Sunday, April 12, 2009

Tricks Can Boost Your Dog's Confidence

Mom has always taught me tricks, since I was a puppy: sit, stay, lie down are the basics; fun ones are: spin, wave, gimme 10, shake a paw, say your prayers, crawl, catch & yum yum. I am currently learning "touch" and I'm hearing rumours I'm going to learn how to cross my paws soon!

A few months ago, Mom joined because I am very timid around my Father in Law. This group is a wonderful source of advice and support.

Mom took their advice, and incorporated my tricks into CookieTime with CookieGuy (aka FIL). It's been a slow process but I have come a long way. I will now paw at his knee for a treat, whereas before, no way would I get that close!

Mom feels that when I do tricks, I am focused, rather than dancing around anxiously. Ok, I still do that a little bit, but not as much as I used to! The tricks boost my confidence, especially when I'm given the commands "spin" or "bark" or "wave". I love those ones!! "Catch" is becoming a good one as well, because I will actually take a step forward to get closer to catch the treat!

Mom thinks that without the treats, I would still progress, but not as well as I have. Besides, it's FUN and involves really stinky cookies -roohoo!!!

Here is a video:



Sushi

7 comments:

Kura the Shiba Inu said...

I couldn't do that. I, being un-trainable, would wait for the treat to come to me.

Mika said...

Keep up the great work!

snickers said...

i agree. mom and i know lots of tricks and we have fun doing them together. i dont catch my treats though... how did sushi learn to do that?

Tatiana & Bailey said...

I just started counting to 3 and then would throw the treat to Sushi. Eventually he would attempt to catch it (soft treats are best, according to Sushi). I bet Snickers could do it for an extra yummy treat, like cheese!

Unknown said...

Awww how cute! Winnie doesn't even attempt to catch. She closes her eyes and waits for it to land and/or hit her in the head.

Another trick that might help him with his confidence is Hide and Seek... maybe you can hide his Kong or favorite toy...? Sushi is so cute.

jenna said...

That's a good point Bonnie... Snickers will do almost anything for cheese. :)

Anonymous said...

{{{HUGGS}}} sushi tight. what a love! I noticed too that with monty when I incorporated treats to get him confident, he did well....and he has the pounds to prove it =))
shiba hugs
bernie/monty & pogo.