Right now Aurora knows Sit, Down (lay down), stay, come, leave it, Off (get down) and Paw (shake). I'm trying to think of a couple things to teach her next so looking for some of your favs or if you've gotten creative with any of them?

Now, I should mention Aurora isn't 100% on these commands but she definitely knows them. Whether she listens is a different story haha but she is doing pretty well. She's even really good at Come off-leash (in a safe area) as of about 2 days ago. Not sure what it was but something clicked and she does really well now. Even in my back yard which is basically a forest with lots of distractions, she'll come running through the trees when I call her. Right now that's my favorite mainly because I think it's awesome when she comes running toward me when I call, I love it.

So, whatcha got, what's your favorite?

Well, this afternoon, it was most definitely: "on by". We were biking (I use a walky dog attachment) and on our way home.  About a dozen of my neighbors chickens were in the ditch - about 5 ft from us...now we have just started to bike together so I was not sure what was going to happen.  I just started commanding "on by, on by.." at the same time I started peddling like mad to keep him focused.  Worked.  I'm in one piece, the bike is in one piece and Ami is in one piece He definitely wanted to pounce on them, though!

And tonight, when we got home, husband wanted to treat Mr. Dog - I brought some kibble in a custard dish, dog was hoppin' all over me - I said "go to Daddy!"  - away he trotted, sat right by hubby, oh so pretty!

And my all time favorite:  In the morning, when I come out to his dog house, especially if I'll be feeding him in the kitchen - as I take of his snap-shackles, I hold on to his collar.  When the shackles are both released, I hold onto his collar and with loud crescendo, I say "Ready...Set...GO!!!" and release the collar.  He bolts like a shot out of a cannon, straight for the back door (about 200 ft).  Where hubby waits and lets him in.   We do have our games and rituals  

Now if I can just come up with a command that says "STAY OFF THE F#$$%^G DIVING BOARD! You're giving me a heart attack" (see "the brat taunts mom"

Our favorite one my wife taught him was "kiss". It's more like a quick nudge of the nose, but it's cute. A more helpful comment was "up", because once he learned that, he understood "down".

Wow, great job Jaime, told you they were smart!

Amy, lol, awesome job with the "on by" command, now I realize what it is, similar to "stay on the path", no? He looks so innocent, I'm glad you take pics to disprove the innocent look.

My favorites are drop it followed by leave it, since she picks things up before I can say leave it. (think dead birds, squirrels, etc).

Stay with momma, she always wants to go faster than me, stay with momma and well she walks right with me.

All time fave for me let's check the mail, she knows where it is, and we walk until she is about 20 feet away then she will lay down in a stay and then goes into zoomies to the back yard when I get back to her. Priceless, and a lot of satisfaction to me that I did well on her training.

Okami knows the basics, sit, lay down, wait, stay, she knows to wait for food permission (love that one), come, leave it, drop it, shhh, slow, hike, on by, ha, gee, stay with me, to your room....

Cosmetic tricks shake, other paw, high five, other five, double 5, sit pretty, dance, jump, roll over, catch it, speak, sing, put em up, bang bang, crawl, give me kisses, where is your ball?, stop begging, be shy....

Can't think of anything else, but I hope I gave you some ideas.

have to ask Lucy, what is cosmetic tricks shake? You've got me stumped. You have some clever tricks. Hmmm you got me thinking, ha! Most of the things I taught Miya were commands (hubby didn't want me to teach tricks, booo hisss) I had to sneak train shake. I will add a few more "bed time", "that's mine"and "where's the kitty"(that's to the dismay of the cat of course,lol)

Amy, that's awesome, I've been slowly mtn biking (in circles for now lol) with Aurora and "on by" would be a great one to teach her. Haha I like the diving board one, I'm picturing it in my head haha.

They really are so smart, it's so fun when she learns something new, she's proud and I'm proud of her we need to work on drop it/leave it. She's so so on drop it and reeeally good at leave it only when I'm feeding her for whatever reason ha. I'll put some food in front of her and say leave it and she'll wait until I say "ok". But that's the only time she listens to leave it right now.

Lucy, that's a nice list you got there! I wanna teach Autora crawl, that's seems like a fun one, but also sounds hard to teach. I don't even know where I'd start lol. Definitely some good ideas for me to try though, thanks!

Oh, and I think Lucy meant "cosmetic tricks: Shake, other paw, etc"

Oh, and my most proud moment was when Aurora was chasing a bird towards the road and I said "Aurora stay...come" and she stopped in place, looked at me then ran towards me. It was so awesome. This was when we were first learning stay and come too. It was amazing. Although that was a one-time thing haha and she's hasn't been that good at it again yet.

I'm not really worried about her being in the road where I live since my cabin is back aways on a dirt road and gets about 3 cars a day and we all drive slow since we all have dogs. But I still want her to know to stay away from it

Jaime, It dawned to me after I hit send as to what she meant, my duh moment, lol. I did fail to mention my most used command is "let's go". I live at a cross road, front yard dirt road, little traffic, my mail box is on the main road, where we don't venture to except to get the mail.

Siku likes to play "which hand". Hold both hands out with a treat in one. He sniffs and puts his paw on the one he thinks has the treat in it. The part I taught him was to smell which hand has the treat in it and to be sure to paw the correct hand. I'll let people we meet play which hand with him, and they think he is super smart because he gets it right almost all of the time.

FirstAscent wrote:

Amy, that's awesome, I've been slowly mtn biking (in circles for now lol) with Aurora and "on by" would be a great one to teach her. Haha I like the diving board one, I'm picturing it in my head haha.

They really are so smart, it's so fun when she learns something new, she's proud and I'm proud of her we need to work on drop it/leave it. She's so so on drop it and reeeally good at leave it only when I'm feeding her for whatever reason ha. I'll put some food in front of her and say leave it and she'll wait until I say "ok". But that's the only time she listens to leave it right now.

Lucy, that's a nice list you got there! I wanna teach Autora crawl, that's seems like a fun one, but also sounds hard to teach. I don't even know where I'd start lol. Definitely some good ideas for me to try though, thanks!

Oh, and I think Lucy meant "cosmetic tricks: Shake, other paw, etc"

Crawl: That actually was incredibly easy for my lazy boy...started with down, he's laying down, I have some kibble partially hidden in my hand, hold it in front of his nose, close to the ground, then say "crawl" and slowly back up - he was too lazy to stand up and follow me, reallly, reallllly, realllllllly wanted that kibble! Voila! Crawl

Ami is very easy to teach - as long as I can convey to him what it is that I want AND I have some kibble (food-motivated is such a gift!). The problem is, he also knows it is his CHOICE to obey - if there is no kibble and he does not feel like it...Oh Well I can almost see him mulling over the command in his mind - always say "he listens fine...whether he chooses to comply is another story!"

Saw another neat command today: Walking Ami southwest of here, went by the people that gave us the dog house. Their boxer was out front, unleashed and started to come barking at Ami. The lady was out front, said just a minute, called the dog's name and said "Go Bye Bye." Dog stopped short, turned around, headed to the truck, she opened the door and in he hopped. Continued to bark though.

Well Nova knows sit, stay, down, come, crate, drop it, and leave it. She also knows some that are purely fun like bow, shake, other paw, spin, speak, tell him (variation on speak where I point to someone and say, "you go tell him!" and she turns and bark/grumbles at whoever I'm pointing at), peekaboo (runs around behind me and walks through my legs and sits), go hide (same as peekaboo only walks straight through my legs from the front), touch (touches nose to hand), and circle (stick a leg out she circles around it, kinda makes a figure 8 pattern), we are working on roll over, stand, and jump.

My favorite command for Orion right now is Wiggle. It is his weave pole command for agility I thought it would be hilarious to be running a course and have to call wiggle really quickly 12 times in a row and of course I throw in a "Yeah" when he gets them all. Makes me giggle every time

Yes I really am that childish...

Love the "which hand" thing, that sounds fun and good times when other people are around haha.

I tried your "crawl" technique but aurora stands up as I move the treat away. So I'll need to find a different method. I was hoping I'd have it as easy as you did lol.

Wiggle sounds amazing! I'm sure I'd laugh every time! =) fun for everyone

Heel will be my favorite command. Once Riley finally learns it. Does that count?

Heel counts, big time, in my book! But I use it sparingly. Most of our walking is done on rural back roads - I want the big boy to have the freedom, withing the orbit of his line, to walk, sniff, explore, dig, crawl in the sluice pipes, etc, etc etc. In essence, his walks are "just be a dog."

That being said, I also want him to be as safe as can be - and that means when there is any traffic, or we are in an urban situation, he needs to be close to me - and "heel" does that, comfortably for both of us. I didn't really intend to teach him this - somehow, it just happened. I think when we were in the Boston area last spring for the birth of my newest grandson - part of our walk necessitated going on no-sidewalk, vast, heavy trafficed road - so I would use the traffic handle part of his leash (so that's what that was for ) and say heel - he got it within a day or two.

Amy,
That is awesome.

There are times that I want to power through a walk, and not stop every 10 feet. While we are working on heel, we typical walk for 5 to 10 mins then sniff for a bit.

Riley has all the others down. Sit, down, Stay, Come, place, Leave it etc. Heel is really hard for her to get. Maybe I will start a heel thread...

I wish I could be more help - Ami just seems to train so easily, I don't really have tricks up my sleeve. Also, Riley is still really young, no? Ami's a big boy, so his traffic lead is naturally at the level of my hand hanging down (I'm short) so I just hang on closely to that - when he started to get ahead, it was just a slight bend of the wrist (like using the reins on a horse) and "heel". If there's 3 ft between your hand and the dog's neck - I dunno! Plus it was only in high-risk situations, so he may have tuned in to that. He is highly sensitive to my mood.

I love the back up command. Teddy is so good at it!

Anya knows the obedience commands, but because she's a therapy dog (and because she loves to learn!) we teach her new commands that will amuse people or help people relax around her who may be afraid of dogs.

She does shake, high five, patty cake, roll over, sit pretty/beg, bow, she knows to retrieve certain toys (right now she only knows "fish", "giraffe", and "turtle" but we're working on expanding what toys she knows a name for), and if someone drops something, she'll pick it up and put it in your hand.

But the one that kills people is what we call "squirrel". We give her a treat and say squirrel, and she sits back on her hind legs (like a beg pose) and hold the treat in her front paws and nibbles it like a squirrel with a nut. It is hilariously adorable, and one she just sort of taught herself.

Could you please post a video of Squirrel! I'm melting of cuteness just thinking about it!

Risky knows a few. Drop it, Leave it, Sit, Lay down, All the way (sometimes she sits and then goes to lay down but her butt comes up like she wants to play!), Wait/Stay, Go in(to her kennel) Sing, Have fun(play with other pups or go outside. Pretty much like a full "release"), Potty (she wasn't potty trained when I got her at 7 months but she learned in 3 days!!! super happy about that one... and she will not potty anywhere but the backyard unless I tell her to.) We're working on Come. She almost has it (:

Thanks for all the ideas! Can't wait to teach her them.

My favorite is "speak". They get so excied to talk and it just makes me smile every time they do it

Plus, it was the first time I was able to teach a dog how to do it and I'm so proud I make them do it every chance I get.