Hi,

My German Shepherd Corgi named Jack is ready for new tricks. He knows sit, almost lay, almost shake, touch(I hold out my hand and he touches his nose to it), give it, let go and come. is there any other advanced tricks I can teach him? I'm trying speak but I don't know how to make him bark so its difficult. I think hes ready for some harder tricks any ideas?

Perfect the "almost" commands. Then maybe "place" and "fetch." And parlor tricks are fun to teach, like "say your prayers."

About "speak," think about it first, unless you mean as an alert to intruders. Barking is a self-rewarding activity to the dog, and no-bark isn't as easy to teach as bark is. :> JMO.

i taught one of mine to bark, and to growl, on different commands. i used frustration and then reward to teach him to bark: i went into a room that he wasn't allowed in, and kept giving the new command in an enticing, engaging voice until he got so keyed up that i was teasing him from the off limits room, that he barked at me, and was suddenly showered with treats & i came out of the off limits room to see him. once he would bark on command, i started giving a new command, and actually made a growling noise at him, (yeah, it looked as funny as it sounds, me sitting there saying "who's there" & then growling at my dog) and he mimicked me. he's pretty smart... LOL


i also used "gimme five" to teach "wave" which is really just an extension of the offered paw - i just make him wave his paw up high - around his nose - rather than lower down. it's pretty cute, and easy to teach once you've got him offering a paw in one position.

 Quote: paul watson

Hi,

My German Shepherd Corgi named Jack is ready for new tricks. He knows sit, almost lay, almost shake, touch(I hold out my hand and he touches his nose to it), give it, let go and come. is there any other advanced tricks I can teach him?

Well, I'm not sure what you mean by "advanced" since I wouldn't really call any of the things you described that way. If you mean tricks that are flashy...then I would go with getting him to close doors for you (VERY easy to train and handy when your hands are full of groceries, although my Corgi did lock my keys in my car doing that once... ) or teaching your dog to back up in a straight line. For some reason, people love to see that!

Another super easy parlor trick is to play that game that adults play with kids: When you hold out two hands with one containing a candy or something and they have to pick which one.

With dogs this is a breeze because of their ability to sniff it out, but kids LOVE to do this trick with dogs. The only thing you have to do is get the dog to signal which hand by placing a paw on it, but again, that's usually not too difficult. The hard part is getting them to do it gently and not scratch the hell out of little hands. Still, if your dog knows the gentle command, it's simple.

Whatever you do, DON'T teach your dog to bring the food bowl to you. I taught my GSD to get the cookie sheet that I feed him on to me on command, but he figured out where it's kept and opens the door now to get it and will drag to me with no command, knocking over water bowls and plants on the way. Dur...I obviously wasn't thinking when I taught him that... Cute the first time, annoying after that...

this isn't advanced, but i found teaching the dogs 'straight', 'right', and 'left' handy, especially since luc likes to try pulling sometimes. now i can just tell him where we're going.

I don't know enough about dog training to decifer what the difference is between "advanced", and other commands. My Cheyenne is now 8 months old and 70 lbs.
I really have to think out what I plan to teach her, because as Amber referred to, we can create monsters out of these Einsteins.
We are currently working several times daily on a longer "stay", with excellent results using my homemade baked liver treats. She has also associated words with certain things like "ball, frisbee', etc. ie-if I throw them both at once, and tell her which one to "get it", she follows that.
She is everything I hoped for and more. Time spent with her has shown me by results what her capabilities are, and I seem to have just scratched the surface. She knows about 30 commands, and performs them successfully every time-in or out of order. Even multiple commands.
If I had a webcam, you would see me dancing in my pajamas this morning (not a pretty sight!)about how happy I am with my dog!

What I think of as advanced for parlor tricks are tricks that involve multiple steps to teach, or that are outside of what a dog would do normally that you can easily provoke, mark and label.

By "advanced" I mean how difficult it is to teach to your average dog. I say "average dog" because my GSD can do somethings that are pretty simple for my GSD but would take a lot more work to teach the Corgi.

I didn't mean to belittle any commands that anyone does at all, I was just trying to get a feel for what the OP was looking for. Based on what his dog already knows (or almost knows, as he said) then I think he's still looking for things that are fun, but not too terribly complicated.

Advanced can also mean if the dog can perform commands off-leash and under distraction, too, or for a long duration. That's usually what advanced means when you take advanced obedience lessons.

I think that was the explanation I needed. Thanks Amber! I guess I am already doing some of that with the longer stay.
The distraction factor seems to get better with her age. Is that normal?
The off leash is a whole other ball game! I haven't even tried that yet except in my own back yard. How will I know when it's time to try that, say at a park or something?

Edited by Krista Breuninge (01/04/2008 08:38 AM)
Edit reason: cuz I'm an idiot

 Quote: krista breuninge

The distraction factor seems to get better with her age. Is that normal?
The off leash is a whole other ball game! I haven't even tried that yet except in my own back yard. How will I know when it's time to try that, say at a park or something?

Oh, certainly her ability to withstand distraction will improve with age!

The off-leash thing should start in your backyard...that's a good place to begin. I would suggest using a long-line before using no leash at all, especially for commands like "come."

Basically, you'll know when your dog is ready to amp the distractions--it depends on maturity level and the individual dog. It'll be when she's got it down reliably at the earlier level. And it IS all about levels...the smaller the increase in distraction level the higher your chance for success.

But don't be surprised if you have to train all over again under heavy distractions, that's completely normal. And you don't want your dog totally nutso when you start with distraction training. A bit of exercise before the session is a good idea, IMO. Not too much because you don't want her exhausted and unable to work, but you don't want her at a spastic level either!

I just realized that we're probably hijacking this thread...oops! Krista, you may want to post your own topic about this and I'm sure you'll get great advice!

lol I don't care about people hijacking my thread, I learned alot about what you guys were talking about. Thanks for all the ideas I also forgot to add in tricks I taught jack how to stay in the front yard w/o a leash that was 1 trick I really wanted him to know, I just need to teach him speak somehow any tips?

btw I'll start doing longer duration with Jack thx for all the tips. this site is awesome!