Well, let's see...Lear's shake has turned into a "high five".

He does "please", which is a beg position (I don't like the word "beg" so never used it). I don't have him do this often - it's so undignified looking for him.

He does "crawl".

He finds different things when told either "find" or "where's the ___", then brings them to me - football, ball, squeaker, tire, tug, bone, Buster Cube. He also finds my son and treats but brings neither to me

He protests a lot, vocally - like Mike said, not really a trick but it amuses me

He steps on the seat belt lock mechanism, unlocking the seat belt and thereby untethering his harness, which does NOT amuse me.

He drinks water on command (usually).

If I'm throwing the ball or some toy for him outside and I'm sitting on a chair, he'll bring the toy and throw it at me so it lands near my feet. If it rolls away and I just sit there cause I can't reach it, he gets it again, brings it back and throws it at me again, or drops it at my feet. He's usually a pretty good aim. Of course, this is in lieu of putting the ball right in my hand

I have some "tricks" I like to do with my dog.

Though they seem like just "tricks" they have a use.

The "in" (in between my legs while I walk) is something I use to ski the dog through busy areas (I snowplow and the dog runs between my legs.)

The dog jumps into my arms or on my shoulders. This is used for when I need to carry my dog to conserve his energy or get him through a busy congested area of skiers safely.

Teach "over and under" commands, the dog will jump over and go under a bended knee or a bench. This comes in handy lots of times, barb wire fences as an example when I want to hold it up and then have the dog go "under", not try to jump it.

I do the "bang bang" it is a crowd pleaser. In actuality it is one of the most usefull things I have taught so that I can examine the dog at home or the vet. He is not the kind of dog that submits readily to being rolled over physically and won't naturally do it for belly rubs, but will do it on command because I have trained it.

"Speak" (bark on command) was first taught to use for a summer bark alert.

"Shake" to get him to shake off (snow/water) before comming inside or going in the car or kennel.

Some tricks that I have taught that are just for fun are:

"weave" between my legs while I walk

"spin" (get your tail!)

and of course to finish all off...."take a bow".

It seems kinda dumb to teach tricks but it allows me to work on my training/timing and the dog enjoys it so we do it anyways The advanced tricks like the handstands and the like are way beyond my patience and training abilities at present however.

I teach parlor tricks to my dogs and I'm not ashamed to admit it. It's fun and we all love it, so who cares that the only point to it is to smile.

Let's see:

*"Dance" (Corgi only)
*"Play Dead" (which Carbon does from a stand so it's very dramatic)
*"Close the door"
*Crawl"
*Hi-ho-Silver" (Carbon rears on his hind legs a couple of times)
*"Kneel Before Zod" (bow)
*"Spin"
*"Back"
*"Hoop" (The GSD will jump through a rolling hoop--took awhile and many hoops for him to learn not to eat it)
*"Guess which hand?" (The trick adults do to kids where they have to guess which hand holds the treats. Carbon puts a paw on which hand he thinks has the treat. Easy one for dogs to learn via their sense of smell and great for making my son's friends relax around the big scary black dog)
*"Find It" (Hide and seek game he can play with the kids)
*"Paw"
*"Speak"
*"Go wake the kid" (Goes upstairs and licks my son until he gets up for school.)
*"Good night" (Carbon rolls a blanket around himself)
And a new one I just taught Carbon:
*"Clean up"...he gets a plate to lick and then he picks it up and drops it in the sink (plastic plates, of course.

 Quote: mike j schoonbrood

She also knows "don't leave me alone." This involves giving her a ball. That was an easy one to teach.

That cracked me up. My dog knows that one really well too.

What I find most useful about teaching cute tricks for a dog you take out in public a lot particularly big scary DDR/Czech GSDs or even the Malinuts is it puts people at ease, especially kids that are frightened of big dogs.

I found a trick on the net that I thought might be fun to try one day.
For some reason it's called 'cop-cop' I think it may have originally been a different language.

Anyway the trick is to have the dog between your legs, facing the same direction as you. They put their front feet on your feet and then you can walk along and the dog comes with you keeping their feet on yours.
Though I can see it going badly when Max starts to offer that trick when I'm trying to do something else.

"Dog Tricks for Dummies" was helpful and gave me a few ideas

Also, the Everything Dog Training and Tricks book that they sell here on LB: http://www.leerburg.com/982.htm

My Golden Ret. (Noley) will dance, high five, yo yo, catch, and will balance a treat on his nose and leave it there until "I" tell him to catch it (by tossing it off his nose and catching it in his mouth). This trick drives my wife nuts because I will leave the room with the treat still on his nose and no matter who else tries to tell him to take it he waits for me. If he drops the treat he knows he may not have it.
My two GSD's (Coach & Yaro)will bark on command (gator)and will not break from a heel to relieve themselves unless I give them a specific command (spurrier).

Terry

If we looked at obedience training as nothing more the teaching parlor tricks we'd get a lot more out of our dogs.
How many use correction training to teach parlor tricks?!!! JMHO!
Think about it!

 Quote: Bob Scott

If we looked at obedience training as nothing more the teaching parlor tricks we'd get a lot more out of our dogs.
How many use correction training to teach parlor tricks?!!! JMHO!
Think about it!

Bob you are brilliant!!!
I will have to remember that every good behavior I teach is a trick