Does teaching a dog 'tricks' serve any useful purpose

Yes yes yes it serves a huge purpose.
It created a better bond
It occupies and tires the dogs mind
It crates all round better obedience and behavior
and its fun.
 
It occupies their little brains and can provide a good work out for them. I regularly practice sit, stay, come, stand and so on with Korben - and the kids do the roll over - give me a paw/hi five, speak to me stuff so it helps them bond with him and reminds him they are above him in the pecking order :D

Plus its so cute and funny when he goes in the pet shop and goes to the till and immediately sits and offers a paw cause he knows the girl is going to give him a treat - they're not daft :D
 
So glad you said that! My JRT seems particularly inclined to do all manner of party pieces and catches on very quickly. I did wonder if I was doing pointless stuff on top of the recall, heel, wait and sit, which I need for her to be around horses and other livestock.
 
How do you teach the high five? She already does 'Paw' and 'Please' - her beg naturally came with paws up and together, rather than hanging down. Dead Doggy is well on it's way and sit and down the first things I taught. I can't believe how bright she is, when there are no other distractions and cottons on like lightning, bless her.
 
It was my son who taught him it. He started off asking him for a paw, then raised his hand up higher and faced the palm of his hand toward to the dog and asked for hi5 - when he gave him the hi5 paw he got a snack. Because hes raising his paw higher he can only hit his hand and then drops the paw again. My daughter taught him the roll over by making him lay down first then waving her hand over his head to make him flip over for the treat while telling him to roll over.

I'm going to teach him dead doggy this weekend - thats one I never thought of.

I will also add that getting the kids to teach the dog is a great way to keep them amused and out from under my feet too :D
 
katielou said:
I taught high 5 with a clicker so maybe slightly different but just do paw and slowly an inch at a time turn your hand around so its in high 5 position.
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See thats how I would have done it - but 14 year old boys know better or so Im told by the dog whisperer boy upstairs haha
 
My old trainer used to say when discussing with clients the use of silly tricks to occupy their minds... "what is 'sit' but a trick?" - well, a useful trick.... but she's got a good point!
As with the high5 - ditto what Katielou said. If she already targets your hand with her paw then you can just adjust your hand position so it eventually becomes a high 5
 
brighteyes said:
or is it merely a way for them to get us to give them treats?
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Interesting question! From my experience dogs will offer a learned behaviour that they associate with a reward IF they think there is something in it for them. So they may offer trick behaviour without you asking for it if you're holding a lamb shank, but will they follow you about during a normal day waving paws and doing sit/down/stand routines? I reckon the idea that it is a way of getting us to give them treats perhaps bestows on them a level of cognition or higher thinking that they aren't capable of. Other opinions may vary, for example, some people don't even like to use treats in teaching a behaviour from scratch.

The plus sides to trick training are spending more time with your dog, observing his learning and enjoying his company. As stargirl88 says even 'sit' and 'stay' are tricks if you look at them objectively, and just look how useful they are :D
 
Yes, it occupies the mind indeed - my husbands! He's the "trick" teacher in the house. He's taught the border terrier to roll over, stand on his hind legs fand pirouette, give a paw, hop...and the poodle is learning a few as well. The old girl started the whole thing off by pretty much teaching herself to roll over, and my hubby just went nuts teaching the dogs their tricks. Meanwhile I just teach the boring stuff...sit, stay, down, wait, leave it, recall...
 
Oh it's very useful. I have a very polite dog who shakes hands with visitors :D and she hi 5's at appropriate moments of victory. I did teach her to shut doors, but she prefers open plan living....
However she has learnt to abuse her (very cute IMO :D ) Beg and scams treats off people. :mad:
 
Yes it serves a purpose, many breeds are very intelligent and the more stimulation they have the better, be it high level training or "tricks". A friends GSD has qualified through the levels at working trials and is now working at TD level, he also does a mean high five, play dead and the latest addition to his repertoire, begging.:D
 
My daughter taught high 5 too. Must be a kid thing, she was a bit naugty though and did it when Inca was stood on her back legs, we found it was encouraging her to jump up for fuss. We stoped them doing it for a while, she only got fuss when all 4 feet were on the floor, then when the jumping calmed down I sat with the clicker and retrained her to do high 5 from a sit.
 
What Katie said! MM, even the tracking routine, when you think about it, is a long series of 'tricks' - it's not 'natural' for a dog to only ground-scent and it is totally different from actual search and rescue stuff.

I do love it when the dog throws itself through every trick it knows, before you've even asked, because he is hungry.
You wan't be to sit?
Down?
Roll over?
Heel?!
 
Definitely very useful...stan got stressed on boxing day, in a house full of new people with lots going on, but 5 minutes of 'sit' 'spin' (which is his favourite!) 'high 5' etc, chilled him out.
I think they enjoy learning to 'work' for their rewards.
Plus you can show off ;)
 
CaveCanem said:
What Katie said! MM, even the tracking routine, when you think about it, is a long series of 'tricks' - it's not 'natural' for a dog to only ground-scent and it is totally different from actual search and rescue stuff.

I do love it when the dog throws itself through every trick it knows, before you've even asked, because he is hungry.
You wan't be to sit?
Down?
Roll over?
Heel?!
Click to expand...

LOL yes, I only have to go to the drawer where I keep the clicker and Evie is offering every trick she has been taught, spinning, bowing etc. Daft girl.:D
 
OH's father is a dog trainer and taught one of their dogs to unload the washing machine for a bit of fun... Came in very useful when he put his back out and was crippled for a couple of months! Apart from them running off with the socks!

Mind you his dogs will come in very handy later on if we have children... Essence of canabis eh... We will know something is going on as soon as they refuse to go to see Gramps!!! :)

All sorts of training comes in handy. One of mine was taught to climb up when we say hup. If a car is coming fast on a narrow lane we can "hup" them onto the bank instead of dragging them. They are all also trained to hand signals which is so much more polite when you have stopped to chat to someone you can ask them all to sit while you carry on the conversation. They know if they are running that if you wave one arm to go that way and both to come back... They don't always listen (in fact very rarely) but at least its a back up and a start!

One of mine also sings. Its very sweet and occasionally she can do it in tune to various songs. She really enjoys letting go and clearing her vocal cords! Another will smile - great to warn nasty people off! Every trick has a use be it for entertainment and to interact or for a more practical purpose.
 
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