Teaching the dog a trick

[Dahitman44]

You might remember my post last summer about the coolest trick you have ever taught your dog.

My first Yellow Lab "Boomer" PAST AWAY THIS SUMMER, BUT HIS TRICK WAS TO OPEN THE FRIDGE TAKE OUT A BEER AND BRING IT TO ME.

VERY COOL TRICK.

I have been working on the pup for trick (copper almost 2) and the other night I was working on shake. I know it is an easy one, but I never taught Boomer that one.

I worked forever on it. At one point I would try and get hime to lift his paw and then say shake -- good boy and give him a treat. I did it a bunch of times by lifting up his paw and saying shake and giving him a treat. Over and over.

Then I tried without a treat and he didn't get it at all. I did it again for him and gave him a treat.

I was getting pretty frustrated. I mean, "he is a smart dog -- he is mine."

Well I cam home for lunch, yesterday and thought I would try I did not have a treat ready and I told him to sit and then shake. He looked at me with that cocked head and puzzled look. Then he sprinted to the laundry room where his treats are. There I heard some racket. I walked in and he was trying to let me know that i forgot his treats.

I started to catch on. I brought him back without treats and asked him to sit and then shake. He looked right at me and lifted his paw without any type of motion from me or hesitation from him.

That dumb dog was smarter than me.

I kept giving him a treat and lifting his paw. Then he didn't understand why I didn't give him a treat and lifted his paw.

He knew all along and was putting me through the hoops.

Now he (and I) have it down.

Labs -- sometimes they are a little too smart or we are a little too dumb.

[Ralph Wiggum]

That's hilarious!

[Dahitman44]

My wife said the dog was dumb ... I beg to differ.

[Dahitman44]

come on guys -- this is a cute post

[metrojoe]

 Originally Posted By: Dahitman44

You might remember my post last summer about the coolest trick you have ever taught your dog.

My first Yellow Lab "Boomer" PAST AWAY THIS SUMMER, BUT HIS TRICK WAS TO OPEN THE FRIDGE TAKE OUT A BEER AND BRING IT TO ME.

Very cool trick, but showing my lab how to open the fridge would be a disaster.

[Dahitman44]

yeah --

Not good if he helps himself to some beef roast.

[Cootz]

I tried to train my dog to get a beer out of the fridge when he was a pup. Early on in the training I had him just fetching me a bottle out of the open fridge. Figuring one step at a time. Second night of training he's brining back bottles nicely. I'm on my third or so beer and I ask him to go fetch me up a beer. I hear him and his teeth on the bottles and next thing I hear is the bottle slipping from his mouth and shattering all over on the floor. I run out there screaming for him to go lay down fearful he might start drinking some of the broken glass like I know some other dogs do if offered beer. I wasn't mad at him at all for this. My fault asking him to bring back a glass bottle. After that incident he would NEVER take a can or bottle again. I suppose he figured he had gotten his a - - chewed out and wasn't going to do that again.

[Dahitman44]

Yeah, my old dog was a "can-only" dog.

[Johnny_Namakan]

That sounds very similar to a trick that my dog taught me. It took me a while to catch on to. First off I'll have to start by saying my girlfriend swears that my dog only listens to men. My 3 yr. old hardly listens to anything my girlfriend tells her. I think that it has nothing to do with being a man or a woman, but rather I tell my dog to do something and my girlfriend "asks" my dog to do something, but I'm getting side tracked here. Anyway, recently I've been noticing that my dog constantly seems to be wanting to go outside. Now I know it's getting warmer and she loves being outside, but I was noticing this behavior of hers several weeks ago when the arctic blast was moving its way through and it was 20-30 below zero for the high. Like I said, she constantly wanted to go out, but she would only be out there for maybe a minute and then she'd give us her one bark signal to let her in. If she barks more than once then it's 99 times out of 100 just a neighbor she's barking at. So I'd let her in and go back to what I was doing. Sure enough, a few minutes would pass and she'd be whining to go outside again. I start wondering if she has a bladder infection or something like that so i start spying on her while she's out there. It turns out she's not even going to the bathroom, all she's doing is walking outside, sits down and looks around the neighborhood then stands up, barks and is ready to come in. It turns out that my girlfriend has trouble getting my dog to come into the house when I'm not around and has had to bribe her with treats. Just before I noticed this behavior I had been gone for work for a few days. So after just a few days of doing this with her, my dog has learned that whenever she wants a treat she'll just "ask" to go outside and then when she comes back in she'll get her treat automatically. That little bugger. So it looks like my dog taught us a trick this time. Good Times!

[Dahitman44]

It is funny how we can teach dogs "tricks" we are not looking for. But can you blame the dog? Sounds like a good trick to me.