Dog owners, share your tricks

[Hottentot]

I've gathered that there are lots of dog owners in Subsim. As dogs don't need only physical, but also mental exercises, I was wondering, what kind of tricks and tasks have you taught your animal companions? I'm always looking for new fun and useful exercises to teach my dog, as he seems to enjoy learning new things.


Ok, so let's see what my mixed breed lab/golden retriever can do...


The obvious ones, of course:
"Come here"
"Go away (and stay away!)"
"Sit"
"Down"
"Stay there and don't move"


The useful ones:
"Carry this stick / toy / something we had to take along outside just because of you." Comes handy when I can't be bothered to carry his stuff for him.


"Drop that thing in your mouth right now!" Obvious. He's a retriever, he eats anything he finds.


"Give me your paw (and if the one you gave me first wasn't the one I wanted, give me the other)". Very useful when the leash is between his legs or there might be something in the paw.


"Walk behind me / Next to me". Priceless in tight spots. Also very handy for showing you're the pack leader.


"Bring me X". This is work in progress. So far I have taught him to fetch two of his toys, his leash and my belt with different commands. I do this mostly because he is a retriever, but it's also fun to have him bring his leash and reward it by going out with him. I wonder how many objects he can learn. And if one of those is cold beer...


"Permission to eat". Ok, I just don't like it when a dog tries to steal the food from my hands and eat them too while he is at it. Therefore he has to wait for permission first.


"Shake". Also work in progress, but advancing solidly. Basically it tells him to shake his body after swimming, so the water flies away. He usually does that anyway, but I don't want him to suddenly do it when we come home and go inside.


The fun ones:
"Search". I hide an object and he has to find it. Lesson learned: I have a retriever, not a blood hound.


"Guess". I hide a treat in one of my hands and he has to tell in which hand it is. The trick is that I don't want my hand covered in dog's drool, so he has to show it by tapping my fist with his paw.


"Both paws". The only time he has permission to jump towards humans. Basically he "gives" both his front paws by jumping and putting them on my shoulders. Not recommended when standing up.


And that's about it for me. How about you?

[Betonov]

I just walk him trough the forrest un-leashed. He finds himself enough exercises, mental and physical. I throw him a stick every now and then.

[Armistead]

I taught my dog how to pull the tab off a beer can, problem is he destroys the rest of the can, but funny watching him shake it like a dead animal. I think all the fizz shooting out makes him even crazier.

[Sailor Steve]

I used to know a guy who trained his dogs to play dead, except the command, rather than "Play dead", was "Dead dog." When he wanted to insult and entertain at the same time he'd say "What would you rather be, a subsimmer or a dead dog?"

PLOP

[Hottentot]

I taught my dog how to pull the tab off a beer can, problem is he destroys the rest of the can, but funny watching him shake it like a dead animal. I think all the fizz shooting out makes him even crazier.

How big is he? I imagine my dog couldn't find enough dexterity with those jaws of his to pull that off. Then again, he is not the most agile dog ever anyway.

Which reminds of me something I forgot from my original list: jumping trough a hoop. Well, an empty tire actually, but still. He learned it relatively easily, but the lazy bugger refuses to jump if he doesn't know he'll get something tasty for that. Instead he just tries to walk trough or past it :dead:.

[Hottentot]

I used to know a guy who trained his dogs to play dead, except the command, rather than "Play dead", was "Dead dog." When he wanted to insult and entertain at the same time he'd say "What would you rather be, a subsimmer or a dead dog?"

I think I've read from Anthony Beevor's book "Stalingrad" that the German general Manstein had a dachshund (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dachshund) that was taught to raise its front paw anytime someone said "Sieg Heil" or "Heil Hitler".

[Snestorm]

He's never been leashed.
He stays by my side (country or city).
He watches my back.
He's my best friend.
Couldn't ask for more, and never took interest in circus acts.

[Hottentot]

Most of those "circus acts" have been and are being taught to service dogs all over the world, so they wouldn't mess up in their jobs. The dog does what you tell it, but it's the human being that makes the commands useful.

Out of curiosity, Snestorm and Betonov, you both said you don't use leashes with your dogs. What does the law in your countries say about that? Because in here it's in most cases forbidden. Not that I wouldn't do it myself every now and then (sheesh, I'm not going to get a 50m leash when I'm taking my dog to swim), but I know I could basically be fined for it.

[Growler]

Had a dog named Kola, big boy, part Shepherd, part Retriever, maybe some 75 pounds of muscle and drool; just the coolest dog in the world, but he never just laid down - he'd just throw himself to the ground.

So, whenever he'd be acting up and we wanted him to settle down, we'd tell him, "Kola, throw down" - and he'd just 'whumpf!' on the floor.

[Anthony W.]

My German Shepherd is "passive aggressive" and I don't know whether or not that is a trick or not. She WILL NOT move. I can literally pick her up by the collar and she WILL NOT move. PERIOD. We even tried it with the spike collar as a last resort. Still no luck.

[Snestorm]

Most of those "circus acts" have been and are being taught to service dogs all over the world, so they wouldn't mess up in their jobs. The dog does what you tell it, but it's the human being that makes the commands useful.

Out of curiosity, Snestorm and Betonov, you both said you don't use leashes with your dogs. What does the law in your countries say about that? Because in here it's in most cases forbidden. Not that I wouldn't do it myself every now and then (sheesh, I'm not going to get a 50m leash when I'm taking my dog to swim), but I know I could basically be fined for it.

Don't know, or care, what the law says.
If there is a law, it's not enforced.

He's extremely well behaved.

My father always said, "If you need a leash, it's not your dog".
Same applies to husbands and wives.

[Betonov]

Out of curiosity, Snestorm and Betonov, you both said you don't use leashes with your dogs. What does the law in your countries say about that? Because in here it's in most cases forbidden. Not that I wouldn't do it myself every now and then (sheesh, I'm not going to get a 50m leash when I'm taking my dog to swim), but I know I could basically be fined for it.

The dog may be unleashed here, as long as it's not less than a meter from you and with a muzzle in public places and less than 5 metres in the forrest. The problem with this country that the damn drunkards that call themselves hunters have a powerfull loby and they are legal to shot my dog, if they feel that it is a threat to wildlife (which is BS, cause myself I make enough noise to scare anything off, it's just that they have to shoot something, but a deer is a too smart of a target for those retards)