I taught my dog to somersault, today.
It was actually easier than I thought. Well, easier, but also harder than I thought since, at first, I thought it'd be really hard, but then I thought it'd be pretty easy -- it turned out to be sort of in between.
The hardest part (so it seemed) was getting the other dog to leave us alone while we were trying to do lessons.
So, anyway... There we were, out in the front yard, with my little plastic cup of kitty-treats (they're smaller & smell-good-er than dog treats -- good for training!), and I'm trying to get Zosma to put his head down between his legs like he does so often when I'm not trying to get him to do it but, now, he doesn't seem to want to.
So I'm trying to show him but, of course, he only cares about the treats.
So then I'm trying to put a treat near his belly so he'll put his head between his legs, then I'll gently guide his hind-end up & over, clap, praise him profusely for his somersault, then give him another treat.
Except he keeps looking around the side where my hand is, and trying to get the treat early.
So, before I can teach him the main trick, I have to teach him the trick of "don't look at the treat until I say", which wasn't that hard, once we all got the idea of what needed to be done.
Then we did the "look down here!" trick starting at his chest, and slowly working back toward his belly.
I was worried that he might get full or sick of treats (yeah, right -- like THAT'S ever going to happen!), so started only having them every couple of tries. This created confusion as he then spent a lot of time looking around for the missing treats and I decided that he seemed unlikely to tire of them and it was ok to just give him one every time.
Finally, the big moment came when he was practically fully somersaulted on his own, and I barely had to give him a gentle nudge to finish the move, then a lot of clapping, petting and, of course, treats!
So now my dog knows how to somersault on command, which is kind of cool, because I decided to associate it with "roll over." So now I have conversations like this in the doggie park:
Stranger: "Oh, what a pretty dog. Does he know any tricks?"
Me: "Well, he does an excellent 'roll over' -- wanna see?"
Stranger: "Harumph! That barely counts as a dog trick!"
Me: <shrug> "If you say so. We're pretty proud of it. Wanna see?"
Stranger: <sigh> "I suppose, if it'll make you happy..."
Me: "Zosma, roll over!"
[He somersaults, I praise him.]
Stranger: "Ok, I was wrong -- that's pretty @#$% cool!"
:)
It was actually easier than I thought. Well, easier, but also harder than I thought since, at first, I thought it'd be really hard, but then I thought it'd be pretty easy -- it turned out to be sort of in between.
The hardest part (so it seemed) was getting the other dog to leave us alone while we were trying to do lessons.
So, anyway... There we were, out in the front yard, with my little plastic cup of kitty-treats (they're smaller & smell-good-er than dog treats -- good for training!), and I'm trying to get Zosma to put his head down between his legs like he does so often when I'm not trying to get him to do it but, now, he doesn't seem to want to.
So I'm trying to show him but, of course, he only cares about the treats.
So then I'm trying to put a treat near his belly so he'll put his head between his legs, then I'll gently guide his hind-end up & over, clap, praise him profusely for his somersault, then give him another treat.
Except he keeps looking around the side where my hand is, and trying to get the treat early.
So, before I can teach him the main trick, I have to teach him the trick of "don't look at the treat until I say", which wasn't that hard, once we all got the idea of what needed to be done.
Then we did the "look down here!" trick starting at his chest, and slowly working back toward his belly.
I was worried that he might get full or sick of treats (yeah, right -- like THAT'S ever going to happen!), so started only having them every couple of tries. This created confusion as he then spent a lot of time looking around for the missing treats and I decided that he seemed unlikely to tire of them and it was ok to just give him one every time.
Finally, the big moment came when he was practically fully somersaulted on his own, and I barely had to give him a gentle nudge to finish the move, then a lot of clapping, petting and, of course, treats!
So now my dog knows how to somersault on command, which is kind of cool, because I decided to associate it with "roll over." So now I have conversations like this in the doggie park:
Stranger: "Oh, what a pretty dog. Does he know any tricks?"
Me: "Well, he does an excellent 'roll over' -- wanna see?"
Stranger: "Harumph! That barely counts as a dog trick!"
Me: <shrug> "If you say so. We're pretty proud of it. Wanna see?"
Stranger: <sigh> "I suppose, if it'll make you happy..."
Me: "Zosma, roll over!"
[He somersaults, I praise him.]
Stranger: "Ok, I was wrong -- that's pretty @#$% cool!"
:)
