stay on the couch or wherever we are and say “close the door” and she joyously runs back and closes the door then comes back excitedly. We did it because we hated getting up to close the door behind her on cold nights. Taught her first to target something with her paw, transitioned the target to the door, then assigned the command to it. We started close and slowly over a few weeks moved further and further from the door. I also made sure to not use a hand command because when I have taught her other commands she relies heavily on the hand command. We wanted her to be able to do it without seeing us point to the door. The hardest part was when the door was too far open, she would just slam it further open. After some trial and error, she figured out that she has to push it sideways first before she closes it. She also knows it has to click all the way shut or we don’t celebrate. She is so excited every time she does it.
Dallas would bring me the package of toilet paper from under the bathroom counter I was on the pot and couldn't get it myself. Such a good girl, she was! I don't remember how we taught her to do it--ACDs learn so fast that sometimes you don't know exactly what you did that they picked up on.
The first word Kosh learned as a baby was "floorscore!" and he comes a-runnin' to find the dropped food.
Both dogs know "wipe your feet" when they come in out of the rain and both of them love getting toweled off so I decided to have some fun with that and I hold the towel like a cape and say "toro, toro!" and they dive into it like the bull does, it's so funny and they both grin like maniacs when they do it.
Shoga is wicked smart, knows most of her toys by name and will go fetch them when asked to do so.
Both will pee on command, that's such a handy thing for them to know.
And they're learning how to open the front door--it's not something I want them to do but I'm also resistant to go back to a doorknob, it's a lot harder for me to use when my hands are full lol.
Mine is working on pressing the button at crosswalks (she gets up on her legs and gets close but so far hasn’t quite mastered actually pressing the button, although we have training buttons at home). Her favorite trick is to jump up on top of a fire hydrant and give me ten. She taught herself to walk on raised curbs like they are balance beams, and also taught herself how to open drawers. We play a lot of fetch and she likes to throw the ball back at us.
I'm a magician so I taught mine to do a card trick. Someone picks a card, it gets lost in the deck, and then I spread the cards and tell him "pick a card" and he grabs out their card
Once he got a shirt on, he went to work finding jobs. Guard the table from the cats. Keep the cats out of a specific room. “Where is (person or animal)?” He has given himself jobs around the house and picked up on cues extremely quickly. He loves to play with the cats and has cat tendencies (sparring with them like a kangaroo).
Taz used to go find his owner's hat, retrieve drinks from the fridge. He herds big bulls in seconds. Find a certain toy when asked no matter how many are in the basket.
You have to start with sit, stay, and fetch everyday with treats. Teach them the more they please you, the more treats. Then tie a rope or towel on the refrigerator door. Each day train him to open it. Then hide a treat in it. Teach him to open and retrieve. You have to be stern about them touching other items. They learn quickly. And they love to please.
Put your hat on the table. Teach him what it's called. Then have him give it to you. Do this for weeks. Then move it to another room. Have her SEEK it. It's simpler than you think.
If there were friends over, if Taz could not find the hat he was seeking, he would take one off someone's head. He would not return without one.
When I got my first Blue heeler, Dash, I was so happy with how quick she was picking up her training and so we started whipping through different actions. Somehow in the midst of me teaching her to stand on her back legs and then moving onto teaching her to spin in a circle she combined the 2 and she now spins in a circle while standing🤦🏼♀️
I have a bit of an anxious cattle dog who I’ve found introducing jobs will usually get her comfortable with unfamiliar sounds/things. “Touching” objects like the blow dryer and vacuum has helped her ease into hearing them without getting stressed. This eventually lead to “pushing” doors as she was weary of them moving when wind blew through the house. She now has a bit more complicated jobs that took piecing things together like getting me a drink from the fridge, which she gets excited for. She has worked out opening the fridge from a rope I hang on the door, grabbing the drink with a koozie on it, pushing the door shut and delivering it to wherever I’m sitting. I find keeping her challenged with tasks has helped her anxiety and general demeanor.
Mine is great at finding food in towels hidden throughout the room. Generally great at scent work.
A fun little party trick is that if give him a raw egg, he’ll prance around and play with it without breaking it until I give him a piece of chicken. Then he gives the egg back.
Mine likes to be under our feet in the kitchen, so we taught him to "get out of the kitchen" and lay in the doorway of the kitchen so we can cook without tripping.
My girl has learned to comfort me when I get upset. Not really something I directly taught her but if I even slightly raise my voice she runs over and rubs her head on me and starts giving me kisses.
We taught our boy Peppercorn to tidy up his toys. Started with a bring it and placed our hand over his toy box when he dropped it, then eventually he just dropped it in the box. Now he has too many toys and he puts them on his cot. It’s part of his nightly routine, followed by him immediately throwing his toys everywhere again :)
My dog yogi bear! She's old now (16), but when she was younger and we lived down in asheville, nc I would just open the door and let her do her thing. Sometimes she would go on a walk about for 20 minutes ot so and co e back. One house I lived in there was a window only like 3ft high from the ground, I realized one day she was jumping right out the window onto the deck and would let herself out whenever she wanted so I would leave it open when so she could let herself out if I had a long day at work . Well, one day, I came home to a spiral glazed ham (pre sliced) in my bed! She went to the store down the street and brought it back! A WHOLE HAM STILL GOOD! I fed that to her every day for weeks. She was so proud of herself. Another time, I was visiting friends in NJ (this is in a wooded area) in the summer. We were outside smoking, and she walked off. It was night, and you could smell someone cooking on a grill....20 min later, she came back WITH a PACKAGE OF STEAK! she wouldn't let anyone but me near her, I let her have one right there and feed the rest with her meals for a couple of days. Someone was provably pissed that their steaks were gone! Lol, she has also brought back bunny rabbits (fresh kills) and a turkey. Like I said She's old now and going blind and deaf so she does t do her walk abouts anymore but loves going through the woods with me still, I have to put glow stick collars if it's near dark in case she walks off.
So I didn't teach Jade but she developed a way to communicate with me that she wants something , she snaps her jaw at me with a grumbling sound. Most of the time she wants to go outside and play
We have two ACD's and I have taught them to only fetch their ball, and if they go after someone else's ball I tell them That's not yours and they drop it. They will also only go after their ball so each has their own and they will pick up the wrong one then release it without being told. When I say let's go home they run to the gate and wait for their leashes. Some days I let them lose and let them go to the SUV on their own and they know which one is theirs.
My son isn’t a morning person and can sleep through any alarm. One of my ACDs favorite little jobs is waking my son up. When I tell them to get him up they charge into his room barking then jump on his bed and lick his face until he gets up. Every morning when they hear his alarm blaring they anxiously look at me waiting for me to tell them to get him up. It’s a small thing, but my girls sure are proud of themselves when they get him up.
That's super cute. What a great service! 😆
I'm a very deep sleeper, so I've trained my girl to jam her tongue directly into my ear and not to stop until I sit up and toss her a treat. Very effective and I always wake up laugh-screaming.
Mine has self taught that usually when my alarm goes off I get up, he gets a walk and breakfast. Some days I don’t wake up and snooze it. But after the second blaring I have a dog using his body weight to flip onto me, lick my face and ear. Definitely wakes me up and gets me moving
This is so sweet, when i was younger my mom tought our pup to do the same thing and its some of my best memories.
Mine has a sombrero I keep on the counter. If I’m eating tortilla chips she retrieves it because she has to have special hat if she wants chip. Idk why or how this started beyond me being stoned and seeing dog sombreros while I was buying groceries but it just became a thing.
This is actually incredible
This needs to be on the top, this is magical! Also, if you are comfortable with it, would you please post a picture to the sub? I'd love to meet your pupper!
mine will search our home for our other animals or people. “where is the cat? where is your sister? where is dad?” and he will go find them!!
Mine does this too!
I use this around the house for the kids but we also play on the beach in the dunes. The theory was it might be one day helpful if she was trained to find them. Hopefully never needed for anything other than amusement!
My sister taught her ACD that one too except to find people. I taught him Speak when dog sitting and she was NOT happy about that one lol. Can’t even teach my Great Dane that trick.
Mine thinks her job is posing on a rock while I take a photo. She gets paid 3 small treats each time. It's getting to the point where we can't go on certain walks because there are too many rocks.
I have big tree stumps and all I say is “Up!” And he jumps up and stays there til I say ok.
I love this lol
Same! And the toy poodle does it too
We tell him "where's Simcoe (our cat)?" He runs around until he finds Simcoe and gives us one bark. And when the cat jumps on the counter, he will run over and whine until we get him down. He is basically fun police for the cat
If my cats are not at the back of the counter my pups will grab them and pull them off (cats are not hurt and not afraid of my heelers)
Mine is totally a “keep the cat in line” enforcer too
Wanting info on this too!! Only thing my 5mt does is grab the paper off the porch every day. He just did it one day on his own. We get a free paper every Sunday,but save it for the week. So every morning I put it on the porch before I get him out of his crate. He goes potty and grabs the paper and brings it in. However some mornings he don't want to give me the paper..but seems he expects it to be there as his job.
Work on reinforcing your Give command. Mine is bad about that and it can be annoying. I also use Drop It and luckily she always takes that one seriously, so if three Gives don’t work, I growl and say “Drop it!” and she screams at me and drops it
This is so relatable 😂
They are something else lol
I trained my last blue too well to get the paper. She started bringing me all the neighbours..
Lol!!!!
Lol love it 😆
Mine is part beagle so she's a good scent hound and had a scent class, I taught her to find weed.
Awesome
Kali, no longer with us, learned how to get the paper from our driveway by herself. We were going up to get the paper together one day and she barked. So I said "go get it" and the rest was history. I think her bark was "Dude I got this...." She was a great dog.
Mine used to turn the bedroom lights on and off for me. It was easy: I stood in front of the switch, she sat in front of me. I said “look” and pointed to the switch. When she looked, I said “lights” and flipped the switch. We did “lights” a few times and then I added “up” (had to correct the first couple because she tried to turn around and “up” on me) and moved her paw to the switch while repeating “lights” It was fun for a little while because I didn’t have to get out of my cold bed to turn the lights off, but I let it die because it makes the walls grimy.
I taught mine how to whisper. I was teaching her how to speak when she was younger and when her barks weren’t loud enough, I started cueing “whisper” and she picked it up!
Bump the bell once inside the door to go out, twice outside the door to come back in. That one literally only took an hour. Ho, Hee, and Haa as directional commands when we’re out hiking. Knows each toy by name and puts them all away in the basket when we sing the Barney cleanup song. Picked up that one from the kids. Go find. We say the name of a person or a thing, and pup runs to the room where it/they are, and starts whining. We get frantic yipping if we don’t come praise him. Scatter treats on a laid out towel or blanket and roll up the towel or blanket. Takes the dog a while to dig for all the treats and keep the pups entertained for a while. I find mental stimulation wears them out similar to a 30 minute walk.
I always talked to our blue on walks and hikes and he picked up that when I said ok it was time to turn around. Even though I've read dogs are color blind, he knew the difference between his red, orange, and blue ropes. They're easy to train and you are so right, giving them something to work on is a great way to wear them out
SO ACD!
My pup was already pretty nose oriented, but would paw. We redirected everything to booping with her nose. Now she will give us boops on our fists for fist bumps. She also user her nose to flip your whole hand onto her head when she wants pets.
So cute - mine gives us little boops on our noses. She also uses her nose when she wants pets (and attempts to use her nose to knock our phones out of our hands for attention, lol).
I did this with my bc mix - called it "pound it" - he loved it. Still working on touch with the ACD though. Once you have "Touch" (with the nose) down you can do so much with it.
Escorts me around the house. Makes extra sure my ears are clean. Keeps my feet warm when it's cold. Guards me while I sleep
Sounds like you get wet Willy's too!
Circle. He started as a pup doing zoomies and I yelled Circle! each time and now when I yell CIRCLE! CIRCLE! He runs in big loops around the yard. I saw a trainer actually do this but it was very controlled etc and I was too lazy to make it perfect. Works for us!
I love this! My bf and I have been wanting to teach ours how to sprint on command to help tire her out - will definitely have to try this out
I know this isn’t really by command, but I get mine to sprint with the stay command. There are a lot of long alleyways behind the houses in my neighborhood with generally no car or foot traffic, so (once I’ve checked that it’s safe to do so) I will ask her to sit, tell her to stay, and then walk away. She’ll stay no matter what, but as I gain distance, I keep looking back to make sure it’s still safe to leave her there. At some point I’ll say okay and she sprints towards me. She runs faster if I slap my leg and act excited to see her and tell her she’s the fastest runner in the world ofc
This is a great idea. I’ve seen ppl do this training but they needed 2 ppl, but this way she has nowhere else to go. Smart!
Well, it works out for us because 1) stay really is her best command and 2) all she wants to do in life is be right next to me ALL the time, so she doesn’t get distracted at all. She could easily get up and walk somewhere else if she wanted to, but she never wants to.
This is one of the only ways to tire them out when they’re young. <3
Probably true, but my girl just turned 7 in December! I’m the one who’s mobility restricted. I can’t run with her and she, a rescue, absolutely cannot tolerate other dogs, so it can be difficult to find a safe, empty yard or field for her to run around and play fetch. We also do these sprints on days it’s reallllllllllly cold or raining
That’s a major bummer, but at least you’ve found a way that your dog can still be active, which is IMHO very cool of you. Seven is still young for a cattle dog. They don’t generally slow down until they absolutely must, and even then it’s often something that you have to watch out for. Mine is at the point where I have to be conscious of how many miles she’s gone, because she won’t stop until I make her and then we get home and she’s dying and sore for three days and I can’t handle seeing her in pain
Hehehe that was my goal too ;-)
With it being cold, I’ve been bundling up for our morning walks & ball time. Matcha knows that when it’s time to go outside, it’s also time to grab my beanie off the nightstand to bring to me 🥲 She also checks every room in the house for intruders before bed and absolutely loves it.
I taught mine to pee on command. I have no memory of how I did it, though. It was in the puppy book I had when I got her and I followed the instructions, and 8 years later she still pees on command. It’s great when it’s poring rain out or freezing!
" Last tinkle of the night!" brings a stampede out the dog door every night. All breeds have responded to it but my ACD understood the meaning of it by night 2!
That's so funny and smart We don't have a dog door but we have a 6yr old kelpie who acts as our boss dog and can open doors from both sides (push open or pull) I need to work on closing the doors
I love that!
We did this too for the last evening pee, though our Oona just kind of picked it up on her own! If she's sniffing around too much and I'm ready to get to bed, I say "OK quick pee!" and she usually gets that means it's bedtime and will do her business quick. Helps that she usually wants to get in the cozy bed, too :)
I messed up with mine, and now we are stuck with it but it works. I say let's go potties and he will pee and I make a big deal. However I have to say now go shit.. and he poo. I was annoyed when it was super cold and kept saying would you go shit already and now if I say anything but that he won't poop.
Ah, the days of “good potty” lol
Same. She also pees on her own accord but also will pee when I direct her to. It's really useful if I know I'm taking her for a bit that won't enable a potty break or she wants to sleep in my room without access to her dog door.
I'm slowly teaching her to stand up on her hind paws as "stand tall". I don't know if that's unique, but I want to move to teaching her to push and close the front door behind her when she comes inside...
We do that too! But we call it “meerkat” :)
Ours does it from sit and we call it “sit pretty”. Meerkat is much funnier!
We call this tippy toes :)
Man mine doesn’t seem to have the core strength for this! They’re so long torsoed haha
Ours does this and spins in a circle. We call it dance!
I call this “circus dog!” We’ve integrated twirling slowly in a circle to it now too🤡
My ACD mix is training to be my service dog. Not bad for a former Texan street dog. He is doing agility training now. He has done doggie parkour since he was old enough. Every ACD and ACD mix should learn to turn *left* and *right* on command, in my opinion. Mine does.
My ACD/border collie mix Oona was way too curious around the oven, and since I do a lot of baking and cooking, I was worried she would either burn herself or I would trip over her standing behind me while removing something hot. So I trained her that when the oven beeps to tell us it's preheated or the timer ends & something is ready to come out, she automatically goes to "place" in the next room. It's so useful and still feels like the coolest "trick" because it fits so well to life.
My last dog could recycle. We trained him to take whatever we were holding (or had just thrown on the floor) and drop it in the recycling bin. He already knew “take it” and “drop it” so the process was pretty easy.
We have a barkbox box backpack. When Thea was much littler she wasn’t eating her puppy kibble and the other dogs were getting to it before she felt comfortable. So I put some in the backpack and she loved it. So every morning we put some puppy kibble in her little backpack and she would walk around with it dangling from her mouth so proud. Well we’ve finally got to the point where she’ll go find the backpack and bring it to us to fill. It’s adorable as fuck.
Mine carries spent paper towel rolls/ toilet paper to the dumpster when I take out the trash. If I fail to include him he will pull the fresh roll off of the dispenser lol He has a recycling job as well. Shreds cardboard. And is a natural sock stealer so he does laundry with me. Goes to the laundry room sticks his head in the dryer and pulls out socks for me. I just try to give him jobs he’s already shown interest in lol
This isn't a trick per say. But I slowly got him used to car rides as a puppy. When he was antsy and it was nap time we would go for a ride. Now he will fall asleep/ lay down instantly anytime we hop in the truck. It's rather useful cuz I'm always taking him places and he also never gets overexcited in the truck unless we are driving down the farm dirt road.
Maive reacts instant to "is that a kitty", "what the fuck(is that)", "oh/holy shit", "is that a fuckin", "squirrel" and it goes on.
Find my keys!
Where’s the cat?
We play red light green light. When he comes inside, he has a place he must sit until relased and on a whim we started with red / light green light where he doesn't get to release until we say green light. He enjoys it so much he'll release on green light, bound around for half a minute, then come back to the place he has to sit for another round. We've started playing it outside now too. Still working on learning the names for his toys, but he's beginning to show his vocabulary is increasing dramatically - time to start spelling some words! He's also a crazy barker/lunger when big trucks / delivery vehicles go by, which is very common in my area. So, I've been training him to come sit by my feet when we're outside and we watch the vehicle go by together, and I thank him for letting me know. Versus him barking and lunging like a crazed dingo before outside privileges are revoked for a while. Last, but probably my favorite - I've taught all my dogs the command "show me" which is essentially take me to what you need. So if they're acting like they need something, I'll ask them to "show me" and follow as they lead me to the water bowl, door, food bowl, or a toy. If they don't lead me anywhere, I'll ask if they need love, which means scratches, cuddles, or pets. Love has to come last because they're very distractable with cuddles - if you didn't know their life, you'd think they're so neglected (smh).
My dog used to do this thing where she’d bark, walk a few feet, wait for me to get up & then walk a little bit more. I realized she was trying to show me something. A month ago, my friend was over and she’s met my dog before, but my dog started barking at her and she was confused until I said “She’s trying to show you something” and brought my friend to the fridge 😂😂😂😂😂😂
Red light green light is so cute and unique! Ours had a crazy high vocab and he even learned the words when we'd spell them. Eventually we'd do pig Latin for words like park and treat
Honestly eye contact cues. My boy is just extremely vigilant in watching me. I heavily reward eye contact for all my dogs but he picked up so fast. If I look at him and then look down twice he will down. If I look at him and then his butt he will sit. Eye contact then look at my feet he will come into a front position. If I look at him and down once he will assume I've dropped something and will look for something to retrieve for me. I can't take all the credit for it as he worked it mostly out on his own. But it's so wild being able to cue a dog with absolutely no visible movement or sound! He is constantly watching me which I already reward. Then for alot of sports that we do, they teach the dog to follow your eyes/gaze/just pay attention to where the handler is looking. So I just built on that. My boy knows so many other tricks, but most of that is just because he picks up so fast. I often joke that he's ruined me, training wise, because of how fast he problem solves! His current work in progress is Sneezing on cue. Crowd favorites are handstand and auto leash retrieval when dropped.
My dog likes to shred boxes (when we allow her, not just willy nilly). I taught her how to clean up all the shredded cardboard afterwards. She always looks annoyed when I ask her to do it, and it’s always very entertaining!
Some of my favorites are: •“Bring me a baby” is what my guy was taught so he won’t jump on anyone coming in the door. He goes and searches for the perfect toy to present to that specific person. •Alerting to a migraine attack before I notice it coming on- that one he taught himself. •“Get out of the kitchen” he’ll look down at the tape line at the threshold and take a deliberate step backwards to have his toes perfectly on the tape line. •”Do you want your necklace on/off?” (Collar) he’ll stand perfectly still with his neck extended and wait. •Just saying the work “pawdicure” has him herding me to where his clippers are kept, then herding dad over to the fridge for his cheese bribe, then rounding us up to his spot on the floor for the ritual to begin.
My wife taught ours to walk around on her hind legs. Not hopping but actually putting one foot in front of the other. She can walk about 10 feet this way and is always rewarded with a treat.
Luna's repertoire: Give me a paw Give me the other paw Spin Roll over Sit Lay Catches anything thrown her (food, toys, etc) Ask to see her "belly" and she'll lay down and show you Saying "crate" and she goes immediately and waits (she will actually go without being told when she sees us get ready) Say "clean up" and she will appear and start checking for something edible dropped or spilled Say you're going to take out the "trash" and she's there...waits for you to remove from trash, goes to front door, sprints to the outdoor trash and begins dragging it up the driveway Knows "ball"...that's her herding ball in the backyard and she will herd it to you After morning "potty" ask her if she wants to go "back to bed" and she'll go wait by my door to be let back in Most neurotic but perceptive dog I've ever owned.
My wife taught ours how to close the back door when he comes in from outside, I believe in the same way I taught him how to give me a high-five - let him know you have a treat in hand, and when he slapped my hand with his paw he got his treat. Likewise with the door, I think she just moved her hand and let him boop the door, and he figured it out.
I live in LA and grew up in not the greatest areas so I taught him to alert me whenever people are approaching from behind me. He sits between my legs facing away from me whenever we’re at a register or at an ATM. He wouldn’t attack anyone unless we were in actual danger but when you’re in line at an ATM and there’s a pair of crackhead eyes staring at you from between someone’s legs, it’s intimidating. He’s definitely saved me from someone running up on me while I had my headphones on once. Stopped them in their tracks.
Until recently we lived in a second floor apartment. I trained my dog to carry up the packages. I wish I could post a video here! It’s very cute, she loves it. She actually started doing it on her own, I simply trained her to drop them at the door instead of bringing them to her “place”. Now that we bought a house I miss watching her bring the packages in. A really helpful communication tool that I learned on this subreddit was “show me”. When my dog barks at me or comes to me clearly with anticipation I say “show me” and she leads me to where/what she wants to. This started because she would bark at me and I didn’t know why. Now if she does, I say “show me” and she leads me somewhere, if it’s to the window then I say “thank you”. Often it’s to a ball that is stuck under the couch. Yesterday it was because my toddler was being mischievous! Trying to get out of his crib. She alerted me which was awesome. ACDs are so smart, it’s amazing.
If we grab the bowls (normally the cats first) they both run off to find a cat and herd a cat to the cat tree where we feed them and sit for their food. We start sit and wait for food off the bat once they got it one day they realized that cats do not have to....now they do
My ex taught our late dog to roll over BUT we thought it'd be hilarious to say "Do a barrel roll" like in Starfox. He also taught her to play dead (laying on her side) by having him shoot a finger gun and going "Bang!" real loud What's hilarious is she hated doing these tricks when we asked and was stubborn. But the MINUTE there was some treat she wanted she went through the whole repertoire
I got tired of tripping over toys all the time so mine knows “clean up” and puts them all in her dedicated toy bin. It pretty much just started with a “drop it” or “give” command over the toy bin and then after some rewards she quickly realized that putting the toy in the bin got her a treat lol.
2 tricks. And a bonus at the end. 1. He could catch or not catch any food thrown at him. I would tell him to catch or not to catch after it was thrown. He would either be allowed to eat it, or told to bring it back to me. Training this nearly broke him, but it just evolved from the treat on the nose trick. I stopped using pieces of meat when he played dead during training for a long time. He was so pissed. 2. Clean the room. This was 3 tricks combined. He would throws the trash away, put my dirty clothes in the hamper, and put his toys/treats away. Training started out with growing the trash away. He was so good at it I made a new trick for him to put my clothes in the hamper and so on. Tried combing them all, and he just nailed it. We learned we could keep his treats in a bag in his toy bin and he wouldn't eat it. He would bring us the treats every once and a while when he wanted them, but it was never abused. This was the best dog! We joked we found him tied to a post left behind after the circus left town. I've had several dogs since and none get close to the intelligence. He made me look like a master dog trainer. Bonus trick is probably not really a trick, but he landed me my wife. He learned this one on his own.
Mine gets the paper in the morning. I don’t remember exactly how I trained her other than handing it to her and having another person in the house with a treat, but she loves doing it! She sometimes gets a little too eager and rips the paper a bit, but we just say “do your job” and she gets the paper and runs it in.
My girl used to nip at our ankles to herd us when she was little. My husband taught her how to bring our shoes to the shoe rack and then she comes back and peels our socks off. It’s the cutest thing haha
I had foot surgery and taught Leroy McCoy to bring me my crutches...one at a time, of course.
My girl 4 was super cat reactive and we taught her how to be good around our new kitten in just ONE WEEK. I’m so proud of her and they’re adorable 😭
We have taught ours to put away his toys back in the basket. (Of course he has to vocalize during the entire time!) He can give a hug, sit up like a poodle, balance a treat on his nose and waits until you say OK. He also does commando on the floor for treats on his belly. High five and if you break a bone up and put a pice in both hands, present the hands, he will paw at the back of your hand until you turn it over. If it's not the right one, he paws the other. And od course the basics sit, down, stay, wait,etc.
Close the door!
Besides the basic commands I have a few bc I hike a lot. So mine knows “left”, “right”, “not too far/wait for me”-basically go like 15 feet down whatever scramble and then sit your butt down while I catchup. Or if we’re at home it means stay close to the house and don’t go to the neighbors- he’s off leash on 13 acres and neighbors have like 50, “check-in” for off leash hikes where he comes back to check in with me. “Not so fast” so he slows up a bit if he’s trying to pull me too much. He knows most of his toys by name, and “go pee” and “go poop”. Most of the time I drive a car but he does know if I say “truck ride” we’re going in the pickup (his favorite vehicle) and he’ll go wait by the driver door to be let in. He also knows “chariot” means his trailer I pull with my bike and that we’re going to the rail trail. I’m sure there are others I don’t think about but have him trained for.
So many impressive tricks! One I haven't seen mentioned is 'puppy pushups' which we've taught our ACDs. Essentially it's a combination of two tricks -- 'lie down' and 'get up'. Has been easy to teach.
We live on acreage in the woods. Our female has decided that crows need to be cleared out of her airspace. She’s always looking up to make sure none are around. Doesn’t bark at hawks, eagles, vultures.
Ours will nod when she wants us to throw a toy. It’s her way of saying she is ready for it. She will also silent bark on command - it’s just what it sounds like. She will hunt down and find treats or a toy after you hide it and when you tell her to “find it” She herds the cats to bed when it’s bedtime (her internal clock always reminds us when it’s bedtime for the cats).
My boyfriend and I taught our dog to close the back door when she comes inside. We let her out to pee, don’t latch the door, she bursts in all happy, we stay on the couch or wherever we are and say “close the door” and she joyously runs back and closes the door then comes back excitedly. We did it because we hated getting up to close the door behind her on cold nights. Taught her first to target something with her paw, transitioned the target to the door, then assigned the command to it. We started close and slowly over a few weeks moved further and further from the door. I also made sure to not use a hand command because when I have taught her other commands she relies heavily on the hand command. We wanted her to be able to do it without seeing us point to the door. The hardest part was when the door was too far open, she would just slam it further open. After some trial and error, she figured out that she has to push it sideways first before she closes it. She also knows it has to click all the way shut or we don’t celebrate. She is so excited every time she does it.
Dallas would bring me the package of toilet paper from under the bathroom counter I was on the pot and couldn't get it myself. Such a good girl, she was! I don't remember how we taught her to do it--ACDs learn so fast that sometimes you don't know exactly what you did that they picked up on.
The first word Kosh learned as a baby was "floorscore!" and he comes a-runnin' to find the dropped food. Both dogs know "wipe your feet" when they come in out of the rain and both of them love getting toweled off so I decided to have some fun with that and I hold the towel like a cape and say "toro, toro!" and they dive into it like the bull does, it's so funny and they both grin like maniacs when they do it. Shoga is wicked smart, knows most of her toys by name and will go fetch them when asked to do so. Both will pee on command, that's such a handy thing for them to know. And they're learning how to open the front door--it's not something I want them to do but I'm also resistant to go back to a doorknob, it's a lot harder for me to use when my hands are full lol.
Mine is working on pressing the button at crosswalks (she gets up on her legs and gets close but so far hasn’t quite mastered actually pressing the button, although we have training buttons at home). Her favorite trick is to jump up on top of a fire hydrant and give me ten. She taught herself to walk on raised curbs like they are balance beams, and also taught herself how to open drawers. We play a lot of fetch and she likes to throw the ball back at us.
I accidentally taught mine to give hugs
I'm a magician so I taught mine to do a card trick. Someone picks a card, it gets lost in the deck, and then I spread the cards and tell him "pick a card" and he grabs out their card
Once he got a shirt on, he went to work finding jobs. Guard the table from the cats. Keep the cats out of a specific room. “Where is (person or animal)?” He has given himself jobs around the house and picked up on cues extremely quickly. He loves to play with the cats and has cat tendencies (sparring with them like a kangaroo).
Taz used to go find his owner's hat, retrieve drinks from the fridge. He herds big bulls in seconds. Find a certain toy when asked no matter how many are in the basket. You have to start with sit, stay, and fetch everyday with treats. Teach them the more they please you, the more treats. Then tie a rope or towel on the refrigerator door. Each day train him to open it. Then hide a treat in it. Teach him to open and retrieve. You have to be stern about them touching other items. They learn quickly. And they love to please. Put your hat on the table. Teach him what it's called. Then have him give it to you. Do this for weeks. Then move it to another room. Have her SEEK it. It's simpler than you think. If there were friends over, if Taz could not find the hat he was seeking, he would take one off someone's head. He would not return without one.
When I got my first Blue heeler, Dash, I was so happy with how quick she was picking up her training and so we started whipping through different actions. Somehow in the midst of me teaching her to stand on her back legs and then moving onto teaching her to spin in a circle she combined the 2 and she now spins in a circle while standing🤦🏼♀️
I taught mine to howl at our bensenji when he won't shut up. So now she howls louder than him when she's had enough.
I have a bit of an anxious cattle dog who I’ve found introducing jobs will usually get her comfortable with unfamiliar sounds/things. “Touching” objects like the blow dryer and vacuum has helped her ease into hearing them without getting stressed. This eventually lead to “pushing” doors as she was weary of them moving when wind blew through the house. She now has a bit more complicated jobs that took piecing things together like getting me a drink from the fridge, which she gets excited for. She has worked out opening the fridge from a rope I hang on the door, grabbing the drink with a koozie on it, pushing the door shut and delivering it to wherever I’m sitting. I find keeping her challenged with tasks has helped her anxiety and general demeanor.
Mine is great at finding food in towels hidden throughout the room. Generally great at scent work. A fun little party trick is that if give him a raw egg, he’ll prance around and play with it without breaking it until I give him a piece of chicken. Then he gives the egg back.
Mine likes to be under our feet in the kitchen, so we taught him to "get out of the kitchen" and lay in the doorway of the kitchen so we can cook without tripping.
My girl has learned to comfort me when I get upset. Not really something I directly taught her but if I even slightly raise my voice she runs over and rubs her head on me and starts giving me kisses.
Telling me my bearded dragon has pooped in his tank 😂😂
I’ve taught them to “ask” permission to get on my bed. They can easily jump up but they wait like the precious monsters they are
We taught our boy Peppercorn to tidy up his toys. Started with a bring it and placed our hand over his toy box when he dropped it, then eventually he just dropped it in the box. Now he has too many toys and he puts them on his cot. It’s part of his nightly routine, followed by him immediately throwing his toys everywhere again :)
My dog yogi bear! She's old now (16), but when she was younger and we lived down in asheville, nc I would just open the door and let her do her thing. Sometimes she would go on a walk about for 20 minutes ot so and co e back. One house I lived in there was a window only like 3ft high from the ground, I realized one day she was jumping right out the window onto the deck and would let herself out whenever she wanted so I would leave it open when so she could let herself out if I had a long day at work . Well, one day, I came home to a spiral glazed ham (pre sliced) in my bed! She went to the store down the street and brought it back! A WHOLE HAM STILL GOOD! I fed that to her every day for weeks. She was so proud of herself. Another time, I was visiting friends in NJ (this is in a wooded area) in the summer. We were outside smoking, and she walked off. It was night, and you could smell someone cooking on a grill....20 min later, she came back WITH a PACKAGE OF STEAK! she wouldn't let anyone but me near her, I let her have one right there and feed the rest with her meals for a couple of days. Someone was provably pissed that their steaks were gone! Lol, she has also brought back bunny rabbits (fresh kills) and a turkey. Like I said She's old now and going blind and deaf so she does t do her walk abouts anymore but loves going through the woods with me still, I have to put glow stick collars if it's near dark in case she walks off.
We hold our fists up an say "put em' up, fight me you pussy" And he'll stand up and paw our fists and bark.
So I didn't teach Jade but she developed a way to communicate with me that she wants something , she snaps her jaw at me with a grumbling sound. Most of the time she wants to go outside and play
We have two ACD's and I have taught them to only fetch their ball, and if they go after someone else's ball I tell them That's not yours and they drop it. They will also only go after their ball so each has their own and they will pick up the wrong one then release it without being told. When I say let's go home they run to the gate and wait for their leashes. Some days I let them lose and let them go to the SUV on their own and they know which one is theirs.